Bush Jokes About Intelligence, Knocks Jimmy Carter

By: Brian Montopoli
Topics: Republicans

(AP/Keith Srakocic)

Former President George W. Bush joked about his intelligence, said Dick Cheney is doing well following his fifth heart attack and took a shot at Jimmy Carter at a breakfast for the Bush-Cheney Alumni Association Friday morning.

"This is going to come as quite a shock to people up here that I can write a book, much less read one," the former president said, according to Politico. Mr. Bush is currently working on a memoir.

He also reportedly told an audience of administration alumni that Cheney, who had planned to come to the meeting, was not able to attend following his recent heart attack. He said the former vice president is "feeling well" and "has a fierce constitution."

Added Mr. Bush: "I have no desire to see myself on television. I don't want to be a panel of formers instructing the currents on what to do...I'm trying to regain a sense of anonymity. I didn't like it when a certain former president -- and it wasn't 41 or 42 -- made my life miserable."

That appears to be a shot at former President Jimmy Carter (#39), who said back in 2006 that the Iraq war had been "a flat disaster" and that the Bush administration "and particularly the vice president and the secretary of defense have, I think, quite often deliberately misled the American people about the danger in Iraq to begin with, the causes for going to war in Iraq, and they have also misled the American people about what is happening in Iraq since we invaded."

Carter was also exceedingly critical of Cheney and called the Bush administration the "worst in history" from the perspective of its "adverse impact on the nation around the world," though he later walked back that comment as "maybe careless or misinterpreted."

(AP)

Mr. Bush met with Cheney for about an hour on Thursday at Cheney's residence, the first time they have seen each other since President Obama's inauguration, as CNN reports. Details of the meeting between the two men were not disclosed. According to Cheney, they speak on the phone "periodically."

The former president and vice president have taken diverging paths since leaving the White House, with Cheney making high-profile criticisms of the Obama administration as Mr. Bush has largely stayed out of the spotlight, saying Mr. Obama "deserves my silence." Last week Cheney suggested that Mr. Obama would be a one-term president.

Cheney has also indicated he disagreed with some Bush administration decisions, including the trial of terror suspects in civilian courts and the lack of a full pardon for former Cheney chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby following the Valerie Plame scandal.

Cheney, like Mr. Bush, is working on a memoir.

The Bush-Cheney Alumni Association, which hosted Friday's breakfast, is the new name for Bush-Cheney 2004 Inc., the organization that ran Mr. Bush's reelection campaign.

It is "devoted to furthering the ideas and principles of the Bush-Cheney Administration with the hope that they will continue to positively impact our nation and the world for years to come," according to an email to supporters reported by the Wall Street Journal.

At the breakfast, Mr. Bush said for the first time he approved of Cheney's post-White House role, saying, "I'm glad Cheney is out there."

As Politico reports, he also said No Child Left Behind was "the most advanced civil rights legislation since the Voting Rights Act." And he warned against "swagger," saying "sometimes I got carried away rallying the country."

Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
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by cbs_bull February 27, 2010 4:51 PM EST

Maybe Bush can learn something from Carter by trying to do some good things for America and the world in the rest of his life. Then he might have less chance to be sent to Hell when he sees his creator.

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by MeusVeritas February 28, 2010 1:06 PM EST: Somewhat judgmental, cbs-bull

by PVperson2 February 27, 2010 4:30 PM EST

Pathetic ***** doesn't even have the intelligence to understand the monumental damage his administration caused the country or he just doesn't care.

Reply to this comment


by Overruled1 February 28, 2010 10:45 AM EST: He just wants the tax cuts made permanent....


by MeusVeritas February 28, 2010 1:15 PM EST: Yours is not the right to say who cares and who doesn't. I don't believe
that is an inherit right. . .


by Greg5654 February 27, 2010 3:54 PM EST: sah18, the rest of your comments are spot on, but GW Bush did not misspeak on Carter. He said that a former president made his life miserable, and it "wasn't 41 or 42". Since Ronald Reagan was 40 and the rest of them were dead by 2000 (with the exception of Gerald Ford, who never said much) it doesn't take much imagination to figure out who he was talking about.

