Confessions of a White House Insider

Time Magazine ^ | Saturday, Jan. 10, 2004 | JOHN F. DICKERSON

[Tunehead54]

My brother flagged this one for me. He's extremely intelligent, well-educated and an all round good guy but he wakes up to NPR, reads Time and prolly voted for Gore.

Any help on taking this piece apart would be appreciated - I may be up for awahile but gotta get the kids to bed ... Thanks! ;-)

[Support Free Republic]

Are we there yet?

[Tunehead54]

" awahile" = awhile in "suthernese" - Sorry for the slip up.

---

;-)

[Dog Gone]

Aides were left to play "blind man's bluff," trying to divine Bush's views on issues like tax policy, global warming and North Korea.

While never reported in the press that I'm aware of, during the Bush/Clinton meeting in the White House just before Bush's Inauguration, Clinton pressed Bush to keep the existing appeasement strategy toward North Korea in place.

Bush said no.

The reality of this book is that it demonstrates that O'Neill is the clueless one. The fact that he didn't understand what was going on is only a reflection of him.

[Leroy S. Mort]

"And some day, some way, I guarantee you he'll use the arsenal. . . . In the next century, the community of nations may see more and more of the very kind of threat Iraq poses now--a rogue state with weapons of mass destruction, ready to use them or provide them to terrorists, drug traffickers, or organized criminals who travel the world among us unnoticed.

"If we fail to respond today, Saddam, and all those who would follow in his footsteps, will be emboldened tomorrow by the knowledge that they can act with impunity, even in the face of a clear message from the United Nations Security Council, and clear evidence of a weapons of mass destruction program."

President Bill Clinton - February 1998

[dighton]

Any help on taking this piece apart would be appreciated ...

For ammo, try these O'Neill threads.

[jjames69]

i've never voted for a democrat in my life, but i would admit bush is the most liberal big spending, republican of all time.paul o niell was a ceo of a great company, bush the owner of a last place baseball team. these comments cannot be brushed off.going to war on false pretenses is also very serious. iraq a better place now? at what cost?billions of dollars, people dying everyday,all to create a new palestine.i may hold my nose and vote against bush.

[Theresawithanh]

Capital letters and periods are your friends! :-)

"i may hold my nose and vote against bush" So, who will you vote for? Just curious

[Tunehead54]

Thanks - this may take awhile ... ;-)

[Brilliant]

I would like to know whether this is truly O'Neill's story, or whether it's really Suskind's.

[sauropod]

Hit piece. The article is hardly dispassionate.

[SpinyNorman]

i've never voted for a democrat in my life, but i would admit bush is the most liberal big spending, republican of all time.paul o niell was a ceo of a great company, bush the owner of a last place baseball team. these comments cannot be brushed off.going to war on false pretenses is also very serious. iraq a better place now? at what cost?billions of dollars, people dying everyday,all to create a new palestine.i may hold my nose and vote against bush.

I fail to see the logic of voting for someone who is the antithesis of all your alleged beliefs because your guy didn't do something you like. You better get used to holding your nose if you vote for someone like Dean. You will be doing it for four years. But then, since you will be cutting off your nose to spite your face, you will be able to hold your nose in your pocket.

This, and the "war on false pretenses" remark shows you for what you are: a DUped troll.

[FRgal4u]

Maybe O'Neill should enlighten us if Cheney the darkman behind the Iraq war.

O'Neill had never been a team player, he thought Bush selected him as Trea. sec because of his ideas and success. But O'Neill had never fit into a team functioning mode in any admin. He made enemies every corner he turned into over the Hill. He chastised the house Reps. tax cut plans as shows, he talked about the IMF should not bail out Brazil and almost causing a complete meltdown in the S. American economy (Brazil ultimately elected Lula - part of the reason was the economic fallout causing by the currency crisis); O'Neill was traveling with Bono when we needed him at home to address the failing economy; and let's not forget he opposed the second round of tax cuts which is responsible for the booming stock mkt and the 8% GDP growth last qtr.

I don't support the war but I support Bush. I think the war was misguided by some in the administration but I don't fault Bush for taking a tyrant of the equation. I don't know when and where we will find the WMDs or whatever, but I do think there are people in the admin trying to select evidence that support their views. Of course, I have issues with the quality of intelligence we have, maybe the pentagon was fed with all the intel from the likes of Chalabi who has his own agenda.

