In his column today, Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post writes this:
Other high-ranking officials from the previous administration… have had the manners and good sense to follow long-established custom and refrain from attacking the new president and his policies. Cheney, however, is not only accusing President Obama of knowingly putting American lives at risk — an outrageous charge — but is also diving headlong into partisan politics.
As I point out in my posting over at Contentions, former vice president Al Gore charged that George W. Bush had brought “deep dishonor to our country” and had built a “durable reputation as the most dishonest president since Richard Nixon.” Gore said President Bush had “betrayed this country” and he called Bush a “moral coward” and said that his administration was allied with “digital brownshirts.” These kind of hateful and irrational utterances by Mr. Gore belong in a different universe that what Cheney has said about President Obama, which has been wholly appropriate. I would be eager to know if Eugene Robinson ever, even once, condemned Gore’s comments. I would bet a nice lunch at the Palm that he hasn’t. And if he hasn’t, might that not open Robinson to the charge of being a partisan hypocrite?