Cheney Takes Up Pen to Rebut Greenspan Book

Well, look who's emerged from an undisclosed location to say hello! It's Dick Cheney, with an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal responding to Alan Greenspan's book, The Age of Turbulence.

Cheney's essay is just full of surprises. Surprise No. 1: He disagrees with Greenspan's thesis "that President Bush's economic and budget policies have been fiscally irresponsible." Surprise No. 2: He blames the recession of the early '00s on a situation Bush inherited. Surprise No. 3: He chalks up everything that came after that to -- you guessed it -- that darn War on Terror:

Another crisis was looming, though none of us knew it at the time. [Well, maybe not none of us. -J.B.] Less than eight months into our administration the nation came under terrorist attack. The events of 9/11 are the defining moment of the era from the standpoint of national security; they were equally significant from an economic perspective.

I'll leave it to Felix Salmon to judge whether the Vice President's fiscal reasoning is sound. I think it's more interesting that this marks the first editorial Cheney's written since taking office. (At least I think it's the first -- I searched Nexis and the WSJ.com archives in vain.) I guess that means Greenspan's book really hit home.