Condi Rice fires back at Dick Cheney
The heads are still exploding from former vice president Dick Cheney's recently published memoir.
The latest blow-up, on Wednesday, came from former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Rice spoke out against several claims about her in Cheney鈥檚 book, 鈥淚n My Time: A Personal and Professional Memoir,鈥� saying that she viewed it as an 鈥渁ttack on my integrity.鈥�
In Wednesday, Rice protested Cheney鈥檚 suggestion that she had misled President George W. Bush about nuclear diplomacy
with North Korea.
"I kept the president fully and completely informed about every in and out of the negotiations with the North Koreans," in her first public comments on the matter. "You can talk about policy differences without suggesting that your colleague somehow misled the president. You know, I don't appreciate the attack on my integrity that that implies."
In the book, Cheney argues former Secretary of State Rice was na茂ve for trying to reach a nuclear weapons agreement with North Korea and that the concessions she delivered to Kim Jong Il were wrong. He called her advice on the issue 鈥渦tterly misleading.鈥�
Cheney was also extremely critical in the book of anyone who he said stood in the way of the president鈥檚 Iraq war plan, including Rice. He chided Rice for clashing with White House advisors on the tone of the president鈥檚 speeches on Iraq.
Rice disputed a passage in Cheney鈥檚 books concerning her reaction to Bush鈥檚 comments on Iraq鈥檚 supposed search for uranium for nuclear arms in a 2003 State of the Union speech. In the memoir, Cheney says the secretary of state "tearfully admitted" that the Bush administration should not have apologized for a claim the president made in his 2003 State of the Union address on the supposed search for uranium.
She 鈥渃ame into my office, sat down in the chair next to my desk, and tearfully admitted I had been right,鈥� Cheney wrote in the book.
Rice fired back in the Reuters interview.
"It certainly doesn't sound like me, now, does it?" Rice said. "I would never 鈥� I don't remember coming to the vice president tearfully about anything in the entire eight years that I knew him."
Rice isn鈥檛 the first Bush aide to fire back at Cheney鈥檚 controversial book. Her predecessor, former secretary of state Colin Powell, vigorously contested several of the book鈥檚 claims earlier this week, saying the disclosures were 鈥渃heap shots that [Cheney is] taking at me and other members of the administration who served to the best of our ability for President Bush.鈥�
Cheney has refused to apologize for any of the claims his colleagues are now contesting.
The president himself commented on the book Thursday, but he remained above the fray, telling 鈥�Fox and Friends,鈥� he isn鈥檛 bothered by Cheney鈥檚 memoir.
鈥淚鈥檓 glad members of my family are giving their version of what it was like to serve our country,鈥� Bush told Fox. 鈥淚 did the same thing. I put my version out there. And eventually, objective historians will analyze our administration and will draw objective conclusions.鈥�
Rice will have plenty of opportunity to fire back at Cheney this fall. Her book, 鈥淣o Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington,鈥� comes out November 1.
Husna Haq is a Monitor correspondent.
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