Cheney: Senator deserved the f-word

[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/12/21/art.cheney.dick.gi.jpg caption="Vice President Dick Cheney said he isn't sorry for calling a senator the f-word."]
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday that Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, deserved it when Cheney launched the f-word at him in 2004.

In an interview with "Fox News Sunday," Cheney was asked if he had any second thoughts or embarrassment. "No. I thought he merited it at the time," Cheney said, laughing.

The incident occurred in June 2004 when both Cheney and Leahy were on the Senate floor.

Sources who related the incident to CNN at the time said the vice president had told Leahy to either "f- off" or "go f- yourself."

Read more on the incident

The encounter during the 2004 presidential campaign, sources said then, was brought on by Leahy's criticism of the vice president over Halliburton Co. Cheney is the former chief executive officer of the oil field services company, and Democrats had suggested he helped win lucrative contracts for his former firm while serving in the Bush administration.

"It was partly that, it was partly also ... it had to do with - he is the kind of individual who will make those kinds of charges and then come act as though he's your best friend, and I expressed in no uncertain terms my views of his conduct and walked away," Cheney said at the time.

But as the old saying goes, time heals all wounds ... well, sort of.

"And we've since, I think, patched over that wound and we're civil to one another now," Cheney said this Sunday.