Cheney Book Out in 2011
STANDARD BLOG
By Stephen F. Hayes
Former vice president Dick Cheney has signed a deal with Simon & Schuster to publish his memoirs. The book will be published by the house's "Threshold" imprint, run by former Cheney adviser Mary Matalin. The opportunity to work with Matalin again was a significant factor in the decision, says a source close to Cheney.
The book is in progress – with the basic format of the book set and detailed outlines of the key chapters already completed. While it is not being undertaken as a "score-settling book," but Cheney will write openly about the major decisions of the Bush presidency, including the most controversial ones – the Iraq War, the Terrorist Surveillance Program, Enhanced Interrogations and the surge. One source familiar with the writing process says at least fifty percent of the book will examine the Bush presidency -- something that is sure to generate interest when the book is released in 2011. (Though I have to say that in researching the book I wrote about Cheney, I found his earlier career as interesting as his role as vice president.)
Liz Cheney, the older of the former vice president's two daughters, is working nearly full-time on the book and Robert Karem, a sharp young national security aide to Cheney during the second term, is working on research.
Cheney has been blunt and direct since he left office earlier this year, articulating views that have not been given much of an airing, given his reluctance to deal with the media throughout his time as vice president. Although people have a broad sense of where Cheney stood on issues as vice president, I expect the book to contain lots of surprises. He managed to make news a fair number of times in the interviews that I used for my book. I expect he'll do that even more now that he doesn't have anything keeping from speaking his mind. |
