Bush and Cheney's Relationship Was Strained at End of Term

After eight years working together as possibly the closest president and vice president in U.S. history, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney left the White House in January barely on speaking terms over Bush's decision not to pardon Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

According to a fascinating article in Time magazine piecing together the final days of the administration, the vice president pushed so hard against an unwilling Bush to pardon former Cheney staffer Libby that their relationship was strained to the breaking point.

Libby was at the center of a dragged-out, confusing federal case led by Patrick Fitzgerald over whether the Bush administration had leaked the name of CIA agent Valerie Plame to discredit her husband, who had published an op-ed piece that undercut the administration's rationale for invading Iraq.

In 2005, after spending millions of taxpayer dollars, prosecutors did not charge anyone with leaking Plame's identity to the media, but indicted Libby for obstructing the investigation of the matter. Libby insisted he was innocent, but in 2007 a jury convicted him of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements. He was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and fined $250,000.

After his appeal failed, Bush commuted the prison sentence but left the conviction intact. The president said at the time that his decision "leaves in place a harsh punishment for Mr. Libby. The reputation he gained through his years of public service and professional work in the legal community is forever damaged."

Cheney was unrelenting over the next year in both his loyalty to the former aide -- who was believed to be protecting him -- as well as devout in his assertions that there was a link between al-Qaida, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and Iraq, prompting the U.S. to invade in the interest of our national security.

In the final weeks of the Bush presidency, according to Time, Cheney handed the proposed Libby pardon to the president himself, then repeatedly pushed Bush in meetings to grant it. In a pardon meeting in mid-January, the president asked Cheney directly, "Did the jury get it right or wrong?"

Finally, about a week before Barack Obama was inaugurated, Bush told Cheney that he would not pardon Libby. The vice president shocked everyone by continuing to argue his points. An observer of the conversation told Time that Cheney "expressed his disappointment and disagreement with the decision . . . He didn't take it well."

Both Cheney and Libby spent the final week in office pushing Bush and White House legal counsel to reconsider the decision. The president was torn between his loyalty to Cheney and his belief that pardons are unfair justice. So, while packing boxes at the White House, he and his personal attorney discussed the matter one last time.

"What's the bottom line here? Did this guy lie or not?" Bush asked. Time reports that the lawyer, who had followed the case very closely, replied affirmatively, and Bush indicated that he had come to that conclusion too. Bush, the self-described "decider," had made his final decision on Libby: "OK, that's it."

Since leaving office, Bush and Cheney have remained friends but have taken on very different public roles.

The former president is leading a quiet life in Texas, writing his memoirs, raising money for his presidential library, taking long bike rides and talking with neighbors. Most significantly, Bush has not inserted himself in public debate, keeping his opinions to himself.

"He thinks President Obama deserves his silence," Dan Bartlett, Bush's longtime senior aide who is still very close to him, told the New York Times. "He's not going to be out there opining, second-guessing or flyspecking Obama's decisions."

Meanwhile, Cheney has stayed in Washington, making widely publicized speeches on national security, sitting for interviews on TV talk shows, and voicing his disagreement on Obama White House policy decisions.

The Dick Cheney who spent eight years in the shadows of the Bush administration and often at an "undisclosed location" is now ubiquitous in the media and leading the Bush legacy defense, without the support of Bush himself.

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