Former Secretary of State Colin Powell accused former Vice President Dick Cheney of taking "cheap shots" in his new book on Sunday, and argued he was taking his aggressive promotional techniques "a bit too far."
Powell, speaking on CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday, targeted Cheney's claim that his new book, "In My Time," would "make heads explode" -- and noted that that was a line he'd expect from a gossip columnist rather than a former vice president.
That's "not the kind of headline I would have expected to come form one of the vice presidents of the United States of America," Powell told CBS' Bob Schieffer. "I think Dick overshot the runway."
Powell also took issue with Cheney's claim that, during his tenure as Secretary of State, he declined to fully present his positions to former President George W. Bush.
"Mr. Cheney may forget that I'm the one who said to President Bush, if you break it you own it," Powell said, referencing Iraq. "I gave the president my best advice... Mr. Cheney is free to say what he wishes but so far I haven't seen in it that is as explosive as he says it is."
Powell, who resigned shortly after Mr. Bush was re-elected to his second term as president, noted that the former vice president also took shots at his successor as secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, in his upcoming memoir.
"He's taking the same shots at Condi with an almost condescending tone," Powell said, noting references in the book in which Rice was described as doing things "tearfully."
Powell implied that Cheney's characterizations in the book are a reflection of what was at the time a dysfunctional White House.
"I'm not going to attribute any emotion to Mr. Cheney in the writing of his book but it was clear in 2004 that the team wasn't functioning as a team," Powell said. "It was not a smoothly functioning team at that point... I felt that I had to leave the administration. And frankly, I always intended to just serve one term."
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