The depths of Cheney's distress about another close friend, his former chief of staff and alter ego I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, have only recently become clear. Bush refused a pardon after Libby's felony convictions in 2007 for perjury and obstruction of an investigation of the leak of a clandestine CIA officer's identity. Cheney tried mightily to prevent Libby's fall, scrawling in a note made public at trial that he would not let anyone "sacrifice the guy that was asked to stick his neck in the meat grinder." Cheney never explained the allusion, but grand jury transcripts -- and independent counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald -- suggested that Libby's false statements aimed above all to protect the vice president.

Last month, an account in Time magazine, based on close access to Bush's personal lawyer and White House counsel, described Cheney's desperate end-of-term efforts to change Bush's mind about a pardon. Cheney, who has spent a professional lifetime ignoring unflattering stories, issued a quietly furious reply. In the most explicit terms, he accused Bush of abandoning "an innocent man" who had served the president with honor and then become the "victim of a severe miscarriage of justice." Cheney now says privately that his memoir, expected to be published in spring 2011, will describe their heated arguments in full.

Scooter Libby's obstruction of justice was clearly part of a quid pro quo. If Libby would throw sand in the eyes of the prosecutor, he would receive a full pardon in the end. It's in the nature of such agreements that no one makes them explicitly. Some things are just understood. But perhaps Cheney went so far as to flat-out promise Libby that he had the juice to get him pardoned. When it turned out that Bush didn't give a shit about Libby and he essentially told Cheney to 'Go Fuck Himself' on the pardon, it left Cheney with an overwhelming feeling of guilt. His loyal soldier was left on the battlefield without the right to a law license he could use to enrich himself in his post-government years.

Strange what Cheney chooses to feel guilty about. Isn't it?