General

Cheney to Bush: You big softy!

Former VP said to disparage Bush in forthcoming book

Somewhere in a Washington D.C. suburb, in an office above his garage, former vice president Dick Cheney is tap, tap, taping away at his memoirs. Though the workshop may be Leave it to Beaver, his forthcoming book’s conclusions are unadulterated, neat–no water, no ice–realpolitik: In his second term in office, Cheney witnessed George W. Bush go soft. That’s his assessment, according to an unnamed source familiar with Cheney’s evolving account, who spoke to the Washington Post. Buch, “showed an independence that Cheney didn’t see coming,” says the source. “It was clear that Cheney’s doctrine was cast-iron strength at all times–never apologise, never explain–and Bush moved toward the conciliatory.” That meant no more waterboarding, the closure of secret CIA prisons, more congressional approval for surveillance, and more effort to solve the Iran and North Korea challenges through diplomacy. Soft, Cheney calls it. More than anything, however, his souring on Bush hinges on the treatment of his infamous chief of staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, ultimately surrendered to the Valerie Plame affair. “I have strong feelings about what happened,” his authorized biographer, Stephen Hayes, has quoted Cheney saying. “And I don’t have any reason not to forthrightly express those views.”

The Guardian

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