Axelrod Strikes Back, Slams Cheney and Rove for Attacks on Obama

Posted by Christy Hardin Smith, Firedoglake at 7:47 AM on February 13, 2009.

This is a fine way to wake up. In an interview with the WaPo's Lois Romano, Obama top advisor David Axelrod politely yet firmly hands Cheney and Rove their STFU papers:

ROMANO: Can I get a reaction on Dick Cheney's comments that there will be a high probability of a terrorist...that terrorists will attempt a catastrophic nuclear attack in the next ten years?

AXELROD: Well, those...there's no doubt, I think we all live with the reality that there's a threat and it's a grave threat. It existed during the years of the Bush Administration. We're living with it now -- it's something that the President is completely focused on and meets every day on these threats.

I was disappointed with the Vice President's comments, not because he said...stated the obvious which is that there are threats that are grave, but that he suggested that somehow the president's decisions on torture and Guantanamo would increase the likelihood of that.

You know, one of the things that I've been impressed by is the graciousness that President Bush has shown during this transition period and the first weeks of this administration. When he left, he wished us the best -- and I believe that he meant that.

Apparently the memo didn't circulate around the White House, because I've seen...you know...what I consider tasteless comments by the Vice President.

Amazing comments by Karl Rove. You know, the last thing that I think we're looking for at this juncture is advice on fiscal integrity or ethics from Karl Rove. I mean, anyone who's read the newspapers for the last eight years would laugh at that.

So, I appreciate that President Bush has been so classy during this period, and I'm disappointed that some of the folks who worked for him didn't--don't share that.

Ooooooh...snap! Love it when Axelrod decides to throw an elbow.

Here's hoping one of these days the lesson that you can't negotiate with the other side unless they are doing so in good faith sink in. Permanently.  Because most of the GOP?  Not even close to negotiating in good faith these days.  

[Editor's Update] from Steve Benen:

As for Andy Card repeatedly complaining about the president and his staff not wearing jackets in the Oval Office, Axelrod concluded, "I mentioned Andy Card saying that we were somehow denigrating the presidency because people were wearing short sleeves in the Oval Office. We're wearing short sleeves because we have to roll up our sleeves and clean up the mess that we inherited."

Christy Hardin Smith is a former attorney, who earned her undergraduate degree at Smith College, in American Studies and Government, concentrating in American Foreign Policy. She then went on to graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania in the field of political science and international relations/security studies, before attending law school at the College of Law at West Virginia University, where she was Associate Editor of the Law Review.