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The following letter was sent October 20 to the editor of the New York Times Magazine about Ron Suskind's October 17 article "Without a Doubt" about President Bush: ---------- I have great difficulty believing anything in Ron Suskind's article on President George W. Bush because his discussion of the President's service on the Caterair board is so totally inaccurate. The President was an outstanding member of the board and the audit committee on which we both served. He attended all meetings and did not tell jokes ("dirty" or otherwise) and was always a valuable, active and interested participant. The author...

During the closing weeks of the 2000 presidential campaign, at a campaign rally, George Bush spotted a veteran political reporter and turned to Dick Cheney, standing next to him on the platform, to remark: "There's Adam Clymer, major league asshole from the New York Times." "Oh yeah, big time," replied Cheney. Unbeknownst to them, their locker room exchange was caught by an open microphone. Four years later, nobody connected with the Bush-Cheney campaign appears even slightly concerned about being caught denigrating the Times; they are more than happy to do it on the record, as the White House has all...

A couple of excerpts from "Without a Doubt" in NYTime's Ragazine: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/17BUSH.html?pagewanted=1&oref=login The aide [to Bush] said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating...

Kerry/Edwards/NYTimes campaign has launched another sleazy attack in an apparent effort to define just how low low really is. First, the NY Times ran a Bush quote from an event the reporter did not attend, then within hours of the piece running, the Kerry campaign managed to put an ad together and have the press releases done and all the media reporting on it. New Kerry Ad Exposes Bush's January Surprise - Social Security Privatization Just over two weeks before the election, the Kerry-Edwards campaign Sunday released a new ad revealing George Bush's real agenda - his intention to "come...

"The disdainful smirks and grimaces that many viewers were surprised to see in the first presidential debate are familiar expressions to those in the administration or in Congress who have simply asked the president to explain his positions. Since 9/11, those requests have grown scarce; Bush's intolerance of doubters has, if anything, increased, and few dare to question him now. A writ of infallibility -- a premise beneath the powerful Bushian certainty that has, in many ways, moved mountains -- is not just for public consumption: it has guided the inner life of the White House." ..."The nation's founders, smarting...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- October 17, 2004 Without a Doubt By RON SUSKIND ruce Bartlett, a domestic policy adviser to Ronald Reagan and a treasury official for the first President Bush, told me recently that ''if Bush wins, there will be a civil war in the Republican Party starting on Nov. 3.'' The nature of that conflict, as Bartlett sees it? Essentially, the same as the one raging across much of the world: a battle between modernists and fundamentalists, pragmatists and true believers, reason and religion. ''Just in the past few months,'' Bartlett said, ''I think a light has gone off for people...

A REGISTERED DEMOCRAT'S CREATIVE WRITINGJust A Coincidence The New York Times Publishes Suskind Hit Piece On Same Day They Endorse Kerry?_____________________________________________________________SUSKIND DOESN'T ALWAYS GET HIS FACTS STRAIGHTSuskind Piece In New York Times Largely Based On Anonymous Sources And Second Hand Reports. Mr. SUSKIND: "It's not my analysis. It's the analysis largely of Republicans who cooperated with the – the [New York Times] story. What did they say?" MURRAY: "But no names. No names. Mr. SUSKIND: "Bruce Bartlett – Bruce Bartlett's in the lead of the story." MURRAY: "He's not in the administration." Mr. SUSKIND: "Well, but he talks to a...

<p>WASHINGTON -- Sensitive national-security information was mistakenly released by the Treasury Department to former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, but no criminal statutes were violated, records show.</p> <p>Mr. O'Neill drew on some of the material -- part of a cache of 19,000 documents -- for a memoir released in January that was critical of President Bush. When a document stamped "Secret" was displayed on a CBS "60 Minutes" episode concerning the book, the Treasury Department sought an investigation.</p>

Laurie Mylroie sent out an email about Paul O'Neill's appearance on 60 Minutes last night; she notes what appears to be a major error in Ron Suskind's book, which casts doubt on the credibility of both Suskind and O'Neill. Here is the key portion of Mylroie's email: "In his appearance this evening on '60 Minutes,' Ron Suskind, author of The Price of Loyalty, based to a large extent on information from former Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill, made an astonishing, very serious misstatement. "Suskind claimed he has documents showing that preparations for the Iraq war were well underway before...

In his appearance this evening on "60 Minutes," Ron Suskind, author of The Price of Loyalty, based to a large extent on information from former Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill, made an astonishing, very serious misstatement. Suskind claimed he has documents showing that preparations for the Iraq war were well underway before 9-11. He cited--and even showed--what he said was a Pentagon document, entitled, "Foreign Suitors for Iraq Oilfield contracts." He claimed the document was about planning for post-war Iraqi oil (CBS's promotional story also contains that claim): http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/09/60minutes/printable592330.shtml But that is not a Pentagon document. It's from the...