Scott McClellan has tongues wagging with the release of his book, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception. It has already hit the number 1 spot on Amazon.com’s best seller list.
The book suggests that Bush lied to the American people to promote his agenda for a war in Iraq. A scathing allegation, for sure. But it came from one of his own team. That has to be an anomaly in a White House that places loyalty above virtually all else, right?
Despite the brou ha ha, it’s actually not the first book written by a former Bush staffer to be critical of the President. In 2004, Paul O’Neill co-authored The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill. O’Neill served as Bush’s Treasury secretary during his first term.
O’Neill’s criticism of Bush is equally as harsh as McClellan’s. However, O’Neill takes Bush to task on his tax policies, specifically the tax cuts that were pushed through after 9/11.
O’Neill was asked to resign by Vice President Cheney in December 2002 over his criticisms of the administration’s tax cuts. He warned the administration that a second round of tax cuts would deepen the deficit and cause problems in future years. O’Neill predicted deficits of $500 billion (at the time he made those statements, the deficit was around $158 billion, today it is nearly $400 billion). Cheney reportedly replied that Reagan proved that “deficits don’t matter” and Bush pushed ahead.
However, O’Neill is probably best known for referring to Bush in the book as “a blind man in a roomful of deaf people. There is no discernible connection.” He claims that this description characterized Bush in Cabinet meetings, claiming that he was “disengaged.”
Critical words, for sure. But not the first – and not the last. I think what both McClellan’s book and O’Neill’s book raise, in terms of a real question is, how much do we, as taxpayers, really want to know?
Doesn’t the falling value of the dollar indicate how much deficits do matter? And I think there are 235 days left.
amazing how conservative economics has become the exact opposite of what it claims.
I think there was also the Richard Clarke book, which is completely unrelated to tax but voiced concerns about the Bush administration’s ability to grasp concepts involving national security.
I think there are concerns about the Bush administration’s ability to grasp concepts involving anything more complicated than clearing brush.
Thanks for bringing up those older books! I’m sure there will be more in the years to come.
And the Bush people are surprised he didn’t speak up earlier. And lose his job? Right. That’s how these criminals work.