Bush is a big spender, no doubt about it. He has yet to veto any spending bills. But give me the choice of him vs the other dwarfs whose values are against my beliefs, I'll vote for Bush any day. I don't believe in killing babies, allowing quotas for college admissions and all the crazy welfare programs which design to allow stay home welfare queens. Yes, there are things I wish Bush will do differently, but I am just darn glad he is my President, and no AlGore or whoever from the nine dwarfs.

[Waco]

So O'neill says, "Chief, sit still, shut up, and listen." This undoubtedly explains O's bitching about the Chief "just listening." Don't it? And if his book had praised Bush, would it sell as many copies? Maybe it would sell a lot more, but his coked-up pukey friends on the left wouldn't buy any? Beam us up, Monica, or something similar.

[NutCrackerBoy]

these comments cannot be brushed off going to war on false pretenses is also very serious

Sour grapes comments from an ineffective cabinet member can and must be brushed off.

Iraq invasion was an option waiting in the wings. Bush is a great commander-in-chief who used this option as part of a strategy to make us safe. "False pretenses" is an exaggerated synomym for "statesmanship." It is necessary to face down the WMD/terror threats of the Middle East. The invasion of Iraq and the reconstruction are gutsy and grand moves. They may not look pretty. It isn't the surgical use of the military that we would all prefer. But the world did not present us with very many neat and tidy options.

[okie01]

Just guessing, but I'd wager that O'Neill's management style can be described as:

1. "Hands on" micro-manager -- able to shoot straight through to the fringe of the subject.

2. "Consensus seeker" on decisions -- taking credit for the ones that turn out well, finding cover for the ones that don't.

3. Boot-licking to those above him, boot-kicking to those below him (a la General Weasley Clark).

4. And, maybe, even thought of the Treasury post as a sinecure, a reward of some sort, rather than a functional job -- with real responsibilities and accountability.

These traits are bass-ackwards and in direct conflict with Bush's management style. Oil and water -- they never would've understood each other. Frankly, I'm more shocked that he was hired than that he was fired.

Wasn't O'Neill like the 4th choice for this position, anyway? Seems to me they had trouble filling the Treasury post initially.

And, when you come right down to it, wasn't O'Neill not just wrong, but dead wrong, in his arguments about the impact of the tax cuts? Who needs a Treasury secretary that can be so wrong on such an important policy issue?

[cwb]

"going to war on false pretenses is also very serious. iraq a better place now?"

False pretenses? Whatever prestense there was, was accumulated and dissected long before Bush even became president. I was just reading a report from the so-called independent Carnegie Peace Institute (you know...the one that says Bush exaggerated the threat) that was quoting (endorsing?) a story from the NY Times just days after Bush's inauguration. Within this story, the NY Times and Clinton's Secretary of Defense is warning the new administration of Saddam's reconstituted weapons program.

When you look at the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 (signed and sponsored by Clinton and the Dems), UNSCOM's numerous analysis' and even the media's reporting from as early as the mid-90's, it is obvious that these "pretenses" existed long before Bush took office. I have no problem with the assumption that some of the intelligence may have been wrong...but to assign treachery and deception to Bush is the biggest hoax perpetrated on the American people in a long time. You sir, are part of that hoax.

[staytrue]

brave truth telling in a town that doesn't like it

The definition of a gaffe in Washington is accidentally telling the truth. Ultimately, the best policy is to reduce the power of washington dc and that means tax cuts over all else.

[Feiny]

The entire article is a pathetic pity party for O'Neill. He can't even acknowledge that Cheney & Bush tried to let him leave in a dignified manner.

"The bloodless way he was cut loose by his old chum shocked O'Neill, Suskind writes, but what came after was even more shocking. Cheney asked him to announce that it was O'Neill's decision to leave Washington to return to private life. O'Neill refused, saying "I'm too old to begin telling lies now."

Come on now, that was beyond nice of Cheney to make that offer befoe announcing he was FIRED. O'Neill is an ungrateful man who has resorted to petty BS.

[goodnesswins]

I guess O'Neill never figured out the ADULTS were in office beginning in 2001....sheesh...any Treasury Secretary who travels to Africa with Bono is a bonehead.....that's when I began to think that of him....and it looks as though I was correct.