When White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs wants to push back, he reaches for the child comparison. At the beginning of December, during a heated exchange with White House reporter April Ryan, Gibbs compared her behavior to that of his five year old son. A few days later, when asked about President Obama's slide in the Gallup tracking poll, Gibbs mocked the results, saying, "I'm sure a 6-year-old with a crayon could do something not unlike that."

I couldn't help recalling both of those moments while reading the New York Times this morning, because now it's the Obama White House that is acting like a bunch of five year olds. Peter Baker and Scott Shane report on the administration's response to criticism of its handling of the failed Christmas Day terror attack:

The White House complained about the increasing political attacks, noting that the system that failed to detect the suspect was put in place by President George W. Bush.

Do they have any idea how childish that sounds?

The administration has already gotten every last mile out of blaming George W. Bush for just about everything under the sun (some of it deserved, some not.) So far, if the polling is to be believed, the public generally agrees the Bush administration still bears the lion's share of responsibility on many issues - though responsibility has been shifting steadily toward Obama, especially on the economy and Afghanistan.

But for the White House to try and deflect responsibility for this incident by blaming the Bush administration is a transparrent overreach that will strike the public as immature and defensive.

Furthermore, much of the criticism has been aimed at the tone-deaf response of the administration.  Janet Napolitano and Robert Gibbs both went on the Sunday shows and committed "the system worked" gaffes.  And the President has been criticized for his decision to stay out of sight after the attack instead of getting out in front of the story to try and ease public anxiety during the busiest travel time of the year.

The last time I checked, George W. Bush wasn't part of the Obama administration.

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