“I didn’t think that was meant to be a compliment, but it was an interesting line of attack,” Cheney said, adding that he closely follows the nomination battles in both parties.

In a wide-ranging interview with CBS News, Cheney reaffirmed that he had made the right decision by not running.

He also revealed that he had spoken to his former chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, since Libby was convicted of obstructing the probe into who leaked the name of a CIA operative to the press.

“I’ve seen him socially on a number of occasions,” the vice president said of Libby, whose prison sentence was commuted by President Bush earlier this month. Cheney said he welcomed that decision and believed it was the right one.

With regard to his health, Cheney said he felt fine following minor surgery on Saturday, during which his cardio defibrillator was replaced.

The vice president also responded to the controversy that was sparked when his office did not allow a branch of the National Archives, which is charged with overseeing how classified information is handled, to access documents in the office of the vice president. In its refusal, Cheney’s office had argued that it is not an entity within the executive branch.

“The job of the vice president is an interesting one, because you’ve got a foot in both the executive and the legislative branch,” Cheney said. “The fact is I do work in both branches. Under the Constitution, I’m assigned responsibilities in the legislative branch. Then the president obviously gives me responsibilities in the executive branch. And I perform both those functions, although I think it would be fair to say I spend more time on executive matters than legislative matters.”