Cheney addresses Bush ‘41’ criticism, admits he was ‘iron ass’ as vice president 
 
 CLOSE The former president died Friday at the age 94. He leaves behind a decorated legacy. USA TODAY 
 
 Former Vice President Dick Cheney addressed Sunday the "notion that there was some kind of fundamental break" between himself and the late President George H.W. Bush after Bush criticized Cheney's role in his son's administration. 
 
 The elder Bush, who died at 94 in his Houston home on Friday night, made several comments to presidential biographer Jon Meacham in his 2015 book, "Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush," that were critical of Cheney's militaristic policy prescriptions after the 9/11 attacks. 
 
 "I don't know he just became very hard-line and very different from the Dick Cheney I knew and worked with," Bush said of Cheney, who served as his secretary of defense for his entire administration. 
 
 More: George Bush's last day started with three eggs, ended with 'I love you' 
 
 "Just iron ass," Bush said of Cheney's attitude after the attacks. He decried Cheney's "seeming knuckling under to the real hard-charging guys who want to fight about everything, use force to get our way in the Middle East." 
 
 Bush was also critical of Cheney's autonomy as his son's vice president and the degree to which he expressed his views publicly. 
 
 More: Here's why VP Mike Pence named George H.W. Bush as his role model for the No. 2 job 
 
 "He had his own empire there and marched to his own drummer," Bush said. 
 
 "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace asked Cheney about Bush's remarks to Meacham during a discussion of the 41st president's legacy. 
 
 “I was more, I guess, of an ‘iron ass’ when I was vice president," Cheney conceded. "The thing that had intervened between my time at defense for 41 and my time as vice president was 9/11. We’d had 3,000 of our people killed on 9/11, more people than we lost at Pearl Harbor and we moved, I think legitimately, into a war-time setting rather than simple law enforcement." 
 
 Cheney said Bush reached out to smooth things over after his critical comments became public and sent him a note that said, “Dear Dick, I did it.” 
 
 "And then he went on at great length to tell me what a great American I was," Cheney said. 
 
 Cheney said Bush also invited him to sit at the head table at that year's Alfalfa Club dinner, one of the most exclusive annual events in Washington. 
 
 "That sort of dampened down the notion that there was some kind of fundamental break between Bush and Cheney," the former vice president said. 
 
 More: Trump pardons Scooter Libby, the Cheney aide convicted of lying to the FBI 
 
 More: Christian Bale transforms to a ruthless Dick Cheney in 'Vice' first trailer 
 
 Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/12/02/bush-criticism-cheney/2183449002/ ||||| As an ex-president, George H.W. Bush has generally maintained a respectful silence regarding later administrations. But now he's speaking out, criticizing some big names, and not in ways you might expect. 
 
 As revealed in the new Jon Meacham biography, "Destiny And Power: The American Odyssey Of George Herbert Walker Bush," the 41st president has some harsh words for the actions of his son's administration. 
 
 In particular, he objects to how Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld reacted to 9/11. He feels they were too hawkish, taking a harsh, inflexible stance that tarnished America's reputation around the world. 
 
 "I don't know, he just became very hard-line and very different from the Dick Cheney I knew and worked with," Bush told Meacham. "The reaction [to 9/11], what to do about the Middle East. Just iron-ass. His seeming knuckling under to the real hard-charging guys who want to fight about everything, use force to get our way in the Middle East ..." 
 
 The elder Bush believes Cheney -- who had been his own defense secretary back when he held the White House -- acted too independently of his son. "The big mistake that was made was letting Cheney bring in kind of his own State Department," Bush said, apparently referring to the national security team that the vice president assembled in his office. 
 
 The 41st president suggested to Meacham that Cheney may even have been pushed toward a harder line by his conservative wife and daughter, Liz and Lynne. "You know, I've concluded that Lynne Cheney is a lot of the eminence grise here ... tough as nails, driving," Bush is quoted as saying. 
 
 Cheney laughs off that last claim, taking full responsibility for his actions. "We smile about it, we laugh about it," Cheney told Fox News. "Same with my daughter, with Liz. It's his view, perhaps, of what happened, but my family was not conspiring to somehow turn me into a tougher, more hardnosed individual. I got there all by myself." 
 
 Regarding the former president's "iron-ass" remark, Cheney says he takes that as a compliment. "I took it as a mark of pride," he says. "The attack on 9/11 was worse than Pearl Harbor, in terms of the number people killed, and the amount of damage done. I think a lot of people believed then, and still believe to this day that I was aggressive in defending, in carrying out what I thought were the right policies." 
 
 Despite the criticism, Cheney says he still respects his former boss and enjoyed Meacham's book, which draws partly from audio diaries that Bush recorded during his presidency. 
 
 "The diary's fascinating, because you can see how he felt at various key moments of his life," Cheney said. "So I'm enjoying the book. I recommend it to my friends. And proud to be a part of it." 
 
 The elder Bush is even harder on Rumsfeld, saying, "I don't like what he did, and I think it hurt the President" -- his son, that is. "I've never been that close to him anyway. There's a lack of humility, a lack of seeing what the other guy thinks. He's more kick ass and take names, take numbers. I think he paid a price for that. Rumsfeld was an arrogant fellow ..." 
 
 Rumsfeld has declined to comment on the book. 
 
 Another recent revelation -- so recent it's not included in the Meacham biography. While Bush still believes in traditional marriage, he claims to have "mellowed" on same-sex marriage, stating people have a right to be happy without discrimination. It's a stance that will no doubt please many Republicans but have others wishing he'd continue to maintain his respectful silence. 
 
 For more on the private thoughts and the presidency of the 41st president, watch Fox News Reporting -- Destiny and Power -- The Private Diaries of George Herbert Walker Bush. The new special airs Friday Nov. 6 at 10 p.m. ET on Fox News.
– Dick Cheney, an "iron ass"? Yep, he admits he was. On Fox News Sunday, the former vice president addressed the notion of "a fundamental break" between him and the late George HW Bush after Bush accused him of being "just iron ass," USA Today reports. Quoted in the 2015 John Meacham book Destiny and Power, Bush criticized Cheney's "seeming knuckling under to the real hard-charging guys who want to fight about everything" and said Cheney "had his own empire." Cheney's response: "I was more, I guess, of an 'iron ass' when I was vice president. ... [But] we'd had 3,000 of our people killed on 9/11, more people than we lost at Pearl Harbor and we moved, I think legitimately, into a war-time setting rather than simple law enforcement." For more Sunday talk: GM Plants: "And clearly General Motors' decisions are in part based upon the tariff issue, so yes it has an impact, and it costs us jobs here in America," says Sen. Ben Cardin on Fox News Sunday about tariffs pushing GM to shutter five facilities, per Fox News.