Yoo on Bush: Never met him

TPM:

That's the tack that Torture Memo author John Yoo seems to take in a new interview with Deborah Solomon of The New York Times Magazine.

The parley was to promote Yoo's new book, Crisis and Command, which the Times describes as "an eloquent, fact-laden history of audacious power grabs by American presidents going back to George Washington" -- a subject with which Yoo, who was a lawyer in the Bush Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, has some familiarity.

But -- perhaps with one eye on a forthcoming Justice Department report which may recommend disciplinary action be taken against him -- Yoo also seems keen to distance himself from the president he served.

Check out this exchange:

Were you close to George Bush?
No, I've never met him. I don't know Cheney either. I have not gone hunting with him, which is probably a good thing for me.

Weren't you invited to the White House Christmas party during your two years at the Department of Justice?
I don't think so. That's the way the government works. There's the attorney general, then the deputy attorney general and then an associate attorney general. Then there's the assistant attorney general, who was the head of my office.

So you're saying you were just one notch above an intern, you and Monica Lewinsky?
She was much closer to the president than I ever was.

And I beg to differ, Yoo. Check this out:

In the Justice Department, Yoo's expansive view of Presidential power led to a close relationship with the office of Vice President Dick Cheney. From the NY Times article in 2005, click here.

And this:

In 2003, after Jay Bybee departed OLC, Cheney struggled to have John Yoo installed as his successor, but ultimately John Ashcroft’s candidate, Jack Goldsmith, prevailed. Goldsmith quickly backtracked on the torture authorizations that Yoo and Bybee gave.