These Dueling Cheney-Condi Memoirs Should Please Obama

Their catfight reminds voters of President Bush

In his new memoir, in stores Tuesday, former Vice President Dick Cheney says he fought for a long time with Condoleezza Rice over whether then-President George W. Bush should apologize for the famous "16 words" in his 2003 State of the Union address that claimed Iraq was seeking uranium in Niger. Rice wanted to say sorry, Cheney didn't. Finally, Cheney writes, "She came into my office, sat down in the chair next to my desk and tearfully admitted I had been right." It goes without saying that your humble aggregator did not witness this moment. That being said, Cheney's 21 words read like the most self-serving version of history possible--not only does Cheney say he's right, but he has Rice admitting he was right--and while in wimpy girly tears! But those on Team Rice shouldn't fear: The former secretary of state gets to her version of Bush administration history in her own memoir, to be published November 1.

The New York Times' Charlie Savage managed to get his hands on a copy of Cheney's book, In My Time; he says Cheney also "faults... Rice for naïveté in the efforts to forge a nuclear weapons agreement with North Korea." Politico's Jennifer Epstein reports that Rice's memoir, No Higher Honor, will offer "a vivid and forthright account" of her time in the Bush administration, plus "new details about the contentious debates in the lead-up to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq." After taking a beating from another Bushie, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, in his memoir, surely Rice is ready to tell her side of the story.

But the person who'll enjoy these dueling dramatically titled books the most might be President Obama. Obama has had a pretty bad summer; his approval rating dipped below 40 percent and just 26 percent of Americans approve of how he's handling the economy. But the Associated Press' Tom Raum reports that the public still doesn't blame him entirely for it. A majority--51 percent--still say Bush is responsible for the state of the economy. Only 31 percent says Obama deserves most of the blame. It can only help him to have Cheney getting tons of TV time and reminding viewers of that other guy, Bush, from whom Obama says he "inherited" this crappy economy.