I can understand how Rush Limbaugh’s comments about hoping for Obama to fail were misconstrued to indicate that he was hoping for Obama to fail as Commander-in-Chief. He wasn’t, of course, but I can understand how lefties could make the connection. The comment could easily be twisted.

But how, in the name of all that is holy, does one take Dick Cheney’s concern over national security and the safety of his countrymen and turn it into him hoping for the United States to be attacked? That’s some serious twisting.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Former vice president Dick Cheney’s criticism of the Obama administration’s handling of security matters suggests he wants the United States to be attacked, CIA chief Leon Panetta said.

“I think he smells some blood in the water on the national security issue,” Panetta told The New Yorker magazine for its June 22 edition.

“It’s almost, a little bit, gallows politics. When you read behind it, it’s almost as if he’s wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point. I think that’s dangerous politics.”

Yeah, I’m sure the former vice president with no political aspirations but correcting the record of the past eight years is hoping for the deaths of fellow Americans. I’m sure he’s that invested in proving that enhanced interrogation techniques are effective, especially considering that any attack launched at this point would likely have been in the planning stages since long before Obama took office and the Bush Administration would be blamed by the media. That makes plenty of sense.

The comments by Cheney, regarded by many as one of the most powerful vice presidents in US history, were “dangerous politics,” Panetta said.

Asked whether he agreed with the intelligence chief, Vice President Joe Biden told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he would not question Cheney’s motives.

However, he added: “Dick Cheney’s judgment about how to secure America is faulty. I think our judgment is correct.”

Yeah, we’ll see. Polls show that Americans agree that torture can be justified to protect the nation, Congressional leaders understood that EITs were necessary until it became politically inopportune a few years back, and the Bush/Cheney policy changes following 9/11 kept the country safe for seven years. So far the Bush/Cheney team have a record of success in protecting the nation with their policies, while the effectiveness of Obama/Biden team policies is yet to be determined.

Via Hot Air Headlines.