Bush '41 unloads: Unsparing critique of Cheney, Rumsfeld

[webfact]

Bush '41 unloads: Unsparing critique of Cheney, Rumsfeld
By NANCY BENAC

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President George H. W. Bush has finally revealed what he really thinks of his son's presidency, faulting George W. Bush for setting an abrasive tone on the world stage and failing to rein in hawkish Vice President Dick Cheney and former Defense chief Donald Rumsfeld.

In a years-long series of interviews with biographer Jon Meacham, the elder Bush frowned on the sometimes "hot rhetoric" of George W. Bush, saying such language may get headlines "but it doesn't necessarily solve the diplomatic problem."

The elder Bush faulted Cheney and Rumsfeld for their "iron-ass" views, calling Rumsfeld an "arrogant fellow" and saying Cheney had changed markedly from the days when he served in the first Bush administration.

As vice president, Cheney "had his own empire there and marched to his own drummer," the elder Bush said, adding: "He just became very hard-line and very different from the Dick Cheney I knew and worked with."

Ultimately, the elder Bush assigned fault to his son for Cheney's over-reach and for fostering a global impression of American inflexibility.

"It's not Cheney's fault, it's the president's fault," the elder Bush said. "The buck stops there."

For all of that, though, the elder Bush did not suggest that he disagreed with his son's decision to invade Iraq, saying Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein "is gone, and with him went a lot of brutality and nastiness and awfulness."

The assessments are contained in Meacham's 800-plus page "Destiny and Power," the fullest account yet of Bush, the only modern ex-president not to write a full-length memoir. Meacham, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his Andrew Jackson biography "American Lion," draws on Bush's diaries and on interviews he conducted with Bush from 2006-2015. The book is being publicly released on Tuesday.

Jeb Bush, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, said he hadn't read the book but he showed no inclination to echo his father's criticisms.

"My thought was that Dick Cheney served my dad really well," Bush said in an Associated Press interview Thursday in New Hampshire. "As vice president, he served my brother really well. Different eras. Different times."

George W. Bush, too, was measured in his reaction, saying in a statement that he was "proud to have served with Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld. Dick Cheney did a superb job as vice president, and I was fortunate to have him by my side throughout my presidency. Don Rumsfeld ably led the Pentagon and was an effective secretary of defense."

In the book, George W. Bush was asked about his father's criticisms of his own language and allowed that his rhetoric had been "pretty strong." But he was unrepentant on that count.

"They understood me in Midland," he said, referring to the Texas town where he was raised.

The elder Bush, for his part, said he wasn't sure what had changed Cheney, but added that he thought the Sept. 11 attacks had made him more hawkish about the use of U.S. military force abroad.

"Just iron-ass," the elder Bush said. "His seeming knuckling under to the real hard-charging guys who want to fight about everything, use force to get our way in the Middle East.

The elder Bush also speculated that the views of the vice president's wife, Lynne, and daughter Liz may have contributed to Cheney's rightward turn.

"Lynne Cheney is a lot of the eminence grise here — iron-ass, tough as nails, driving," Bush said. "But I don't know." He said daughter Liz Cheney also was "tough" and influential in her father's administration.

As for Rumsfeld, Bush said he had "served the president badly. I don't like what he did, and I think it hurt the president having his iron-ass view of everything."

"There's a lack of humility, a lack of seeing what the other guy thinks,' Bush said of Rumsfeld. "He's more kick ass and take names, take numbers. I think he paid a price for that."

Rumsfeld responded in a statement: "Bush 41 is getting up in years and misjudges Bush 43, who I found made his own decisions."

Emails and phone calls to several contacts for the Cheney family were not immediately returned. But Meacham gave Cheney a chance to respond in the book to Bush's criticisms. Meacham wrote that Cheney smiled and murmured "fascinating" after reading a transcript of Bush's comments.

"No question I was much harder-line after 9-11," Cheney said, adding that the younger Bush wanted him to play a significant role on national security.

