Dick Cheney, Terrorism Czar

It's said Americans have notoriously short attention spans, but this is ridiculous.

Yesterday, a grave Dick Cheney warned that a John Kerry victory would risk another terror attack: "If we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again - that we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States."

Cheney may not have much of a heart, but he has some nerve. Because not only was George Bush the titular president on September 11, but Vice President Dick Cheney was expressly responsible for coordinating federal preparedness for international terrorist attacks on US soil.

From a White House press release dated May 9, 2001:

Cheney to Oversee Domestic Counterterrorism Efforts

Washington, May 9, 2001 -- President Bush May 8 directed Vice President Dick Cheney to coordinate development of U.S. government initiatives to combat terrorist attacks on the United States.

This was the new Office of National Preparedness, organized under FEMA. It was to oversee a "national effort" to coordinate all federal programs for responding to domestic attacks. Cheney told the press at the time, "One of our biggest threats as a nation" may include "a terrorist organization overseas. We need to look at this whole area, oftentimes referred to as homeland defense."

Cheney's "Office of National Preparedness" was the Bush White House answer to the recommendations of the Hart-Rudman Commission. Co-chair Gary Hart said "Frankly, the White House shut [the commission] down. The president said 'Please wait, we're going to turn this over to the vice president."

And let's remember something else Cheney was up to that Spring: not only was he supposedly coordinating federal preparedness against a terrorist attack, he was also heading the task force to craft a new American energy strategy, one which had dramatic implications for US military policy.

A busy man. Very busy the morning of September 11, monitoring multiple wargames, including live-fly simulations of hijackings, which taxed and confused resources available to intercept the genuine hijacked aircraft.

Just doing his job.