More obscenities from the vice-president:
MR. RUSSERT: Have you spoken to the president or the vice president since this book came out?
MR. WOODWARD: The vice president called me I guess as it was coming out 10 days ago.
MR. RUSSERT: And?
MR. WOODWARD: Well, he called to complain that I was quoting him about the meetings with Henry Kissinger that he and the president had. I had interviewed Vice President Cheney last year a couple of times at length about material I’m gathering on the Ford administration, on-the-record interviews, but he volunteered, he said, 'Oh, by the way, Henry Kissinger comes in' and he, Dick Cheney, sits down with him once a month and the president every two or three months. And Cheney was upset I was quoting him. And I said, 'Look, this—on-the-record doesn't have anything to do with Ford, you volunteered that.' He then used a word which I can't repeat on the air. And I said,'Look, on the record is on the record,' and he hung up on me.
MR. RUSSERT: What, what do you mean, he swore at you?
MR. WOODWARD: He, he said what I was saying was bull-something […] No, but he, but he hung up. Now, look, I can, I can see, I went back and looked at the transcript that he can—ever had a disagreement about ground rules with someone. Have you?
MR. RUSSERT: Well, he thought he was talking, he thought he was talking to you for one project and you used it in another project.
MR. WOODWARD: Well, exactly. But it had nothing to do with it, and it's clearly spelled out that it's an on-the-record interview. And so—now, what does he do instead of saying, 'Well, OK, I look at it this way, you look at it that way.' It’s a metaphor for what's going on. Hang up when somebody has a different point of view or information you don't want to deal with.
It's a metaphor for what has been going on for years now. Think of yourself as a CIA agent with actual intelligence that might conflict with the veep's preconceptions. You'd get hung up on as well.
(Hat tip: Crooks and Liars. Photo: Charles Dharapak/AP.)