On It

So after a Sunday news show cycle dominated by former Co-President Richard Bruce Cheney denouncing President Obama as somehow weak on terror, news comes that the top military leader of the Taliban was captured several days ago:

The commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, is an Afghan described by American officials as the most significant Taliban figure to be detained since the American-led war in Afghanistan started more than eight years ago. He ranks second in influence only to Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban’s founder and a close associate of Osama bin Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Mullah Baradar has been in Pakistani custody for several days, with American and Pakistani intelligence officials both taking part in interrogations, according to the officials.

It was unclear whether he was talking, but the officials said his capture had provided a window into the Taliban and could lead to other senior officials. Most immediately, they hope he will provide the whereabouts of Mullah Omar, the one-eyed cleric who is the group’s spiritual leader.

Makes you wonder how quickly we'd have had Osama Bin Laden himself in custody had a Democrat -- say, Al Gore -- been in the White House at that time.

Then again, 9/11 might never have happened, assuming President Gore would not have ended the near-daily cabinet meetings that President Clinton instituted which thwarted earlier attacks, might have listened to top White House terrorism expert Richard Clarke, and might have paid attention to the memo revealed in a hearing by Condoleezza Rice, "Bin Laden Determined to Attack in U.S." that then-President Bush responded to by going off jogging on his ranch to celebrate his 55th birthday.

I look forward to hearing the outpouring of support for President Obama's terrorism-fighting approach from Fox News and their political arm, the Republican Party.