Vice President Dick Cheney spoke at a gala honoring Ronald Reagan in Washington, D.C., on November 16, 2005. ” ‘The suggestion that’s been made by some U.S. senators that the president of the United States [Bush] or any member of this administration purposely misled the American people on pre-war intelligence is one of the most dishonest and reprehensible charges ever aired in this city,’ Cheney declared. ‘Some of the most irresponsible comments have, of course, come from politicians who actually voted in favor of authorizing the use of force against Saddam Hussein. These are elected officials who had access to the intelligence, and were free to draw their own conclusions.’ Cheney was only getting warmed up as he assailed ‘a few opportunists’ who were ‘losing their memory or their backbone’ and hurling ‘cynical and pernicious falsehoods’ while troops abroad were fighting and dying. ‘We’re not going to sit by and let them rewrite history,’ Cheney declared. ‘We’re going to continue throwing their own words back at them.’ ”
– Peter Baker, Days of Fire, Page 429