The Value of Loyalty--Why Paul O'Neill is wrong.

Excellent article! I think O'Neill in on minute 14. I wonder if Dean or Clark have invited him onto their cabinet yet.

make that "is on minute 14" as in "your fame clock is ticking"

In fact, the president is what he claims to be -- a compassionate conservative -- and one with a grasp of how the world really works.

Having traveled a little and living in a very international city, I completly agree with this statement. From his war against terrorism, to his proposal to deal with immigration, President Bush is brilliant. He's tough and fair. Believe me when I tell you that he's got the leftists of the world in shock.

Both fired, but for vastly different reasons. After reading this even-handed article, my estimation of Lindsey has soared. I wonder if Stahl, Couric, Zahn, Jennings and Williams will seek to interview Lindsey -- just to set the record straight? Nah, I'm sure it didn't matter to them before. Why should they start worrying about getting out the truth now?

Media Research Center, 1/12/04: Media Love O’Neill’s Blast, CBS: Bush Said Tax Cuts Went to Rich

     Network newscasts don’t usually publicize the exclusive interviews with an author to be aired later on a competing network, but the networks were so excited by former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill’s blasts at Bush -- as 'a blind man in a room full of deaf people’ -- that on Friday night ABC and NBC picked up on the shot at Bush released by CBS to promote his appearance on 60 Minutes. The Saturday and Sunday Washington Post and New York Times also featured stories.

     And in that 60 Minutes story about a new book by former Wall Street Journal reporter Ron Suskind, Lesley Stahl characterized O’Neill’s claim, that from early 2001 the Bush administration was interested in regime change in Iraq, as “one of O'Neill's most startling revelations.” But that just matched Clinton administration policy.

     60 Minutes also featured a Suskind tale that only a liberal could dream of, that President Bush believed his tax cuts only helped the rich. According to a “nearly verbatim transcript” of a November, 2002 meeting to discuss speeding up the roll-out of the tax cuts, which eventually did occur, Bush supposedly worried: “Haven't we already given money to rich people? This second tax cut's gonna do it again.”

     On Friday’s World News Tonight, ABC’s Peter Jennings asserted: “On the subject of political criticism today, Mr. Bush’s first Treasury Secretary’s made some rather unflattering remarks about him. Paul O’Neill said the President was so disengaged in cabinet meeting, that he was quote, 'a blind man in a room of deaf people.’ Mr. O’Neill spoke to the CBS program 60 Minutes. The White House has declined to comment.”

     On screen, ABC ran this text next to a picture of O’Neill:
The President
looked like
“a blind man
in a roomful
of deaf people.”

     Over on the NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams announced: “One of the few top officials ever fired by President George W. Bush is tonight firing back at his old boss. Former Alcoa aluminum CEO Paul O’Neill, the President’s first Treasury Secretary, has said in an interview the President is disengaged and didn’t ask a single question in their first hour-long meeting. He likened Bush’s cabinet meetings to, and we quote now, 'a blind man in a room full of deaf people.’ His story is part of a new book on the early Bush years.”

     The CBS Evening News, which on Saturday led with O’Neill’s charges, on Friday featured a plug for 60 Minutes announced by Mike Wallace, who intoned over video of O’Neill and Bush walking up the steps of the Old Executive Office Building next to the White House: “When a former George W. Bush insider says that at cabinet meetings the President acted like blind man talking to the deaf, that’s a story for 60 Minutes. Sunday.”

     The 60 Minutes piece featured both O’Neill and Suskind, author of The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill. Suskind was with the Wall Street Journal until 2000.

     Stahl declared: “And what happened at President Bush's very first National Security Council meeting is one of O'Neill's most startling revelations.” O’Neill recalled: “From the very beginning, there was a conviction, that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go.”

     A bit later in the story, Suskind told Stahl about a November of 2002 meeting: “It's a huge meeting. You got Dick Cheney from the, you know, secure location on the video. The President is there.”
     Stahl: “Suskind, who was given a nearly verbatim transcript by someone who attended the meeting, says everyone expected Mr. Bush to rubber stamp the plan under discussion: a big new tax cut. But, according to Suskind, the President was perhaps having second thoughts about cutting taxes again, and was uncharacteristically engaged.
     Suskind: “He asks, 'Haven't we already given money to rich people? This second tax cut's gonna do it again.’”
     Stahl, in mock astonishment: “The President himself says, 'well, we already gave it to the rich people, why are we doing it again?’”
     Suskind: “Why are we doing it again?’ Now, his advisers, they say, 'Well Mr. President, the upper class, they're the entrepreneurs.’ That's the standard response. And the President kind of goes, 'okay.’ That's the response. And then, he comes back to it again. 'Well, shouldn't we be giving money to the middle, won't people be able to say, 'You did it once, and then you did it twice, and what was it good for?’"

     But ruining this liberal wet dream, Karl Rove whipped Bush back into place.

     There’s more to come this morning on the O’Neill bashing Bush front: Sunday’s NBC Nightly News featured this promo spot: “Monday and Tuesday, a shocking portrait of the Bush administration that has the White House scrambling. The author and his source live, exclusively on Today on NBC.”

I share the same thoughts and sentiments (see my bio).

Regards,

Thank you, Larry Lindsay and Wall Street Journal (and SJackson.)

This sketch of O'Neill's association with the Administration should totally deflate any semblance of a human being that is really the Paul O'Neill inflatable doll. Now he is just an empty piece of mylar lying on the floor.

I hope the book sales stay in the cellar, as well.

After reading this even-handed article, my estimation of Lindsey has soared

I imagine that some in the White House will agree with you.

bttt for later, thanks !
Oh, btw. Can you change your bumps/pings to me from MeeknMing to MeekOneGOP ? Thanks !

blasts at Bush -- as 'a blind man in a room full of deaf people’

This phrase of O'Neill's is confusing. It sounds like liberal gobbledygook. I wonder what (the Pulitzer-prize-winning) Suskind thinks of it .

I guess I'll have to read it in context someday...maybe I'll flip through a copy on the remainder table.

Thanks. That's exactly what came into my mind when I heard O.Neill's complaint.

Bump