Bush, Cheney reunite for presidential library event

The Washington Post

Former President George W. Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney took turns defending each other yesterday at the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Bush library.

Appearing at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Bush said he had "no doubt" that Cheney was the right choice for vice president. "As I stand here, there is no doubt in my mind he was the right pick then," Bush said of Cheney. "He was a great vice president of the United States, and I'm proud to call him friend."

Cheney, who had heart surgery this year and appeared much thinner than during his time in office, walked out with a cane. In his remarks he praised Bush for empathizing with Americans and for preventing another terrorist attack similar to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

"Judgments are a little more measured than they were," Cheney said. "When times have been tough and the critics have been loud, you've always said you had faith in history's judgment. And history is beginning to come around." Bush's new book, "Decision Points," includes a passage in which Bush writes he considered dropping Cheney from the ticket for their 2004 reelection campaign.

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also praised Bush. Rice, who will chair the advisory board of the library's adjoining policy center, said he was often mischaracterized as an idealist. "But I would say that President Bush and Mrs. Laura Bush were more than that," Rice said. "They were optimists and idealists, but they were realists, too, because they realized we have seen so many times - even in our lifetimes - when the impossible one day seems inevitable the next."