Believe it or not, Dick Cheney has been accused of being somewhat untrustworthy.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke out yesterday about some of the claims made in Cheney’s memoir, In My Time . Quite amusingly, Powell seems to be using the “shots” imagery quite frequently in his own critique of Cheney- who, along with sour demeanor also attracted attention during his Vice-Presidency for accidentally shooting an elderly man in the face while hunting quail.
According to Powell, Cheney has taken a bit of liberty with history and lobbed unfair critique at cabinet-members like Powell and Condoleezza Rice who served under Bush. Powell implied he was disappointed with the way events had been presented in the book and suggested the claims were unfair. He chides:
“Mr. Cheney has had a long and distinguished career and I hope in his book that’s what he will focus on, not these cheap shots that he’s taking at me and other members of the administration who served to the best of our ability for President Bush.”
Powell also took aim at Cheney’s marketing of the memoir during the Sunday edition of Face the Nation :
“My head isn’t exploding and I haven’t noticed any other heads exploding in Washington, D.C… I don’t see any heads laying on the street.”
Cheney contended In My Time would be the cause of “heads exploding,” to which Powell scoffed:
“There’s nothing wrong with saying you disagree, but it’s not necessary to take these kinds of barbs and then try to pump a book up by saying heads will be exploding… Dick overshot the runway with that type of comment.”
To which Powell should have added, “and do you guys remember when he shot that old guy in the face?” Powell’s frustration seems to stem in part from what he feels is an attempt by Cheney to pawn off some of the administration’s large mistakes- including going to the UN with false information about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the embarrassing, retaliatory outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame- on other cabinet-members.
