Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Via ThinkProgress, I see that David Axelrod hit back today against Dick Cheney’s recent criticisms of Obama’s foreign policy.  George Bush, by contrast, has said that Obama “deserves our silence,” which prompted this from Axelrod: “He’s behaved like a statesman. And as I’ve said before, here and elsewhere, I just don’t think the memo got passed down to the vice president.”

I’ve been mulling this ever since Cheney started spouting off a few weeks ago, and I still haven’t really made up my mind about it.  Does an outgoing administration owe an incoming one silence?  I don’t think that’s always been the case (historians please correct me here if I’m wrong), and I wonder if it really should be.  Sure, it would be unseemly for ex-presidents and their staffs to engage in partisan feeding frenzies after they leave office, but is there really any reason why they should all take vows of silence?  If Cheney thinks torture and warrantless wiretapping are vital to the nation’s security, then maybe he should go ahead and say so.  Why not?

Obviously this isn’t the best time to bring this up, since after eight years of wrecking the country most of us really do think the Bushies ought to take a nice, long time out.  But just in general, and assuming it’s done in moderation, I’m not sure I see the harm in former administration mucky mucks continuing to express their (sincerely held!) opinions.  Let a thousand flowers bloom and all that.

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate