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.

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.

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