Washington (CNN) – Former President George W. Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney met Thursday - the first time they two had seen each other since the inauguration of President Barack Obama over a year ago, officials for the two men tell CNN.
Bush and Cheney met Thursday afternoon for about an hour over coffee at Cheney's residence outside Washington, a spokesman for the former vice president tells CNN.
Cheney is recuperating at home after suffering a mild heart attack earlier this week.
The former president is in town for a reunion breakfast of the Bush Cheney Alumni Association set for Friday morning.
Spokesmen for both men did not provide any further details of the meeting.
The two men have talked on the phone during the last year. "We talk on the telephone periodically," Cheney told ABC's "This Week" program two weeks ago.
Their first meeting had been scheduled to occur at the reunion Friday. It is unclear now if Cheney will be attending that event.
In the past year as Cheney has taken the lead in defending Bush administration actions, some differences that occurred between himself and the president have come to light.
One is Bush's decision not to pardon the vice president's former chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, after he was found guilty of lying about the leaking of the name of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame. Bush did commute Libby's prison sentence, but Cheney has made it clear he thought there should have been a presidential pardon.
In his interview a few weeks ago, Cheney also said he disagreed with some of the decisions the administration made about how to treat some terrorism detainees, saying he favored stronger measures than were ultimately endorsed.
"I can remember a meeting in the Roosevelt Room in the West Wing of the White House where we had a major shootout over how this was going to be handled between the Justice Department, that advocated that approach [criminal prosecutions], and many of the rest of us, who wanted to treat it as an intelligence matter, as an act of war with military commissions," Cheney said. "We never thoroughly or totally resolved those issues."
From CNN Politics
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
| Advertising practices | Advertise with us | About us | Work for us | Help
bush cheney alumni should be held in closest federal prison.thats where these morons belong. what are they going to celebrate how many young boys and girls died fighting a war in iraq that dumbfield thought up and dick went running with it.
why do we care these dead animals....messed this nation totally.....stop focussing these animals anymore...ok
I thought I smelled something rotten.
It's called the "last sip of coffee" because the number is 6.
How nice! And we need to know this why? Maybe they were planning strategy on how to continue to stay out of JAIL for their WAR CRIMES and the continuing murder of the Innocents!
Was this an attempt to get their stories straight for the court in their war crimes trial?
Too bad their reunion wasn't in Federal Prison for the war crimes they both committed. They could share a cell and talk about all that money they made in war profits.
Here's hoping Bush and Cheney will run again in 2012 for the sake of Democrats or maybe Bush can enlist the help of Sarah Palin as his VP in the event Cheney is unable to serve from an undisclosed location.
Discussing ways to avoid prison, no doubt...
Apart from each other for more than a year.
Hard not to see that Bush and Cheney are not really very close at all.
Politically they do not see eye to eye after all.
First time in over a year that they talk? That seems a bit messed up....
I wonder if Bush bowed before his Sith Master....
One of the few things that I give Bush credit for is that somewhere around 2006 or 2007, I think he finally figured out that Cheney is evil and stopped listening to him. What took him so long!
Cheney apparently confirms this in his book, but of course he thinks Bush was wrong to stop doing his evil bidding, predictably enough.
While Cheney has been sniping at Obama every chance he gets, Bush has been enjoying his retirement on the ranch, which may be the best decision he has ever made. He looks Presidential, while Cheney continues to devolve into some kind of cartoon supervillain.
Cheney looks right at home, and Bush's smile hasn't changed a bit.
I was worried he wouldn't make it. I sure hope he is still around to see President Obama sworn in for his second term!!!
Dude we're gettin the band back together...God help us!
Bush has enhibited class by staying out of Obama's presidency, unlike Killer Cheney. Does Cheney not know about Karma.
I'm suprised abit that they haven't been meeting each other. i wonder if there is any resentment on other side? If there is, I'd wager it was on Bush's side. Cheney seems to have taken a lot more power (or creditr both) than he was due.
Wow, a Bush/Cheney Alumni Association! Who knew?
Hopefully, future meetings will need to be held at Leavenworth.
How can a person comment favorably about the two biggest crooks that not only brought the American economy and lively hood of many people in and outside the U.S. to the brink of ruination. These two individuals should discuss with each other how lucky they are that they are not in jail. How many lives have been lost in war, and money made off their war and big business profiteering. News about these two should not be viewed in public. I for one, never want to hear, see, or read about them again.
Must be planning what they will do when they finally are charged with crimes against the United States.
Think Bush was a puppet. And Cheney is just pure evil.
Maybe Bush wants to remind Cheney that his old "ticker" is sending him a BIG warning to cool out and stop yapping off at the mouth.
Are they going to jail. I can only hope.
Reunions are usually held by schools.
this mus tbe a reunions of clown school.
Heavy is the lying heart. Cheney will be back in there in the near future. A person cannot life their entire political life in the lying mode without there being pressure on the heart, caused by subconsious knowledge that a persons very existence is false.