Former President George W. Bush on Thursday paid an emotional and deeply personal tribute to former Vice President Dick Cheney, remembering him at his funeral as a steady, loyal, and unfailingly serious public servant whose life embodied "substance and character" through four decades of service to the nation.
Bush opened by acknowledging the difficulty of the moment in eulogizing Cheney, who died on Nov. 4, but also the clarity with which he viewed his longtime friend, describing him as "a man I was proud to call my vice president."
Bush's eulogy aired live on Newsmax.
The former president noted that being called on to deliver the eulogy was "not a happy assignment," yet also "an easy one, because there was so much to like and admire about Dick Cheney."
He described Cheney as "a stoical man," adding, "I doubt he left this life with any complaints about the time given to him or its end."
Bush also praised Cheney's family members and said that the late vice president was proud of them.
"He was also a grateful man," Bush said. "Grateful, above all, for three loyal, loving women who shared in his journey. As I quickly discovered in 2000, when you choose one Cheney, you get four."
Addressing Cheney's widow, Lynn Cheney, their daughters, Heather and Liz, and the extended family, he added, "He sure loved you all, and he was proud of his family."
Bush recounted the moment, 25 years earlier, when he tasked Cheney, then a former White House chief of staff and secretary of defense, with helping choose a running mate for the 2000 presidential campaign.
He said that as he sifted through candidates, discussing "preparedness, mature judgment, rectitude, and loyalty," he grew convinced that the best choice was the man advising him.
"I realized the best choice for vice president was the man sitting right in front of me," he said.
Cheney resisted while insisting on listing reasons not to select him, Bush recalled.
He said that Cheney even brought in an adviser who opposed the decision and listened "unfazed and expressionless."
In the end, Bush relied on his own instincts and the counsel of his father.
"He said, 'Son, you couldn't pick a better man.'"
Bush described Cheney's rise, from laying transmission lines near Cheyenne to becoming chief of staff to President Gerald Ford, as a testament to talent and discipline rather than ambition or self-promotion.
"His abilities were self-evident," Bush said. "His talent and restraint exceeded his ego."
Cheney's "low-key style" and "absolute loyalty," Bush noted, were recognized early, particularly by Ford, who valued the young aide's steadiness.
He recalled Cheney as a man who rarely wasted words.
"Dick Cheney was like that, sparing and measured," Bush said. "In a profession that attracts talkers, he was a thinker and a listener."
"And when he did speak up ... you knew you were getting the best of a highly disciplined mind," Bush added.
Cheney also passed the test of electoral politics, Bush noted, winning every race he entered, a distinction Bush joked he could not share from their parallel 1978 House campaigns. "The Republican wave didn't reach West Texas that year," he said.
The two men ran twice together on the national ticket, and in 2004, Cheney even offered to step aside if Bush wanted a different running mate.
Bush refused.
"After four years of seeing how he treated people, how he carried responsibility, how he handled pressure and took the hits, I arrived back at the conclusion that they do not come any better than Dick Cheney," he said.
Bush described Cheney's devotion to the country as unwavering.
"There was never any agenda or angle beyond that," he said. "His service was consistent, faithful, and noble."
In the end, Bush said, Cheney valued friendships above all, the true measure, in his view, of a life well lived.
As he closed, Bush said, "We are grateful for his good life, we honor his service, and we pray somewhere up the trail we will meet him again."
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