Dick Cheney on 'Hannity': Who is he attacking now?

Ex-veep Dick Cheney has been all over the media this week promoting his new memoir “In My Time.” He’s hit the morning talk shows – “Today,” “Good Morning America,” and so forth – and he’s had good print exposure too, including a big spread in “USA Today.”

Most authors can only dream of such a publicity tour. Of course, most authors don’t get involved in public spats with Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, either. Nor are they the subject of televised speculation as to whether they could be tried for war crimes.

Well, given the exposure and the controversy, the book must be selling well, right?

Yes. “In My Time” has gone big time. Amazon’s best-seller list puts the hardcover at No. 3 overall, just ahead of that soon-to-be-a-major-motion-picture teen novel “The Hunger Games.”

Mr. Cheney’s memoir ranks No. 1 in historical biography, and No. 1 in history about the United States, according to Amazon.

(Note: No, the book won’t be in Sunday’s New York Times bestseller list. That’s because it measures book store sales and lags behind. We’re pretty sure it will show up there soon, too.)

In contrast to Cheney’s book, the new memoir from ex-Delaware Senate candidate and non-witch Christine O’Donnell ranks as number 45,666 in Amazon’s hardcover list. Do you think that if she was selling as well as Cheney, she’d be appearing on-stage in Iowa at that tea party gathering with Sarah Palin? She got uninvited from that, if you haven’t heard. Something to ponder.

Meanwhile, Cheney’s been wrapping up the week with appearances on the friendly confines of Fox News and other conservative media outlets. With Mr. Powell and Ms. Rice out of the way, who’s he going after next?

Sarah Palin, for one. Asked by talk show host Laura Ingraham on Friday if Ms. Palin had been the right choice for the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate, Cheney demurred.

“Well, I’ve never gotten around the question of her having left the governorship of Alaska midterm ... I’d like to know more about that,” said Cheney.

He’s been going after President Obama as well. On Sean Hannity’s Fox show.

On Sean Hannity’s Fox show Thursday night Cheney opined on how he thinks the incumbent is going to have a tough time next November.

“I think the economy is clearly going to be a major problem for him,” said Cheney.

Then Cheney took a shot at Mr. Obama’s experience, saying that, as vice president, he had traveled to Illinois to campaign for Obama’s opponent in Obama’s first Senate race. Obama won, and Cheney swore him in – that’s one of the duties of the vice president.

The next thing he knew, Obama was running for president, said Cheney on “Hannity.”

“He had not served very long in the US Senate ... he didn’t bring into office the kind of experience I would have hoped to have seen in a new president,” said Cheney.

Cheney also sounded as if he is still kind of mad at his old boss over his refusal to pardon top Cheney aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby.

You may remember that Mr. Libby, Cheney’s former chief of staff, was convicted of obstruction of justice in regard to the investigation into who made public the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

Libby did not leak Plame’s name to the media. State Department official Richard Armitage did. (Armitage from the beginning told prosecutors what had happened, and was not charged.)

Bush commuted Libby’s jail sentence on the obstruction of justice conviction but was reluctant to grant a full pardon.

Cheney told Mr. Hannity that he thought Libby a good man who was treated badly by the system.

“There was tension in the room” when Bush told him he would not grant the pardon, Cheney said.