Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld gave experience a bad name.

I run with a group on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and thus miss the evening news on NBC and ABC that I normally watch. On such days I used to catch the day's news on Headline News, but that ceased when to do so meant having to endure Glenn Beck and Nancy Grace. (I must be missing something here. My tastes and preferences are mainstream. How these two appeal to the masses -- if they appeal to the masses -- escapes me.)

Lately I have been watching Keith Olbermann, and Howard Fineman is often a guest on this show. And before starting to watch Olbermann, I have been reading Howard Fineman in Newsweek for several years. He is good, insightful, balanced and usually ahead of the curve.

In a Newsweek article discussing who Hillary might select to be her running mate, or no. 3 -- behind "Hill and Bill" as he puts it -- he reviews the credentials of one possibility, and notes:

A lawyer and former state attorney general, he is well-liked but has little foreign-policy experience. On the other hand, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld gave experience a bad name.

Isn't it the truth? And how unfortunate it is that two individuals with so much experience in Washington in so many capacities could have botched things up as badly as they have done.

It will take at least a generation to undo the harm and mess they have made, and whether we like it or not, America made the mess, and America is going to have to clean up the mess.