"I do disagree with his putting it on Lynne and Liz," he added.

The book suggests that Jeb Bush isn't the only member of the current presidential field who has long had an interest in the White House. The elder Bush writes that when he was a presidential candidate in 1988, Donald Trump made an overture to be his vice presidential candidate, an idea that Bush found "strange and unbelievable."

Bush also traces his own evolution in thinking about gay marriage, writing: "Personally, I still believe in traditional marriage. But people should be able to do what they want to do, without discrimination. People have a right to be happy. I guess you could say I have mellowed."
___

Associated Press writers Hillel Italie in New York and Thomas Beaumont in New Hampshire contributed to this report.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-11-06

[EnzoRippo]

Nixon resigned for microphones, Clinton had problems for a casual blowjob but Bush had never been worried! He's fully responsible of the mess in Irak and the creation of IS. Nowadays every body know and recognize this simple fact. So why Bush can just walk freely without been questionned? Cheney's wife was ot the President of the United States, sorry.

[Rancid]

Perhaps disassociating from feral neocons to give Jeb some deniability in his sinking campaign?

[DaddyWarbucks]

Perhaps disassociating from feral neocons to give Jeb some deniability in his sinking campaign?

Exactly.

It's all about Jeb and his faltering political campaign.

[connda]

Great job of distancing yourself HW. Know something we don't?

[Briggsy]

Note the timing and the coverage. They know now the legacy of Dubya has left Jeb lagging in the polls and possibly unelectable.

Response : It was all that dastardly Cheney's fault and his evil sidekick Rumsfeld.

[freebyrd]

Perhaps disassociating from feral neocons to give Jeb some deniability in his sinking campaign?

Exactly.

It's all about Jeb and his faltering political campaign.

I must have missed that, he has a campaign?! To me he looks like a one legged man at a bum kicking contest.

[GOLDBUGGY]

Bush 41 can say what he likes but history tells us he failed to win the public's support even after the Gulf War and failed to be re-elected for a second term as President.

Bush 43, on the other hand, with Cheney and Rumsfield by his side did win re-election and served 2 terms in office.

So what really needs to be questioned is who really had the worst advisers by his side? Bush 41 or Bush 43? As he said: "The Buck stops their".

[silent]

Nixon resigned for microphones, Clinton had problems for a casual blowjob but Bush had never been worried! He's fully responsible of the mess in Irak and the creation of IS. Nowadays every body know and recognize this simple fact. So why Bush can just walk freely without been questionned? Cheney's wife was ot the President of the United States, sorry.

He's just warning people that from a formidable CIA career he's aware the presidency has been plagued with war mongering tricky dickey's for years. Best be cautious of people hiding among the bushes, but vote for Jeb for the next period because y'all need a hat trick to get out of the messes #2 created by letting Cheney and Rumsfeld score with their stories about WMD's for their own gains.

It's not that hard seeing his subliminally coded massage, even without one of Georgey's special decoder ring prizes out of a Lucky Charms box.

[elgordo38]

Perhaps disassociating from feral neocons to give Jeb some deniability in his sinking campaign?

Jeb has reworked his campaign. Its no longer called "Just call me Jeb" now it is "Jeb can fix it" I hope his metamorphosis now is finished as he seems to be done like dinner. I still think everybody was sold a bill of goods on how 9/11 transpired sorry just to many variables existed Cheney in charge of Norad Norad shut down. the third tower falling for no reason actually the other two by definition from world class engineers should have stood up. If you look at events since then it seems to be the catalyst the brought on the NSA the Patriot act spying on Americans and the circumventing of the Constitution. America is now in a police state mode. This is exactly what the elite in America want yes there are elite in America.

[JHolmesJr]

Bunch of tossers all the Bushes.

Who can forget 43's immortal line…"this guy tried to kill my dad…"

[FangFerang]

It's all deflection. they are trying to distance Jeb (Gomer Pyle) from Iraq, and it is not going to work.

