So in the latest New Yorker, CIA Director Leon Panetta says Dick Cheney's biting criticism of Obama`s enlightened approach to terrorism suggests "he's wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point."

Now Mr. Panetta is absolutely right about one thing: Cheney has been highly critical of the Obama Administration`s new tact toward terror. But that's mainly because our new President has been so critical of the previous administration`s strategy, while now pretty much copying most of its key elements.

But after that, Panetta make a fundamental error in his reasoning. See, he mistakes Cheney for a leftwinger. Remember, it was during the Bush Administration that the left milked the hell out of tragedy and calamity to make sure they won in November. Liberal bloggers never met a car bomb they didn't front page, and lefty pontificators would wet themselves whenever an opportunity to portray our soldiers as seething barbarians presented itself. Hell, you remember the mini-industry of films made about how awful the Iraq war was. They failed miserably at the box office, but helped achieve a loftier goal: they pulled crisis out of success, cementing a win in November.

I used to call these folks patriotic terrorists – people who claim they love their country, but need that same country to suffer, so they can win. Cheney isn`t one of those people. At least to me, he`s always seemed to put the security of his country before everything else, especially his popularity. Which is probably why Panetta can`t stand him. Unlike Obama, Dick just doesn`t give a fuck.