Cheney: Not happy we 'left Scooter sort of hanging'
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/03/15/cheney8.jpg
caption="Photo Credit: Josh Rubin/CNN."]WASHINGTON (CNN) - Former Vice President Dick Cheney told CNN Sunday that former President George W. Bush should have pardoned former side I. Scooter "Lewis" Libby, and that he was unhappy his former chief of staff had been left "sort of hanging in the wind."
Bush had turned down Cheney's request for a Libby pardon. "Well, it was - it was one of the moments that occurred in the administration where we had fundamental difference of opinion," Cheney told John King on State of the Union. "I believe firmly that Scooter was unjustly accused and prosecuted and deserved a pardon, and the president disagreed with that."
King asked whether any of the discussions had been angry or tense ones, or involved shouting. "Those kinds of details, I think, are best left to history," replied Cheney. "Maybe I'll write about it in my book."
Cheney is writing an as-yet untitled memoir about his four decades in Washington.
He told King he and the president had spoken by phone three times in the past few weeks, and that the two men had "built a very solid, lasting relationship" - although he remained unhappy with Bush's decision on Libby. "I was clearly not happy that we, in effect, left Scooter sort of hanging in the wind, which I didn't think was appropriate. I think he's an innocent man who deserves a pardon," he said.
Cheney also defended Rush Limbaugh from charges by some conservative commentators that the radio host was electoral "kryptonite."
"Rush is a good friend. I love him," Cheney told King. "I think he does great work and has for years. He's now offered to debate President Obama on his radio show. Hell, I'd pay to see that! It would be interesting to have developed. I think Rush is a good man and serves a very important purpose."
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Scooter should not have been left sort of hanging – instead- Cheney should've been hung.... ::))
Why in GOD'S NAME ARE WE LISTENING TO DICK FRIGGIN' CHENEY!! No one cares what he has to say. And what is up w/ all these Cheney posts, CNN????
The whole bush bunch deserves to be in prison, not now but right now!
I see we have so many lousy liberals commenting. Libby did nothing wrong it was aDemocRAT that should have gone to jail.
Clinton should have been in jail with Hillary with so many crooks in the Senate. Just look at your Presidents cabinet, you must be sooooo very proud.
I love Cheney and the fact that you liberals hate him is very comforting to me!
Mr. Cheney is wetting his pants worrying about Scooter revealing Cheney's secret doings in the disgraced White House!!! He is afraid that the truth will be revealed about HIS (Cheney's) secretive, sneaky dealings and underhanded lying to the American people and HE will go to jail if Scooter Boy is still angry with him for not getting him a pardon!!! Cheney is scared to death of Scooter's vengeance!!!!
Bush, unlike Cheney, actually has a conscience. However, Bush lacks the intellect to make sound decisions on his own, so he relied on his soul-less, unethical, Machiavellian Vice President far too often for guidance.
Toward the end of his tenure, Bush finally realized that Cheney had been steering him down a path toward tyranny all those years, and so he gradually veered away from his VP's recommendations.
I resent CNN for giving this psychopath a platform from which to attack his successor. To listen to his justifications is sickening. My stomach turned to again see and hear this architect of greed, destruction & mayhem... People are starting to refer to Fox News and CNN in the same breath... Now I see why.
I see we have so many lousy liberals commenting. Libby did nothing wrong it was aDemocRAT that should have gone to jail.
Clinton should have been in jail with Hillary with so many crooks in the Senate. Just look at your Presidents cabinet, you must be sooooo very proud.
I love Cheney and the fact that you liberals hate him is very comforting to me!
Now we have a clown as a Vice President and worse in the Oval Office!
Who cares what this toad of a war-criminal has to say?
It's all about justifying their indefensible behavior during the preceding 8 years ...
I suspect this unsavory bunch secretly is rooting for another domestic terrorist attack. They operate best when the American people are frightened. Remember those riduculous color codes during the 2004 election?
Each and every one of you from the Bush administration should be getting buggered daily in the worst prison we have. You are scum.