Powell: Cheney takes ‘cheap shots’

Former Bush administration Secretary of State Colin Powell
accused former Vice President Dick Cheney of taking “cheap shots” at him in Cheney’s newly released memoir.

Speaking Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Powell criticized
Cheney for saying that his new book would have “heads exploding all over
Washington.” Powell said that remark was
“not the kind of headline I would have expected to come from one of the vice
presidents of the United States of America.”

“I think Dick overshot
the runway,” he added.

{mosads}Powell also responded to Cheney’s suggestions in his memoir
that the former secretary of State failed to present his policy disagreements
to the president.

“I gave the president my best advice,” Powell insisted.

He noted that “Mr. Cheney may forget that I’m the one who
said to President Bush, if you break it, you own it,” in the planning
stages of the Iraq War.

Powell noted that he wasn’t the only former administration
official he thought was treated unfairly by Cheney, referring to Cheney’s comments
on former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.

“He’s taking
the same shots at Condi with an almost condescending tone,” Powell said.