In 2002, even D.C. Democrats wanted to get Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants more than they wanted to get Dick Cheney.

How times have changed.

Debra J. Saunders at Townhall: The Gang That Couldn't Shoot -- Period

Such are the sensibilities in Washington that, collateral damage notwithstanding, it is politically safer to bomb terrorists than to shoot them.

While Democrats demanding an investigation might have set out to mess with Cheney, the only clear casualty to date is one of their own: Panetta.

He rushed to disclose the nonoperational covert operation to Intelligence Committee members, and unnamed sources rewarded his candor by leaking the story. He shut down a program that, if never implemented, makes complete sense in time of war. Add it all together and Panetta got rolled.

The message to agency staff may be unintended, but it is clear: If there's anyone left at CIA headquarters who wants to defeat al-Qaida, that person would be well advised to hire a lawyer first. Or maybe a shrink.

The faux outrage is backfiring on the numskulls who are making a big deal out of this. Average Americans have to be scratching their heads. "You mean we don't have any people at the CIA that can actually, you know, go out and shoot the bad guys?" And "The Democrats in Congress are upset that we tried to begin a training program to get OBL and his henchmen after he killed 3000 Americans?" Are they upset that we did not have the resources, that we did not develop the resources or that they were not told that we did not have the resources and we never did develop the resources?

What?

The problem for the Democrats is that Walter Cronkite is dead and his acolytes no longer have the information channels to themselves. People are no longer glued to the boob tube nodding their heads in glazed acceptance of the newsreaders' spin of events. It's more difficult these days to persuade people that victory is defeat and that black is white. They really don't get the Biden explanation that the government has to spend more to keep from going bankrupt.

Walter Cronkite is dead, and that's a big deal.