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There has recently been quite a bit of discussion in the blogosphere and in political circles about a book by a speechwriter for former President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The book, Speech-less: Tales of a White House Survivor, was written by Matt Latimer. He subsequently wrote a piece for The Daily Beast, “Why Palin Mania Won’t Die,” which helped lead C4P to an email interview with him. Conservatives 4 Palin asked Mr. Latimer questions ranging from his views on the future of the Republican Party to his response to the criticism he’s faced as a result...

President Bush favored cap and trade, one of this former speechwriters claims in a new book. In fact, Matt Latimer writes in "Speechless," the President actually ENDORSED the policy in a speech, but no one in the press could figure out what he meant. Cap-and-trade, which would put a limit on businesses' carbon emissions, barely passed the House this year but has yet to make headway in the Senate. Most Republicans are vocally opposed to it.

If Matt Latimer’s new book had been released a few weeks ago, the Tea Party marchers would have hoisted him onto their shoulders and carried him -- laughing and cheering -- all the way up Capitol Hill. Laughing, because Latimer’s new book,Speech-less: Tales of a White House Survivor, renews conservatives’ license to chuckle at ourselves. Cheering, because it lifts the burden of George W. Bush from our shoulders. There are only two kinds of people who won’t like this book. First are the liberal media who tied the Gordian knot that binds conservatism to Bush. As Byron York reported in...

It didn’t take long for former George W. Bush speechwriter Matt Latimer to be branded as a back-stabbing nobody — someone who slipped inside the White House just long enough to overhear some embarrassing snippets and spill them for a book contract. After GQ magazine ran excerpts of his new book “Speech-less: Tales of a White House Survivor,” Latimer found himself a target of both the right and the left for telling tales out of school. Among the tidbits that drew attention were his claims that then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson did not fully understand the bailout plan and that President...

Bush was preparing to give a speech to the annual meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC. The conference is the event of the year for conservative activists; Republican politicians are required to appear and offer their praise of the conservative movement. Latimer got the assignment to write Bush's speech. Draft in hand, he and a few other writers met with the president in the Oval Office. Bush was decidedly unenthusiastic. "What is this movement you keep talking about in the speech?" the president asked Latimer. Latimer explained that he meant the conservative movement -- the movement that...

A former aide to George W. Bush and Sarah Palin is dismissing a claim by onetime Bush speechwriter Matt Latimer that the former president was clueless about Palin when she was tapped as John McCain's running mate last August. ... But Jason Recher, who served as special assistant to President Bush and as a traveling aide to Palin during the campaign, said the former President was well aware of Palin — especially since the two met in person in Alaska just three weeks before Palin was added to the Republican ticket.