I guess it's too much to hope for that this sort of thing will stop when Obama takes office

"Cheney says Congress failed struggling automakers"

(WASHINGTON) Vice President Dick Cheney blamed Congress for failing to bail out the auto industry, saying the White House was forced to step in to save U.S. car companies.

In an interview broadcast Sunday, Cheney said the economy is in such bad shape that the car companies might not have survived without the $17.4 billion in emergency loans that President George W. Bush approved on Friday.

'The president decided specifically that he wanted to try to deal with it and not preside over the collapse of the automobile industry just as he goes out of office,' Cheney said in an interview broadcast on 'Fox News Sunday.'

Lawmakers 'had ample opportunity to deal with this issue and they failed,' Cheney said. 'The president had no choice but to step in.'

Cheney may believe that what Bush did was the right thing to do. If so, that's what he should have discussed. Why was it right—and how this case is different from most other situations in which the normal Republican position would be to keep the government out of the economy. Does Cheney have a standard that helps him determine when government intervention is appropriate?

If he discussed these issues, that would be an interesting and useful interview. It's not useful for him to say that Bush rescued the auto companies because congress failed to act. The point is not to spend all your time blaming someone else. Just talk about what went into your own decision. Perhaps Obama will be more constructive in this regard.