Cheney Makes Way More Than His Boss

Plus: Advice on post-presidential life

(NEWSER) - Add Laura and George W. Bush to the list of people disappointed that Jeb Bush isn't on the stump. The two "wish he would" eventually run for president, and they "wanted him to this time," the former first lady told a Florida crowd yesterday in response to a question, the Herald-Tribune reports. He would be a "wonderful" president, she said after a speech. "We’re out of politics, as George would say, but still interested in policy." More»

But detected deadly White House toxin turned out to be false alarm

(NEWSER) - Condoleezza Rice recounted the day that she, President Bush, and Dick Cheney believed they had been exposed to a lethal toxin by terrorists. Cheney suddenly appeared on a secure video conference screen just weeks after 9/11 while Rice and Bush were traveling in China for the APEC summit. He warned them that White House sensors had detected botulinum toxin, and "we all—those of us exposed—were going to die," Rice revealed in an ABC interview . "I remember everybody just sort of freezing, and the president saying, ‘What was that? What was that, Dick?’” recalled Rice, who was national security adviser at the time. “We were just a little unnerved." More»

She recalls clashes with Cheney, Rumsfeld, Bush

(NEWSER) - It's time for Dick Cheney to take a little return fire from Condi Rice. Less than 2 months after his memoir described her as turning tearful during a political discussion , Condoleezza Rice has written her own book, No Higher Honor, which comes out next month, the New York Times reports. Rice recalls White House clashes and encounters with creepy foreign leaders:

• Rice argued with "ultra-hawkish" Cheney that terrorism suspects can't just be "disappeared"; President Bush agreed, and moved several from secret prisons to Guantanamo Bay.
• Rice opposed increasing troop levels in Iraq, telling Bush, "If they want to have a civil war we're going to have to let them." The president appeared pained over a war going badly, she writes.

Moment of silence at 8:46, moment first plane hit

(NEWSER) - President Obama opened a sun-splashed day of solemn remembrance today by honoring the 9/11 dead with a visit to ground zero, bowing his head at the cascading pools of the North Memorial Pond created in the footprint of the demolished north tower of the World Trade Center. Obama, hand in hand with wife Michelle, walked with former President George W. Bush and wife Laura to the memorial pool. They ran their hands over the bronze panels bearing the names of those lost in the attacks. Mayor Michael Bloomberg led a moment of silence beginning at 8:46am, the moment the first plane hit. Obama then read Psalm 46, and the names of the victims were read. Click through the gallery for images; MSNBC has live coverage of the ceremony at Ground Zero here . More»

Powell says former VP goes 'too far' in pitching his memoir

(NEWSER) - Colin Powell fired back at Dick Cheney and his revealing memoir yesterday, calling the former veep's revelations "cheap shots that he's taking at me and other members of the administration who served to the best of our ability for President Bush," reports Politico . In particular, Powell rebutted claims that he publicly badmouthed the war in Iraq and was forced out of George W. Bush's administration in 2004. "The president knows that I told him what I thought about every issue of the day," said the former secretary of state. More»