Speaking at a fundraiser for Sen. Jeff Sessions today, Vice President Dick Cheney attacked Democrats for writing deadlines into an Iraq War appropriations bill.

“Twisted logic is not exactly a new phenomenon in Washington, but lately it’s gone to new heights,” Cheney said.

Indeed, twisted logic isn’t new in Washington, especially to the current administration. Just consider the argument Cheney put forward again today: We will bring the troops home once we have won the war, but if we bring the troops home, we lose. Computer programmers call this a “deadly embrace,” where two computer processes are unable to precede because each is waiting on a prerequisite action from the other. When you’re computer crashes, a deadly embrace is often the cause. When more than 3,250 American service members get killed in Iraq, this is often the cause.

Nor does Cheney’s memory serve him well. Last year, the Republican-controlled Congress couldn’t even pass a budget. While he blasted Democrats for including pork projects in the current bill on Monday, he never blasted previous Republicans’ pork projects, such as Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens’ bridge to nowhere.

Or does he remember telling us the insurgency is in its last throes? Were we greeted as liberators? In fact, can he remember telling the public anything about this war that is truthful or accurate? And is it any wonder, that Cheney has been all but invisible on the national scene since the mid-term elections last year?

Now Cheney and the Bush administration are borrowing the credibility of coalition commander Gen. David Petraeus, their new poster child for the Iraq “surge,” because they don’t have any credibility left to call their own. Again, today, Cheney invoked the general’s name, when attacking the Democrats.

“Now the Democrats in Congress are working another angle to undercut General Petraeus and the troops,” Cheney said. “The House passed an emergency war spending bill that put a long list of restrictions on our commanders, and put conditions and deadlines on Iraq’s government. And if all the conditions are not met to Congress’s satisfaction, the bill mandates a precipitous American withdrawal on a date certain.”

Washington Republicans, including the presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain, are telling the public that the escalation is working. But it is unclear what yardstick they’re using to measure its success. Here’s one they aren’t using. In March 2006, 31 American service members died in Iraq. In March 2007 we lost 81.

The audience members at the Sessions fundraiser at THE Club paid $1,000 per plate to hear the vice president speak. Let’s hope they got their money’s worth.

— Kyle Whitmire

RELATED: Four Questions on Iraq: Jeff Sessions

FULL TEXT of Cheney’s The Club speech here.