Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Actually, I don't have to because Jon Perr has already done it at Crooks and Liars. Virtually everything being said by the Republicans about the Christmas Day attempted terrorist bombing and Obama's response to it has been hypocritical because every argument applies better to Bush's handling of the shoe bomber incident -- and not one of them uttered a peep about that. They've criticized Obama for not canceling his vacation and not speaking out quickly enough about the incident.
While President Obama did not speak to the American people for three days after the Flight 253 incident, George W. Bush did not surface to address the December 22, 2001 attempted shoe bombing until six days after it occurred. Even then, as Huffington Post's Sam Stein recounted, "it was only in passing."
They've criticized him for trying the would-be bomber in civilian court - the same place the shoe bomber was tried. They've criticized him because the apparent masterminds behind the bombing were released from Gitmo -- without bothering to mention that they were released by the Bush administration, not by Obama. The hypocrisy is staggering even for politics.
Politics
Comments
John Brennan, President Obama's Deputy National Security Advisor whose chartered with managing counter-terrorism from within the White House made the rounds on the Sunday TV talk shows yesterday morning. He ripped on Dick Cheney big-time on the show I watched, Meet the Press where Brennan stated:
"Dishonest or ignorant?" was the primary question when observing both the Bush Administration and the Republican Party over at least the past 10 years.
We should also note that Mr. Brennan lost out on a shot to be Director of the CIA for President Obama because he was tied by some on the Left to the CIA's use of torture and rendition, a claim Brennan rejects claiming he was instead an opponent of torture. I don't remember much about this issue regarding Mr. Brennan but I seem to remember that posted about this at least once.
The whole Meet the Press interview with Mr. Brennan and the show's follow-on guests, Bush officials ex-NSA/CIA Director Michael Haydn and ex-Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff is worth watching. Both Misters Haydn and Chertoff refused to defend Mr. Cheney, repeatedly defended Mr. Brennan and Janet Napolitano (which makes me feel a whole lot better given my suspicion she's not up to the task mindset-wise). However Mr. Haydn continued his advocacy that we dismiss investigations into the U.S. torture policy under Bush/Cheney.
I think President Obama won some big political points in yesterday's talk show wars. I think Brennan was even on Fox News yesterday morning though I didn't watch that segment. An analysis by someone who did would be most welcomed by at least me, I suspect many others as well.
Posted by: Michael Heath | January 4, 2010 9:42 AM
But this guy was more serious than the shoe bomber - compare what he was willing to set on fire to what the shoe bomber tried to light.
Posted by: dean | January 4, 2010 9:52 AM
Dean,
Goodness gracious great balls of fire, you are right.
Posted by: Naughtius Maximus | January 4, 2010 10:19 AM
I would like to put forth the idea, after observing stupidity from the conservatives for years, that the important dichotomy is not actually between Democrats and Republicans at all. It's not even really a dichotomy. I like to look at it as a two-way axis.
There is the authoritarianism-nonauthoritarian axis - the regressive-progressive axis - and the unrealistic-realistic axis.
Fundies and people who scream such as this are at the authoritarian-unrealistic extreme; we are hopefully at the realistic-nonauthoritarian extreme.
Posted by: Katharine | January 4, 2010 11:29 AM
It is not even an axis at all; it is a chart.
Whoops.
Posted by: Katharine | January 4, 2010 11:31 AM
Katherine, you have three axes; isn't that a tensor?
Posted by: OriGuy | January 4, 2010 5:06 PM
I realize I am off topic and this post is not about the dangers of flying but it is neither a Democrat nor Republican issue. It is an American issue and well frankly a human issue. I don't want to get blown up when I take a plane to visit my grandma over Christmas. We need to screen these guys better. This guy should have never been allowed on that plane. I don't care whose watch he was on, Obama's or Bush's the guy shouldn't be able to get on a plane with explosives in his underpants.
Posted by: Jen | January 5, 2010 2:18 PM
And, the hypocrisy continues. Rudy 9/11 Guiliani was on the news this morning saying there was never a terrorist attack on human soil under Bush, and there was one under Obama. OK, first of all, he does remember 9/11, I am sure of this, since he mentions it constantly. Secondly, what about the shoe bomber? It was an equivalent attempt.
Posted by: MomTFH | January 8, 2010 9:48 AM