Dick Cheney was on PBS’s NewsHour last night, responding to Jim Lehrer’s questions on the issues of the day. But Lehrer saved his best question for last.
“Finally, Mr. Vice President, some of the things we’ve gone over, some of the things we haven’t. There’s an increasing thing — here, again, among Republicans as well as others — that have suggested that there may be a, quote, ‘competence problem’ in the Bush administration, having to do with misjudging the insurgency, the Katrina thing, which we haven’t even discussed, the prescription — Medicare prescription drug program not functioning properly when it — at its launch, the long list of things, Harriet Miers — there’s a long list of things.
“How do you react when you hear that? It’s about managing the government now, not philosophy, not ideology, not politics. It’s managing the government on a day-to-day basis. Are you comfortable with the way you all are doing it?”
What a good question. I may have worded it differently (“Katrina thing?”), and included some additional examples, but Lehrer was certainly right to ask about administration competence, or lack thereof. It’s not a subject that comes up nearly enough in these White House interviews.
I often wonder whether top administration officials, such as Cheney, take some pride in what appears to be an abysmal record. If asked to list accomplishments, what does the White House say? What sterling achievements do they point to? Cheney made his best case. It wasn’t terribly persuasive.
“I look at our economy and see that we inherited a recession that was then hammered by the effects of 9/11, and we’ve come through that in great shape. The resilience of the American economy has been phenomenal, but a lot of that was because of good, sound policy by this president and this administration. The 4.7 million new jobs in less than three years isn’t to be sneezed at.
“We’ve liberated 50 million people from two of the worst regimes in modern history, in Afghanistan and Iraq. We have successfully defended the nation against further terrorist attacks now for more than four years. We have reformed Medicare and put in place for the first time ever a prescription drug benefit for senior citizens, which needed to be there. […]
“The education reform the president put in place, No Child Left Behind, is a huge change in the way we do business in this country with respect to education.
“The Supreme Court nominees of John Roberts and Sam Alito are outstanding, and they will have an impact on the Supreme Court for the next 30 years. We’ve also done great work with respect to the district courts and the federal appellate courts.
“I think the success of this administration is very, very significant.”
Let’s take these one at a time.
* Job creation — Bush has the worst record on job creation of any modern president. The net gain has been 2 million jobs since Bush took office, and that’s when government-created jobs totaling 2.8 million.
* Two wars — Bush has failed to follow through on his commitments to Afghanistan and Iraq is a disastrous example of administration incompetence.
* Medicare Plan D — The plan is a half-trillion dollar debacle that the administration can’t even administer properly.
* No Child Left Behind — Bush cut funding to his own education plan, which is now widely derided by education officials nationwide.
* The federal courts — The administration has successfully stacked the courts with several far-right ideologues, which only counts as a “success” if you’re a far-right ideologue.
This is the record Cheney is proud of. I’m not sure why.