WASHINGTON, July 30, 2007
Interviewing Dick Cheney
Mark Knoller Recounts Sitting Down With The Vice President In The West Wing
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Vice President Dick Cheney smiles as he leaves George Washington University hospital in Washington on July 28, 2007, after minor surgery to replace the battery that powers a device monitoring his heart rhythms. (AP)
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Interactive Second In Command A closer look at Vice President Dick Cheney's career and his much-publicized health problems.
As I was escorted into his office in the West Wing of the White House, Vice President Cheney was seated behind a big desk cluttered with papers. It was very unlike the president's desk in the Oval Office, which is always swept clean of everything when reporters enter.
Cheney was in shirt sleeves. His suit jacket was draped on the back of the chair facing him from the left side of his desk. He didn't put the jacket on because this was a radio interview and no one would see how he looked.
On first glance, he seemed pale but he assured me he was feeling fine. Of course, two days earlier, he underwent “minor surgery” to replace the cardio-defibrillator in his chest. The device monitors his heart rhythm and dispenses a shock should it stop or develop and irregular beat.
Otherwise he seemed in good spirits and ready to engage in a hard-news interview.
It was a target-rich environment. Cheney hadn’t done an interview in a couple of months — and much had happened to ask him about.
There were, among other issues:
Something about that last item was irresistible. It was a source of much idle speculation: What actions would Cheney take with the power of the presidency in his hands?
President Bush transferred presidential authority by invoking the 25th amendment for the time he was sedated and undergoing a colonoscopy.VP Dick Cheney On Gonzales, Libby, Iraq (13 Min.)
"Did you take any presidential actions during that time?" I asked Cheney.
"No," he said, but added, "I basically wrote a letter to my grandkids."
He said he thought it would be a nice "souvenir" for them to have: a letter from their grandfather which he briefly served as the nation’s Acting President.
But was he tempted to take any official actions during that time?
"No, I was not," he said simply.
Of course, I asked him about the situation in Iraq and the U.S. strategy there, and got familiar answers about how it was "absolutely essential" that the U.S. and its allies succeed there.
He couldn't say how long the surge in American forces would last. It would depend, he said, on the report in mid-September from the top U.S. commander there, Gen. David Petraeus.
Would the president’s strategy be any different if he were running for re-election next year? Cheney said he didn’t believe it would be.
Further, he conceded that the conduct of the war "may well" affect how Republicans fare in their efforts next year to retain the White House and win back control of Congress.
And though both he and President Bush have been vilified for their handling of the war, Cheney insisted that was not a factor in the strategy.
"He's made decisions because he thinks it's the right thing to do for the nation," he said of Mr. Bush. "He has not worried about the polls or what his critics may be saying about him."
The one question that got a laugh out of Cheney concerned the squabble among the two top Democratic presidential candidates.
Sen. Barack Obama last week ridiculed Sen. Hillary Clinton by calling her "Bush-Cheney Lite" for saying she would not be willing to meet in her first year in office with the leaders of North Korea, Iran, Cuba, or other rogue states.
"I didn't think that was meant to be a compliment," said Cheney, "but it was an interesting line of attack."
Cheney, like President Bush, leaves office in less than 18 months. He told me he has no second thoughts about deciding not to run for president himself. And he'll have no regrets about leaving public office in January 2009.
He said he's been involved in Washington for upwards of 40 years — and "that’s long enough."
By Mark Knoller
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Add a Comment See all 11 Comments
- It shows that crime does pay in America, particularly in politics. Cheney is the epitome of all that is bad in American politics and American politicians.
- Reply to this comment
- My apologies for the mulitple postings.
- Reply to this comment
- OK. What is it, weldon_b?
And it%u2019s no wonder the whole world is fascinated by elections in the USA, since the outcome will change everybody%u2019s life in one way or another.
Will we have a continuation of conventional warfare, by taking it to the enemy and thus, effectively, keeping him away from us? Or, on the other hand, will we wait and see what 'new and improved' contraption they are able to deliver, all the way home?
I think conventional methods of persuasion ought to be given a real chance of success, there will be plenty of time to try other avenues if all else fails.
