Cheney "Got In The President's Face" On Libby Pardon: "He Just Wouldn't Give It Up"

In next week's cover story, TIME magazine delves deep into the relationship between former President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney -- in particular, their falling-out over the pardon of Scooter Libby in the Valerie Plame leak.

Massimo Calabresi and Michael Weisskopf examine the "last hours ...in the mysterious and mostly opaque relationship at the center of a tumultuous period in American history," a press release from the magazine reads.

Cheney stretched the boundaries of his relationship with Bush in his relentless quest to get his ex-Chief of Staff pardoned:

Petitions for pardons are usually sent in writing to the White House counsel's office or a specially designated attorney at the Department of Justice. In Libby's case, Cheney simply carried the message directly to Bush, as he had with so many other issues in the past, pressing the President in one-on-one meetings or in larger settings. A White House veteran was struck by his "extraordinary level of attention" to the case. Cheney's persistence became nearly as big an issue as the pardon itself. "Cheney really got in the President's face," says a longtime Bush-family source. "He just wouldn't give it up."

And there was a darker possibility. As a former Bush senior aide explains, "I'm sure the President and [chief of staff] Josh [Bolten] and Fred had a concern that somewhere, deep in there, there was a cover-up." It had been an article of faith among Cheney's critics that the Vice President wanted a pardon for Libby because Libby had taken the fall for him in the Fitzgerald probe.

Bush and his lawyer ultimately agreed that Libby had lied under oath. Read the whole story.

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Comments

[JohnHKennedy]

02:04 PM on 07/25/2009

When? Is Attorney General Holder going to appoint a Special Prosecutor
for All their crimes, not just a narrow focus on just one crime????

Cheney's main job as Vice President seems to have been transferring power from Congress to the Presidency, violating Federal Laws and abuse of our Constitution.

The revelations of their crimes keep coming out and still our Congressional Democrats do nothing to investigate and prosecute them.

SIGN THE PETITIONS
Demanding
both a Commission of Inquiry
and a Special Prosecutor
For All Their Crimes
at ANGRYVOTERS.ORG

http://ANGRYVOTERS.ORG

You should also
contact AG Holder directly &
Demand a Special Prosecutor.

Department of Justice Switchboard - 202-514-2000
Office of the AG - 202-353-1555

Email: [e-mail]

U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001

NOTE: IF your group has a related petition, send me the url and I'll include it on our website. We have all the petitions for investigation and prosecution of the criminals in the Bush Administration in one place where you have quick and easy access. Takes just a few minutes to sign them all.

[bolmah]

08:38 AM on 07/24/2009

This is old news. This was sited one month after Obama was elected. Get something new. We have a new president and a new congress and yet you still wallow in the past.

[Amondale]

09:11 AM on 07/24/2009

Whatever. But what about this news that Cheney was circumventing the pardon process by taking this directly to the president? Your take on it is to claim this is old news and there's nothing here?

Amazing.

[Pablo Manriquez]

06:41 AM on 07/24/2009

Unreal. I've been waiting a long time to know more about this one.

[BambooHarvester]

03:17 AM on 07/24/2009

N A Z I S

[hortonhearsdawho]

08:14 AM on 07/24/2009

=gop

[Clayton139]

02:40 AM on 07/24/2009

Dick Cheney should be Investigated for the same Crimes along with Scooter Libby !

Scooter Libby you are doing TIME for Dick Cheny ~!

[dems08]

01:34 AM on 07/24/2009

As I've written several times on hp, it's been darth's goal for the past 6 months to put gw behind bars....

even if it means he goes along....

[Jaybot]

12:36 AM on 07/24/2009

It's the only thing Bush did (or didn't) do that I agreed with. The fact that it incensed Cheney makes it that much sweeter.

[Bubba Gump]

01:10 AM on 07/24/2009

Bush did do some good. He authorized African relief of malaria, for instance. And Dubya was very gracious to President-elect Obama. As for Darth Cheney ... I'm comin' up empty.

Sometimes it's best to remember the good in people before the current AG drops the hammer.

[DimBulb2]

12:18 AM on 07/24/2009

t00ls
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2009/03/29/spain_weighs_torture_inquiry_for_6_former_bush_officials/

[ferob]

12:45 AM on 07/24/2009

Anyone know of any updates on this? Who do we write to in Spain to encourage them to go forth and prosecute?

[glomtt]

11:38 PM on 07/23/2009

President
Vice President

They are responsible for what happens below.

[Outsideadog]

05:04 AM on 07/24/2009

I like your style Glomtt...here's a couple of 2003 investigative journalism articles that I found while I took an interest in last year's election.

If you're looking for some substance to fill out what your instincts are telling you, these might help.

Namaste

See http://www.fpif.org/commentary/2003/0309feith.html
See http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/jul/17/iraq.usa

[JLRoberson]

11:32 PM on 07/23/2009

If Bush had done that, things that only Cheney and Libby might have been guilty of would have become things he was guilty of allowing, because one way or another the information would have come out.

Bush's entire presidency was based on doing nothing, but every so often, that is the right strategery.

[DimBulb2]

12:14 AM on 07/24/2009

i misunderestimated you

[glomtt]

11:30 PM on 07/23/2009

What give us the right to go over there and say they need to be diplomatic. I wish our troops never went there. I don't have love ones in the military, but this was a sensless WAR.

[glomtt]

11:25 PM on 07/23/2009

What gets me is why are we still at WAR and why did we continue to be at WAR after WMDS were not discovered? America doesn't admit when they make a mistake and America doesn't admit they are wrong. It seems to me, humility can be a virtue sometimes and it can also be good for diplomacy.

[lazercat2008]

11:28 PM on 07/23/2009

Because President Obama doesn't have enough change for the cigarette machine.

[glomtt]

11:33 PM on 07/23/2009

What does that have to do with anything? It's not the money you have in your pocket, it's the mind, and Bush didn't have it, but Obama does.

[tjirish44]

02:13 AM on 07/24/2009

We are leaving Iraq. You just can't pickup and LEAVE!! As Powell said: You brreakit you own it. We will be out of Iraq in 2 years...

[glomtt]

11:18 PM on 07/23/2009

If you think about it, this whole war makes no sense. Even if you think that a country has WMD's you just don't rush in and start a war. N.Korea has them, and I don't see us rushing in on them. WTF!!!!

[vascopyjama]

03:33 AM on 08/19/2009

They gave us a bloody nose last time.

[glomtt]

11:14 PM on 07/23/2009

The problem is this war. Bush wanted to get Saddam, and Cheney wanted to just go to war. This war was a result of Cheney and the CIA fabricating information. AKA. WMD's. There were never any WMD so here we are. Bin Laden was never where we fought the war at.

[lazercat2008]

11:25 PM on 07/23/2009

Funny story....Actually, Cheney did not tell the CIA.

[glomtt]

11:35 PM on 07/23/2009

And you know why, go ahead and implicate yourself so you can go to jail with him.

[continentalshelf]

07:20 AM on 07/24/2009

Sunshine, wars are always about money. it wasn't about Saddam. Follow the money...

[LemonMeringue]

11:13 PM on 07/23/2009

Bush was a puppet from the day Cheney ended his search or a vice president by discovering himself for the job.

They would never have let him run the country. They would never have let Palin run it either.

If McCain had one the exact same people would be running things as under Bush.