I thought the ruckus over Vice President Dick Cheney's remark about Grandma Pelosi's approach to the war is interesting.
Cheney said earlier this week that Pelosi wanted to "get out" of Iraq and that the Democratic majority's attempts to micromanage the war "validated" the Al Qaeda strategy. Pelosi complained that Cheney was questioning her patriotism and tattled to President Bush about it.
But Cheney isn't backing down.
"She accused me of questioning her patriotism," Cheney said. "I didn't question her patriotism. I questioned her judgment."
"Al-Qaeda functions on the basis that they think they can break our will. That's their fundamental underlying strategy: that if they can kill enough Americans or cause enough havoc, create enough chaos in Iraq, then we'll quit and go home," Cheney added. "And my statement was that if we adopt the Pelosi policy, that then we will validate the strategy of al-Qaeda. I said it, and I meant it."
I'm glad Cheney refuses to knuckle under to this phony complaint. Critics of the war have characterized every argument as "questioning their patriotism." While it is true that some might draw that conclusion from certain actions, it doesn't mean that every complaint is about their patriotism. Sometimes, it's just about a lack of intelligence, foresight, or judgment.
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