"Punching back twice as hard"

Remember when top White House aides told Democrat senators that in the battle over the health care bill, "“If you get hit, we will punch back twice as hard"?

The day has come, but from an unexpected quarter and an unforeseen target: from No. 10 Downing Street, London, directed at the president himself and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The UK's MailOnline reports, "No.10 turns on Obama and Clinton for criticising decision to release Lockerbie bomber."

Downing Street has hit back at Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for attacking the decision to release the Lockerbie bomber.

President Obama and the US Secretary of State fuelled a fierce American backlash against Britain, claiming Abdelbaset Al Megrahi should have been forced to serve out his jail sentence in Scotland – but a senior Whitehall aide said their reaction was ‘disingenuous’.

British officials claim Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton were kept informed at all stages of discussions concerning Megrahi’s return.

‘The US was kept fully in touch about everything that was going on with regard to Britain’s discussions with Libya in recent years and about Megrahi,’ said the Whitehall aide.

‘We would never do anything about Lockerbie without discussing it with the US. It is disingenuous of them to act as though Megrahi’s return was out of the blue.

'They knew about our prisoner transfer agreement with Libya and they knew that the Scots were considering Megrahi’s case.’

Of course, this might be Prime Minister Gordon Brown CYA-ing, too. He has deservedly come under fierce fire for Megrahi's release. Though I've little doubt that Brown is trying to run for cover, or at least get President Obama to wear part of the blame bullseye, it is hard to believe that Gordon's government would not have at least tried to bring the White House aboard on the release. Did the president and the SecState signal acquiescence, perhaps by omission rather than policy? We'll probably never know.