Pat Dollard

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Axelrod is a senior White House adviser and functions as one of Obama’s top four spokesmen. Very often spokesmen are used to attack political opponents by the President, but indirectly, so the President seems above the fray, the target is not dignified by a direct attack, and the President can avoid being counterattacked directly. That doesn’t work here. Spokesmen are acting under orders 99% of the time.

Politico:

David Axelrod, senior adviser to President Obama, said Sunday that recent comments by former Vice President Dick Cheney about the new administration were “irresponsible” and suggest that he is “having a hard time dealing with … the verdict of the American people.”

On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” moderator David Gregory asked Axelrod about a Politico interview in which Cheney said he worried the Obama administration had a naïve mindset about battling terrorists, and asserts that the U.S. “needs to be not so much loved as it needs to be respected.”

Axelrod responded harshly to Cheney, but said former President George W. Bush had been cordial.

“If respect in the world is what we’re after, I’m not sure that that cause was advanced by some of the things that the vice president has said and done over the last eight years. And what he said here is really irresponsible. The fact is that the president has announced a very methodical system for evaluating how we close down Guantanamo, how we’re going to deal with those detainees, and he’s proceeding in a thoughtful way. He believes – and I think most Americans do – that we can protect the American people and be consistent with the values that have animated this country for over two centuries.

“The vice president seems to think it’s a zero-sum game. I think that’s one of the things that was on the ballot last November. It was decided. Apparently the vice president is having a hard time dealing with … the verdict of the American people. I will say this: President Bush could not have been more generous in the transition, in every conceivable way. And when he left, he said, ‘I’m rootin’ for you guys, and I hope you do well.’ … Apparently the memo didn’t go down the line.”