For the rest of you dissing Bush, take a look at the state of the economy during the Carter years, and compare with the prosperity of the early 2000's - before the Dimmocrats took over Congress that is. And ask yourself what Saddam Hussein might be doing (7 years on) if he had been left in charge in Iraq.; Reply to this comment

by mary-miami February 27, 2010 3:37 PM EST

It was Bush who destroyed our country's economy...He was sitting in the whitehouse (8 long disastrous years) when the rich were getting richer, the poor poorer, unemployment going higher, people losing homes, going hungry, and then...CEOs laying off thousands and flying off in private jets to spas. Bush republicans have no nation. Only favoritism towards the spoiled high class, thinking that they are better than the common worker. Guess what, everybody uses toilets...whether they have a million dollars or one dollar...the rich are no better than the rest of us...As far as the press is concerned...thank goodness we have a free press...it is their job to report what goes on in our world, not just what you want to hear, but the truth...free speech and press is the basis of a free nation. I thank them for their work...and I am thankful to President Obama for helping the working class.

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by alanrobisch February 27, 2010 3:53 PM EST: I have to get this how has potus HELPED THE working class considering the unemployment has gone up to 10% since he entered office when he promised no more than 8%. you are simply lieing in most of your post. We had low unemployment during most of his term in office. The loss of homes occurred in the last six months prior to that we had high home ownership and low unemployment


by Leaderless February 28, 2010 11:31 AM EST: mary-miami, we have no idea what you are talking about.
The GWB 8 years was very prosperous except for the last when businesses knows he's leaving. Just the possibility of barack becoming president was enough to start the economic down slided. The democrats controlled congress in the latter years was a huge contributing factor also.
Don't know what you have against the "rich" but we preferred the "rich" to stay rich and getting richer. I liked my employer to be "rich" so they can have the money to pay me. I have never worked for a poor person before.....how s/he's going to pay me?
Free press is great until they let their personal views get in the way of their work.
obama have good intention but he's clueless about the economy.


by rob10001 February 27, 2010 11:38 AM EST: Amazing how CBS cannot see their usual bias in this peice.
When asked, George W. Bush makes a self-depricating comment involving former President Carter and it is described as a "hit" and a "knock."
Carter constantly and inappropriately lambasted a sitting President at home and abroad during two wars and it is described by CBS as "critical".
Give me a break. You guys have really out did yourselves with this utterly biased "journalism" which is what we have come to expect from CBS.; Reply to this comment


by freedomrules1776 February 27, 2010 11:12 AM EST: Obama is Carter on steroids.; Reply to this comment


by freedomrules1776 February 27, 2010 11:11 AM EST: Bush may have spent like a drunken sailor, but now we have a drunken naval squadron armed with credit cards tanking the country. At least Bush spoke straight. When Obama said, "I am an ardent supporter of the free market," I almost feel out of my chair laughing.; Reply to this comment


by libertyandvirtue-com February 26, 2010 8:25 PM EST: Yes I do miss Mr Bush....I do not believe the attitude this administration under President Obama, displays toward our enemies. Both sides are guilty for the spending,but I have to admit I felt safer under Mr Bush..and before the critics come after this post,I have lived in a war and I have been buried and had to be rescued.Our weaknesses are not tolerated by our enemies,weakness is an invitation to attack; Reply to this comment

by rob1182 February 26, 2010 7:06 PM EST

info-hunter
Warning warning Im a discredited retardlican on board!!!!

Reply to this comment


by info-hunter February 28, 2010 2:00 PM EST: Got that right retardlican. Your ploy didn't hide your retardlican leanings in the slightest. The stench of a retardlican trole is to overpowering to hide


by johnk8jb February 26, 2010 6:52 PM EST: I know I'm outnumbered here (and I got re-directed to this site, not wanting to have anything to do with the LAME-stream media), GWB is a decent guy whom you jerk-offs have pilloried long enough. What's the matter, your guy not doing a good job either so you have to pick on GW? GET OVER IT! Obummer will go down as way south of Carter and push Carter off the bottom of the heap. I have yet to see the supreme intelligence Dear Leader is supposed to have.

I'll go now.; Reply to this comment