Posted by Amazedd at 02:45 PM : Jul 31, 2007 - Reply to this comment
- Talk about gutless reporting. Knoller would have served us much better if he had the cajones to ask the VP how it is that outing a CIA agent isn't treason. Oh, but I guess that's off the table now because Bush said it was "time to move on"
- Reply to this comment
- Your characterization of Bush and Cheney as having been "demonized and vilified" in connection with their Iraq policy was a glaringly inappropriate comment in an otherwise inoffensive, if pointless, interview. The pair are being harshly but rightly criticised for a policy which has cost hundreds of billions of dollars, thousands of US lives and tens if not hundreds of thousands of Iraqi ones, and has created a massive humanitarian crisis inside Iraq while sending nearly 20% of the population into internal or external exile. The administration's own experts acknowledge that the invasion and occupation have seriously eroded our national security by, among other things, resuscitating al Qaeda.
When you characterize criticism of a policy with uniformly and deeply negative results as "vilification," you assert that Cheney and Bush are being treated unfairly, which is hardly a professional stance.
Further, you neglected to press Cheney on why he complied for two years with the executive order on handling classified material and then decided to cease doing so. And some of us would have appreciated a question following up on the New York Times assertion that it was Cheney who sent Gonzales and Card to Ashcroft's hospital bedside for whatever purpose was behind the visit.
Altogether a weak effort. - Reply to this comment
- And it%u2019s no wonder the whole world is fascinated by elections in the USA, since the outcome will change everybody%u2019s life in one way or another.
Will we have a continuation of conventional warfare, by taking it to the enemy and thus, effectively, keeping him away from us. Or, on the other hand, will we wait and see what 'new and improved' contraption they are able to deliver, all the way home?
I think conventional methods of persuasion ought to be given a real chance of success, there will be plenty of time to try other avenues if all else fails. - Reply to this comment
- Your characterization of Bush and Cheney as having been "demonized and vilified" in connection with their Iraq policy was a glaringly inappropriate comment in an otherwise inoffensive, if pointless, interview. The pair are being harshly but rightly criticised for a policy which has cost hundreds of billions of dollars, thousands of US lives and tens if not hundreds of thousands of Iraqi ones, and has created a massive humanitarian crisis inside Iraq while sending nearly 20% of the population into internal or external exile. The administration's own experts acknowledge that the invasion and occupation have seriously eroded our national security by, among other things, resuscitating al Qaeda.
When you characterize criticism of a policy with uniformly and deeply negative results as "vilification," you assert that Cheney and Bush are being treated unfairly, which is hardly a professional stance.
Further, you neglected to press Cheney on why he complied for two years with the executive order on handling classified material and then decided to cease doing so. And some of us would have appreciated a question following up on the New York Times assertion that it was Cheney who sent Gonzales and Card to Ashcroft's hospital bedside for whatever purpose was behind the visit.
Altogether a weak effort. - Reply to this comment
- Your characterization of Bush and Cheney as having been "demonized and vilified" in connection with their Iraq policy was a glaringly inappropriate comment in an otherwise inoffensive, if pointless, interview. The pair are being harshly but rightly criticised for a policy which has cost hundreds of billions of dollars, thousands of US lives and tens if not hundreds of thousands of Iraqi ones, and has created a massive humanitarian crisis inside Iraq while sending nearly 20% of the population into internal or external exile. The administration's own experts acknowledge that the invasion and occupation have seriously eroded our national security by, among other things, resuscitating al Qaeda.
When you characterize criticism of a policy with uniformly and deeply negative results as "vilification," you assert that Cheney and Bush are being treated unfairly, which is hardly a professional stance.
Further, you neglected to press Cheney on why he complied for two years with the executive order on handling classified material and then decided to cease doing so. And some of us would have appreciated a question following up on the New York Times assertion that it was Cheney who sent Gonzales and Card to Ashcroft's hospital bedside for whatever purpose was behind the visit.
Altogether a weak effort. - Reply to this comment
- letter to grandkids:
"Who's your daddy?" - Reply to this comment
- Cheney, like President Bush, leaves office in less than 18 months. He told me he has no second thoughts about deciding not to run for president himself. And he'll have no regrets about leaving public office in January 2009.
He will move to Dubai to avoid prosecution for crimes against humanity. He will have millions of stolen Halliburton money to live off of, and all the little boys his bionic heart can stand. - Reply to this comment
- Keep feelin' fascination ...
- Reply to this comment
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