WASHINGTON — For as long as they have been in the public eye, members of the Bush family have been known for fierce loyalty, protective of one another in the face of attacks from the outside. Rarely have they engaged in a public quarrel among themselves — until revelations this week from a forthcoming biography of former president George H.W. Bush.
In the book, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham, the 41st president makes clear his displeasure with two of the leading figures in the administration of his son, former president George W. Bush. And both the 43rd president and his brother, who would like to be the 45th, were forced rather awkwardly to take sides.
The elder Bush, in interviews conducted over a period of several years, offered sharp criticisms of former vice president Dick Cheney and former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, saying both ill served his son after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
But he did not fully absolve his son for some of what took place. As George H.W. Bush put it, “The buck stops there” in the Oval Office.
The 41st president suggested that the 43rd president’s 2002 speech describing Iraq, Iran and North Korea as part of an “Axis of Evil” included comments “that might be historically proved to be not benefiting anything.” He said that Cheney had “his iron-ass view of everything” and that Rumsfeld displayed a “lack of humility” and “was an arrogant fellow.”
“The lion in winter still has claws,” Mark McKinnon, who served as media adviser to George W. Bush, said of Bush’s father.
Details of the book, “Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush,” were first reported by The New York Times and Fox News Channel, which is preparing a special on Bush keyed to the release of the tome. The book will be released next week.
In a statement, George W. Bush said Thursday: “I am proud to have served with Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld. Dick Cheney did a superb job as Vice President, and I was fortunate to have him by my side throughout my presidency. Don Rumsfeld ably led the Pentagon and was an effective Secretary of Defense. I am grateful to both men for their good advice, selfless service to our country, and friendship.”
Rumsfeld, whose rivalry with the elder Bush dates back decades, offered a terse response to the book in a statement: “”Bush 41 is getting up in years and misjudges Bush 43, who I found made his own decisions. There are hundreds of memos on that represent advice DoD gave the President.”
Appearing Thursday on MSNBC, Jeb Bush was asked whether he agreed with his father’s critiques of Cheney and Rumsfeld.
“My brother’s a big boy,” Jeb Bush said in response. “His administration was shaped by his thinking, his reaction to the attack on 9/11. I think my dad, like a lot of people that love George, want to try to create … a different narrative perhaps … just ’cause that’s natural to do, right? But George would say …, ‘This is under my watch, I was commander in chief. I was the leader. And I accept personal responsibility for what happened, both the good and the bad.’ And I think that’s the right way to look at it.”
On Dick Cheney, vice president
“He just became very hard-line and very di≠erent from the Dick Cheney I knew and worked with.”
On Donald Rumsfeld, former defense chief
“I don’t like what he did, and I think it hurt the president having his iron-ass view of everything.”
