In new memoir, Bush reignites feud with McCain, admits strain with Cheney over Libby

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Former President George W. Bush has said his upcoming memoir isn't about settling scores, but he may have made an exception for onetime GOP rival John McCain.
In "Decision Points," set to hit shelves Tuesday, the former president takes dead aim at McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, which he implies was run very badly.
Among other things, Bush questions why McCain, his rival for the 2000 GOP nomination, didn't better capitalize politically on the '08 financial crisis. As Politico's James Hohmann reports, Bush writes that he was puzzled by McCain's handling of the crisis, which included suspending his campaign and calling for a White House meeting on a proposed rescue package.
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"I thought the financial crisis gave John his best change to mount a comeback," Bush writes. "In periods of crisis, voters value experience and judgment over youth and charisma. By handling the challenge in a statesmanlike way, John could make a case he was the better candidate for the times."
Bush says he asked McCain to hold off on a meeting, citing concerns that it might jeopardize talks between congressional negotiators and then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. But Bush says McCain ignored his appeals--and thereby handed Obama an opportunity to describe him as "erratic."
At the subsequent meeting, Obama's "calm demeanor" and willingness to work through gridlock impressed Bush and his aides, according to the book.  But when it came time for McCain to talk, Bush says, the Arizona senator had nothing to say. "I was puzzled," Bush says in the book. "He had called for this meeting. I assumed he would come prepared to outline a way to get the bill passed."
Bush also questions why McCain didn't ask him to campaign for him. Even though Bush's poll ratings were low, Bush thinks he could have helped with the GOP base. "I was confident I could have helped him make his case," Bush writes. "But the decision was his. I was disappointed I couldn't do more to help him."
Another McCain decision that irks Bush: his choice of Sarah Palin as his '08 running mate. This doesn't make it into the Bush book, but the New York Daily News' Tom DeFrank writes that the former president, like his former strategist Karl Rove, has told friends that he doesn't think Palin is qualified to be president and blames McCain for giving her a national platform. "Naming Palin makes Bush think less of McCain as a man," a Republican official familiar with Bush's thinking told DeFrank.
While Bush and McCain may never get past the wounds of the 2000 campaign, the former president has made amends with former Vice President Dick Cheney, whom he considered replacing on the '04 ticket. As Bush writes in the book, he and Cheney were at odds in the final months of his presidency over Bush's unwillingness to pardon former Cheney aide Scooter Libby.
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Libby was convicted of lying to a grand jury investigating the leak of former CIA agent Valerie Plame's name to the press. Bush commuted that sentence, but as he tells NBC's Matt Lauer in a special that is airing Monday night, Cheney was "angry" that Bush wouldn't issue a full pardon, telling Bush, "I can't believe you're going to leave a soldier on the battlefield."
Asked by Lauer if their relationship ever recovered, Bush admits that he was concerned at first, but that the two are friends today.


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