Colin Powell Blasts Cheney's 'Cheap Shots'

By Josh Boak, Politico

28 August 11

ormer Secretary of State Colin Powell on Sunday fired back at swipes former Vice President Dick Cheney has taken at other members of the Bush administration in his new biography.

Cheney has been promoting the book as being loaded with revelations that would make the heads of readers explode, but Powell said on CBS's "Face the Nation" that many disclosures seemed to be "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 took particular umbrage at Cheney's claim he felt more comfortable expressing his views to the public than President George W. Bush, as the book brings to the surface bitterness over the 2003 decision to invade Iraq.

"The president knows that I told him what I thought about every issue of the day," Powell said. "Cheney may forget that I'm the one who said to President Bush, 'If you break it, you own it.' And you have got to understand that if we have to go to war in Iraq, we have to be prepared for the whole war, not just the first phase. And Mr. Cheney and many of his colleagues did not prepare for what happened after the fall of Baghdad."

Powell disputed the claim from the book "In My Time" that Cheney had pushed him out in 2004, saying that's when he had intended to leave.

The retired Army general, who had also served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described the administration as dysfunctional at the time of his departure.

"It was clear by 2004 that the team was not functioning as a team," Powell said. "And we had different views, and not just views, not views that could be reconciled. And so I said to the president that I would be leaving at the end of the year, after the election, and he ought to take a look at his whole team to try to resolve all these issues."

Cheney also levels in his book some condescending criticism at Condoleezza Rice, Powell's successor as secretary of state, and former CIA Director George Tenet, Powell noted.

Powell said he doesn't object to Cheney noting the disagreements that existed among administration officials but he dislikes that the former vice president is marketing the inner workings of the Bush presidency with the verve of a supermarket tabloid.

"It's not necessary to take these kinds of barbs and then try to pump a book up by saying, 'Heads will be exploding'" Powell said. "I think it's a bit too far. I think Dick overshot the runway with that kind of comment, if that's how he plans to sell his book."

Powell famously broke with the GOP in 2008 to endorse Barack Obama for president, but he declined on Sunday to say who he will support in 2012.

"I haven't decided who I'm going to vote for," he said. "Just as was the case in 2008, I am going to watch the campaign unfold. In the course of my life, I have voted for Democrats, I have voted for Republicans, I have changed from one four-year cycle to another and I've always felt it my responsibility as a citizen to take a look at the issues, examine the candidates and pick the person that I think is best qualified for the office of the president in that year."