Axelrod hits back at Andy Card: ‘We have to roll up our sleeves and clean up the mess.’

Thinkprogress:

In recent days, several of President Bush’s closest advisers have been attacking President Obama. Vice Preisdent Cheney, for example, said that there was “a high probability” of a WMD attack if Bush’s policies were reversed, and former chief of staff Andy Card said that Obama has turned the White House into a “locker room” because he isn’t requiring staff to wear jackets at all times. Axelrod sharply responds to the “tasteless” criticisms in a new interview with the Washington Post:

I was disappointed in the Vice President’s comments, not because he said–stated the obvious which is that there are threats that are grave, but that he suggested that somehow the President’s decisions on torture in Guantanamo would increase the likelihood of that. […]

You know, the last thing that I think we’re looking for at this juncture is advice on fiscal integrity or ethics from Karl Rove, anyone who’s read the newspapers for the last eight years would laugh at that.

So, I appreciate that President Bush has been so classy during this period, and I’m disappointed that some of the folks who worked for him didn’t–don’t share that. […]

I mentioned Andy Card saying that we were somehow denigrating the Presidency because people were wearing short sleeves in the Oval Office. We’re wearing short sleeves because we have to roll up our sleeves and clean up the mess that we inherited.