Bush 41 rips Cheney, Rumsfeld
On Dick Cheney
Bush told Meacham he thought that the famously influential vice president carved out "his own empire" in the White House "and marched to his own drummer." Bush felt that Cheney, who served as defense secretary during his own administration, had changed as vice president. Cheney grew "very hard line" and "just iron-ass" in response to the attacks on 9-11 -- "very different from the Dick Cheney I knew and worked with," Meacham quotes Bush as saying.
But Bush also told his biographer that Cheney was "a good man" and that President George W. Bush had made a mistake by allowing him to "bring in kind of his own State Department."
On Donald Rumsfeld
The 41st president was decidedly more critical of Rumsfeld in his conversations with Meacham. Bush charged that the former defense secretary "served the president badly" and was an "arrogant fellow." He also said of Rumsfeld in interviews for the biography: "There's a lack of humility, a lack of seeing what the other guy thinks. He's more kick ass and take names, take numbers. I think he paid a price for that."
But Bush 41 didn't absolve Bush 43 of all fault, directing some criticism toward his son as well. He told Meacham that he still supports his son's decision to invade Iraq, calling the ouster and capture of Saddam Hussein "proud moments." But he said in interviews that he does "worry about some of the rhetoric that was out there" and suggested that "hot rhetoric is pretty easy to get headlines, but it doesn't necessarily solve the diplomatic problem."
Bush referenced in particular the introduction of the phrase "axis of evil" in the 2002 State of the Union address, saying "I think that might be historically proved to be not benefiting anything."
more:
http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/05/politics/bush-biography-nyt/index.html
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