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Cheney: Spats dwarfed by Watergate

The vice president has no intention of reading Scott McClellan's book.

By Mark Silva / Chicago Tribune

Vice President Dick Cheney, who has served four presidents in his time, looks at the controversy surrounding this administration and suggests, this is nothing.

Cheney, who spoke at the National Press Club today, was asked about the new book by the former White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, who has written of the Bush White House and Washington's "culture of deception.''

"I haven't read Scott McClellan's book,'' Cheney said. "I don't plan to read Scott McClellan's book any time soon.

"There's a lot made of how difficult it is to operate in Washington, how partisan it gets at times, how tough the battles get,'' said the vice president, who made his first White House tour of duty with President Richard Nixon.

"One of the things... if you go back and you look, have the perspective of time and have the benefit of being a student of history, as difficult as it may be now in terms of a partisan standpoint... I can remember the Watergate years... Certainly I would say, in terms of trying to match up the degree of partisan dialog and disputes we have now with that period in time, this doesn't look nearly as tough.''