News reports apparently leaked out of the camp of Vice President Dick Cheney have the former VP quite miffed that George W. Bush refused to grant a pardon to his former Chief of Staff Scooter Libby. From the New York Times:

The dispute underscored the raw feelings of Mr. Cheney and other supporters of Mr. Libby, who believed that he was mistreated by prosecutors and ill served by a president who, in their view, failed to return Mr. Libby’s loyalty and sacrifice.

And it points up the distance said to have grown between the two men as their worldviews, once largely in sync, seemed increasingly to diverge in their second term as Mr. Bush took a less hawkish stance.

For Mr. Cheney, the failure to win a pardon was a stinging loss that led him to offer a rare public rebuke of Mr. Bush’s judgment, saying of Mr. Libby in an interview with The Weekly Standard last month that “I strongly believe that he deserved a presidential pardon,” and that “I disagree with President Bush’s decision.”

We had Cheney pal Alan Simpson explaining the hurt Cheney felt at not getting the President to grant this pardon.

Mr. Simpson said Mr. Bush’s refusal to grant the pardon had left Mr. Cheney “hurt and deeply disappointed.”

The lobbying effort by Mr. Cheney, first detailed Tuesday by The Daily News, was arduous, and at times tense and even emotional, several people briefed on the discussions said.

Mr. Bush’s refusal to give way has created a deep divide between the Bush and Cheney camps. But Mr. Simpson and others said it would not be in keeping with Mr. Cheney’s character to allow the dispute to cause lasting enmity with the president with whom he served so closely in an extraordinarily difficult time in history.

“Dick Cheney is not a guy who is bitter,” Mr. Simpson said. “He doesn’t seethe, he doesn’t brood.”

Cheney doesn’t brood? I thought he was born brooding.

I guess George W. Bush showed Dick who the boss was, at least for the last two weeks of his Administration. And whether we agree or disagree with the decision on Libby don’t we all need to take a step back here, and say attaboy Mr President. Good job in standing up to Dick!