ideals. bret: dick cheney did not. they ve chosen a different path giving into the angry left. slandering people who did a hard job very well. all the zeal decked at the interrogations is misplaced. the white house must stop dithering while america s armed forces are in danger. bret: you were cheering on vice president cheney? you bet, finally. somebody spoke up and spoke the truth, absolutely. bret: were you surprised by how vigorous he was standing up for your administration? not really. he wasn t personal and he wasn t vicious. he was very dick cheneyesque, thoughtful, measured and logical. what the obama people are doing is saying we don t need those tough policies that we had. that says either they didn t work, which we know is not the case, they did work, they kept us safe for seven years. or now somehow the threat has
not very damn many. bret: bush had sky high approval ratings following the gulf war. a sluggish economy made those numbers palm mit. bush s son thought he would have a better better chance against clinton if his dad changed the bottom of the ticket. you suggested to your dad that he replace quayle with cheney? i thought he needed to make a big change to change the dynamics of what looked like a very difficult campaign. one suggestion was maybe you ought to think about cheney. dad dismissed it out of hand. bret: george h.w. bush lost to bill clinton for the third time in cheney s career his boss was forced from office. what next? cheney was starting to see himself as presidential timber. that story, when we come back. luck? i don t trade on luck. i trade on fundamentals. analysis. information.
6 in 10 feel it was a mistake to go to war. we didn t get elected to be popular. our mission is to do everything we can to prevail in what is now we believe a global conflict, fundamental test of the character of the american people. whether or not we are going to prevail against one of the most evil opponents we ve ever faced. bret: i guess the question most americans have is how much is enough? any casualty is regrettable. we need not to fold our tent and go home. go we do that we validate the strategy. bret: when the bipartisan iraq study group recommended a phased withdrawal in december 2006. cheney thought i was a horrible idea. he backed instead president bush s plan to send more troops to defeat the terrorists. and the surge worked. in bush s second term, cheney hardly won every argument. the administration began an
constitution, to them, his secret service code name, angler was all too accurate. he loved fishing saying you re the angler in more ways than one. is there truth to that? well, the secret service gave us a code name. so the code name i had in the ford administration was back seat. maybe i should go back to that one. as 2004 election approached, cheney was willing to do more than take a back seat. he was willing to step aside for a new running mate. he offered to step down in 2003. he did. i was impressed that the vice president, during election would say if you think you can strengthen the ticket i will move on, no hard feelings. it s a noble gesture on his part. every vice president ought to do that for the president. you gave the thought? of course, absolutely. i thought about it. decided not it didn t make
controversy. cheney puts together a task force which included a lot of energy industry types. there were a series of lawsuits to have these records and the meetings paid public. cheney resisted. i ve been around town for 34 years. time after time, administrations have traded away the authority of the president to do his job. we are not going to do that. bret: the issue went to court. atington now council to the vice president. we were counsel to the vice president. we were polite, no it is not your person how recommendations are formed and given to the president. we won that in court and they chose not to appeal. bret: politically, it was a minor scrape. it showed good or bad, cheney was not a man to give into public pressure. soon the white house and cheney would be tested as