Cheney Book Offers Rare Bits of Candor

Dick Cheney makes jokes about his own penchant for secrecy in a new biography due out tomorrow by journalist Stephen Hayes, Raw Story reports. The veep makes a rare admission of error, confessing to Hayes that the appointment of the Coalition Provisional Authority in the early stages of the war, rather than a provisional government of Iraqis, might have been a mistake.

Hayes, who spent 30 hours with his subject, writes that Cheney once called the vice presidency a "cruddy job" before he become the most influential VP in modern American politics, Reuters notes. And there are even a few embarrassing anecdotes in the generally sympathetic tome, such as the time he confused Jessica Simpson and Jessica Lynch, adds Politico. (More biography stories.)