Today someone tweeted that Bush, Cheney, and Palin deserve our respect. I disagreed. Respect is something earned, it isn’t a gift.

I lost my respect for Palin for her attempts at assassinating the characters of both President Obama and Vice President Biden during the Presidential campaign. Yet, she is just a victim and example of poor Republican judgment and is truly out of her league when linked with the likes of Richard Cheney and George W. Bush.

At first Bush and Cheney were just laughable figures, Cheney with his hunting incident and Bush with his “the Google,” “the Internets,” and other conspicuous bloopers. As the years passed, it became apparent that their unscrupulous actions hurt our nation more than helped it and were anything but laughable.

• Their lies about WMDs that led Americans to support the war in Iraq.
• General cronyism, especially in regard to Blackwater and Haliburton involvements.
• The Patriot Act which eroded the rights of all Americans.
• The feeble and inept response to hurricane Katrina.
• The torture at Abu Grave and Guantanamo that led the world to believe that in American, the end justifies the means.

The actions of the past administration leave little to respect. The media needs to stop giving Cheney undue attention and let the Bush-Cheney administration R.I.P. Yet last Tuesday night, Mr. Cheney tried to rewrite history. Aside from the inaccuracies and exaggerations in his statement, in saying, “After the most lethal and devastating terrorist attack ever, seven and a half years without a repeat is not a record to be rebuked and scorned, much less criminalized” as well as the nefarious actions of his tenure in office, he seems to have overlooked the 200 years that preceded him.

Cheney has earned the disrespect of Americans. We are each responsible for our actions and with those actions come consequences. Cheney needs to quit sniveling.