Report: Cheney Felt Bush Ignored Advice

(CBS/AP)  Former Vice President Dick Cheney believes his old boss, President George W. Bush, gradually turned away from his advice during their second term in the White House, showing a surprising independence as he started taking more flexible positions on a range of issues, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

Cheney, often described as the most influential vice president in U.S. history, has been discussing his years in office in informal talks with authors, diplomats, policy experts and past colleagues, the Post said, as he works on a memoir due out in 2011 from Simon & Schuster's Threshold Editions.

The book will reportedly criticize President Bush for wavering in the face of mounting public criticism of his policies in his second term.

"We have the vice president telling friends that toward the end of the eight years that the president went soft, that he wasn't tough enough on their policies. And that's been the vice president's complaint since they got out. The [former] president hasn't been out there taking the bullet," Mike Allen, chief political correspondent for Politico, said on CBS' "The Early Show" Thursday.

Robert Barnett, who negotiated Cheney's book contract, passed word to potential publishers that the memoir would be packed with news, said the article published on the Post Web site, and Cheney himself has said, without explanation, that "the statute of limitations has expired" on many of his secrets.

The book will cover Cheney's long career from chief of staff under President Gerald Ford to vice president under Bush.

"When the president made decisions that I didn't agree with, I still supported him and didn't go out and undercut him," Cheney said, according to Stephen Hayes, his authorized biographer. "Now we're talking about after we've left office. I have strong feelings about what happened. ... And I don't have any reason not to forthrightly express those views."

According to the author of the Post piece, Barton Gellman, who earlier wrote a book on Cheney called "Angler," the former vice president believes Bush made concessions to public sentiment, something Cheney views as moral weakness. After years of praising Bush as a man of resolve, Cheney now intimates that the former president turned out to be more like an ordinary politician in the end, Gellman says.

"In the second term, he felt Bush was moving away from him," Gellman quoted a participant in the recent gathering, describing Cheney's reply. "He said Bush was shackled by the public reaction and the criticism he took. Bush was more malleable to that. The implication was that Bush had gone soft on him, or rather Bush had hardened against Cheney's advice. He'd showed an independence that Cheney didn't see coming."

The Post quoted John P. Hannah, Cheney's second-term national security adviser, as saying Cheney remains driven, now as before, by the possibility of terrorists obtaining nuclear weapons from a nation hostile to the U.S.

What is new, Hannah said, is Cheney's readiness to acknowledge "doubts about the main channels of American policy during the last few years," a period encompassing most of Bush's second term.

According to Allen, however, Cheney's book may end up helping Bush's public image.

"I think one thing we can agree about this is good for President Bush - when you have Dick Cheney out there saying you weren't crazy enough. That's probably good for his rehabilitation."

[bciss]

Dick Cheney is a psychopath. Pure and simple. Not the movie version. He is a being unlike average people. He lacks completely any moral or ethical barometer. Has absolutely no conscience and views empathy as a weakness to be exploited. Though more shrewd and vile in his nature, he is really not worse then Bush. Both should be in prison. Bush was only smart enough towards the end as the not to bright but survivor type he is,, to back away from the hard line psychotic stance his admin took. Which frankly was only a show anyway. That is not to say the current admin is any better. Just more charming and reads a teleprompter better. The fundamentals have changed very little. That is a fact, not the bs shell game politicians and big business continue to play. Good cop, bad cop. It matters not, they all play for the same team. This world needs to wake up to the very real fact of psychopaths in power. If one does even a half serious attempt at research into the subject and what they really are and do? This increasingly insane, nonsensical world we find ourselves suddenly makes a lot more sense. Horrifying, but makes sense. An ugly truth is better then a beautiful lie. Those lies our rotting our very foundations and we will find ourselves far worse off. If we do not push back and peacefully remove the psychotic influence on our society.

[karenbe111]

If true (and how can you believe anything a Republican says anymore?), this would be the first positive thing said about Bush...that he actually began to question his totally wrong policies!

[geminispyder-2009]

"According to the author of the Post piece, Barton Gellman, who earlier wrote a book on Cheney called "Angler," the former vice president believes Bush made concessions to public sentiment, something Cheney views as moral weakness."

Yeah, Cheney. The way a democratically-elected government is supposed to work is that the government listens to the people they represent.

Of course, Cheney didn't not get that lesson in Exploit-the-Public-for-Halliburton's-Gain Class.

[1notrub11]

by hower4 August 13, 2009 11:33 AM EDT
Again, as above - Why is the proportion of civilian casualties in your wars in Iraq and Afghanistan many times more than in WWII? I say it's because Americans don't care who they kill. What do you say?

I think it is because the cowards that are fighting on the Taliban side are hiding amongst the civilian population and/or using them as shields in the primary case and, in limited situations, are in fact supported by some of the civilian population in the secondary case. In fact, at least some evidence these days would point to the fact that the civilians have had enough of Taliban repression.

You throw out numbers - without reference - do you have one
to show the claim you make regarding the stats on WWII. Or is it an unsubstantiated point to support your feeling?

[pvperson3]

So I guess Cheney didn't think Bush was Nazi enough.

[lovegetpeace]

Can someone please check Cheney's DNA, Ancestry, Ancestry, Genealogy and Family History to see if he is related to Adolf Hitler?

[lovegetpeace]

by the_majesty August 13, 2009 7:02 AM EDT
History will show that President Bush was one of the Greatest Presidents of all times. At one time he held the highest approval rating of any President. His approval rating fell under democrat attack but, history will show he was one of the greatest.

Hey the_majestry,

Are you taking about Bush Senior - President #41? Please clarify!

[lovegetpeace]

If Cheney is seeking to get even with Bush for not pardoning Libby, then wait when Bush fights back!!! I cannot wait man - history in the making!

[lovegetpeace]

Listening to Cheney's secrets is more fun than listening to Rush Limburgh's Lies!

[lovegetpeace]

Unbelievable, Cheney wants to get even with Bush for not pardoning his pal Libby. This needs to be made into a movie - it will break all time money making records.