They have all the same political backers and friends.

I am not buying it.

I would not even rent it.

Bush the Lesser slaughtered innocent children, women, dogs, cats and men under a false flag of WMDs.

No amount of spin will ever make that palatable.

[TomJoad]

The timing of this probably has less to do with Jeb than it does the father getting older and preparing to meet his maker. 41 probably wants one last chance to for everyone to "read my lips".

[Credo]

I did not care much for Bush 41, but I did respect him. He put together a coalition to extricate Kuwait and he listened to that coalition about marching to Baghdad. Not going all the way to Baghdad was a mistake, IMO, but when you have partners, you have to listen and he did.

Bush 43 was just a dismal failure and probably set the US back 30 years and seriously damaged the credibility of the country on the world stage. Many of the current problems can be traced back to 43's misguided policies.

[Chicog]

I did not care much for Bush 41, but I did respect him. He put together a coalition to extricate Kuwait and he listened to that coalition about marching to Baghdad. Not going all the way to Baghdad was a mistake

Actually I think history has proven that *going* all the way to Baghdad was the mistake.

Not that Bush or Cheney worried, them and their mates made fortunes out of it.

[connda]

Note the timing and the coverage. They know now the legacy of Dubya has left Jeb lagging in the polls and possibly unelectable.

Response : It was all that dastardly Cheney's fault and his evil sidekick Rumsfeld.

“There's an old saying in Tennessee.....<stammering>...I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee......that says, fool me once <stammer>, shame on..... shame on you. <again stammering> Fool me....<silence>......you can't get fooled again.”

― George W. Bush

Dubya was never the sharpest tack in the box. Plausible deniability. Dumb as a box of hammers, so HW 'Dad' steps in: "Blame it on Cheney and Rumsfeld." Dubya was well suited to be a baseball team owner. Then the Peter Principle took over.

[connda]

I did not care much for Bush 41, but I did respect him. He put together a coalition to extricate Kuwait and he listened to that coalition about marching to Baghdad. Not going all the way to Baghdad was a mistake, IMO, but when you have partners, you have to listen and he did.

Bush 43 was just a dismal failure and probably set the US back 30 years and seriously damaged the credibility of the country on the world stage. Many of the current problems can be traced back to 43's misguided policies.

Unfortunately, the Nobel Peace Prize Winner, "I'm really good at killing people"¹, Obama, is riding that same horse and pretty much whipping it into a frenzy.

¹ Double Down: Game Change 2012

- by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann

[bendejo]

Dubya was never the sharpest tack in the box. Plausible deniability. Dumb as a box of hammers, so HW 'Dad' steps in: "Blame it on Cheney and Rumsfeld." Dubya was well suited to be a baseball team owner. Then the Peter Principle took over.

Look a little closer. HW says 43 was at fault for not keeping his people (Cheney and Rummy) under control. Spank-spank, junior!

I think he's playing to history. He's 91, in bad shape (in all the recent pics I've seen of him in the past 3 days he's in a wheelchair), and he knows it. If he has something to say, now's the time. From the excerpts I've seen HW seems to be stressing he was not a neocan and had no such leanings. On the other hand Jeb already said he was getting advice from the same neocon cabal, so maybe papa is trying to get a message through to him.

If he dies before his wife some interesting stuff may come from her. After he was out of office, Nixon (who was officially told it was time to leave by HW, who was RNC chairman at the time) said that HW was a decent guy, but his wife is a ...

On the other hand, she would never say something so candid about her issue publicly. I once heard her say that W was "a perfect child." It's seems that in both House of Bush and Casa Cheney it's the wives that wear the pants, and with Cheney daughter Liz is 2nd in command.

Edited November 7, 2015 by bendejo

[mca]

Youtube Dave Chappelle Black Bush for an" alternative" view of the Iraqi War