Chiding Cheney

This White House isn't going to be dumbstruck by Republican media attacks. Asked about the former VP's CNN performance yesterday, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters today, “I guess Rush Limbaugh was busy so they trotted out the next most popular member of the Republican cabal.”

Gibbs was responding to Cheney's charge that President Obama is making choices that "raise the risk to the American people of another attack" like 9/11.

Asked whether he wasn't being a little rough on a former Vice President, Gibbs didn't back down.

"I hope," he said, "my sarcasm didn’t mask the seriousness of my answer. For seven-plus years, the very perpetrators that the vice president says he’s concerned about weren’t brought to justice.”

Gibbs may not be as easy on the eyes as Dana Perino, but he's a lot feistier.