Cheney: "We Didn't Know A Lot About Al-Qaeda" Why Not?

One more thing about Cheney's interview with Sean Hannity, if I may.

Quoting Mr. Cheney in the interview:

"We didn't know a lot about Al-Qaeda. We didn't have the body of knowledge we have today. But, uh, it was a realtively unknown group. We knew a little bit about them, but not a lot."

Why not, Mr. Cheney?

• We're talking about the same group of folks who bombed the USS Cole and killed 17 sailors in 2000.
  
• We're talking about a group that Bush counterterrorist cheif Richard Clarke (I still have his book Against All Enemies on my shelf) spefically asked for more CIA focus on.
  
• We're talking about a group that had "declared war" on the United States.
  
• We're talking about a group that President Clinton's intelligence team had warned the then-new Bush administration about.
  

So why, Mr. Cheney, did you know so little about them before 9/11?

By All Means, Cheney, Keep Running Your Yap

In a two-part interview with Fixed Noise's Sean Hannity, former VP Dick Cheney is continuing his one man effort to defend the Bush legacy, even after disgusting memos detailing torture by CIA officials have been released by the Obama administration, making that legacy all but indefensible to those who are, well, you know, human.

How do I feel about this? I say let the man keep running his yap. By all means. Everytime he does, he derails the GOP efforts to move beyond the super-unpopular Bush presidency and set a new course. What's more, it would appear that GOP strategists agree with me, at least this one quoted by Chris Cilliza of the Washington Posts' blog The Fix: 

Cheney's decision to serve as the self-appointed defender of the Bush presidency has significantly raised his profile in the first 100 days of the Obama administration and presents a real challenge for a party hoping to put forward new faces and fresh ideas. 

"He is a face of the past," said one Republican consultant who spoke on the condition he not be named. "A face of conflict and too polarizing. So, not a good face of the party."

So by all means, Cheney, keep running your yap.