Not long ago, former vice-president Dick Cheney used a tell-all book to say exactly what he thought of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during both their years in the Bush administration — and it was not kind. Â Now, it’s Condi’s turn to even the score.
The former Secretary of State will release her own book next month to recount her years working in the White House, and early reports indicate that she most certainly does not mince her words when it comes to Dick Cheney, former Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and even former president George W. Bush.
According to The New York Times, which obtained an early copy of the book:
First as national security adviser and later as secretary of state, Ms. Rice often argued against the hard-line approach that Mr. Cheney and others advanced. The vice president’s staff was ‘very much of one ultra-hawkish mind,’ she writes, adding that the most intense confrontation between her and Mr. Cheney came when she argued that terrorism suspects could not be ‘disappeared’ as in some authoritarian states.
Other interesting tidbits from the book:
In November 2001, Ms. Rice went to President George W. Bush upon learning that he had issued an order prepared by White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, authorizing military commissions without telling her. “If this happens again,” she told the president, “either Al Gonzales or I will have to resign.” Mr. Bush apologized, but Ms. Rice felt it was not his fault but that Mr. Gonzales and Mr. Cheney’s staff had not served the president well …
Ms. Rice was perhaps Mr. Bush’s closest adviser, often dining with the first family and spending weekends at Camp David. But she writes of one time that she and the president spoke sharply with each other in a meeting in December 2006 over whether to send more troops to Iraq. He favored an increase in troop levels and a new strategy to protect the Iraqi population, while she instead wanted to pull troops out of the cities.  She and the president got into a heated debate, which prompted her to tell him “if they want to have a civil war we’re going to have to let them.”  Afterwards, she followed Mr. Bush to the Oval Office to press her point, telling him, “No one has been more committed to winning in Iraq than I have.” He disarmed her, saying, “I know, I know,” and she describes his facial expression as pained over a war going badly. …
Walking through the Rose Garden portico with Mr. Rumsfeld, she asked, “What’s wrong between us?” to which he replied “I don’t know.  We always got along. You’re obviously bright and committed, but it just doesn’t work.” She took the word “bright” to mean he did not view her as an equal.
