TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Bob Barr, former Republican and 2008 Libertarian presidential candidate, addresses Cheney’s inane criticism of Obama’s response to the attempted Christmas bombing:

Partisanship truly has pervasively infected our political system when a reasonable, measured, factual, timely and substantive response by a president to a single security incident — the roots of which clearly indicate long-simmering problems that predated his tenure in office — is publicly blasted as irresponsible.  In point of fact, those levelling such counterproductive attacks are the ones engaging in irresponsible behavior.

Barr’s right. Cheney’s claim that Obama is trying to act like we are not at war is far from the truth, and clearly transparent. Cheney is indeed attempting to gain political advantage by using an attempted terrorist attack, and that’s despicable.

Unfortunately, though, there is a recent trend of politicizing what really shouldn’t be. The administration attempted to shift blame for the attack to the Bush administration, rather than tacitly accept responsibility for the failure and to fix the problem that allowed it. Democrats, just weeks after the start of the Afghan war, began questioning whether it was successful or not — and that was when the war was clearly an initial success. And Republicans, of course, questioned Democrats’ patriotism for opposing the war in Iraq.

This has become a cycle, and it’s one that must stop. Barr deserves to be commended for calling out Cheney and others for it.