NYT Book Review: The Price of Loyalty: Square Peg

[kskiska]

When Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill took his famous trip to Africa with Bono, the lead singer of U2, in May 2002, the odd-couple label was, predictably, tossed around quite a lot in the press. In fact, the two men shared a deep interest in the developing world; the really curious pairing of George W. Bush's Washington, an authentically star-crossed duo that had no chance from the start, was O'Neill and Bush's political guru, Karl Rove.

Their first conversation took place on Dec. 30, 2000. That morning, the Associated Press had run an article announcing that a two-day economic forum with the president-elect in Austin, Tex., would feature O'Neill, the Treasury secretary-designate; Donald Evans, his counterpart-to-be at Commerce; and Lawrence Lindsey, who would be chief economic adviser. O'Neill learned about his participation while reading The New York Times. And when he got Rove on the phone, O'Neill, who considered politics the enemy of good policy, learned a lot about what his next two years would be like.

''I think it would be better, Karl,'' O'Neill said, ''if someone had bothered to first ask me whether I thought this was a good idea and then whether I thought it would be a good idea for me to attend. My answer to both questions is no.'' Ron Suskind goes on in the ''The Price of Loyalty'' to describe a ''penitent'' Rove (let's see how Rove characterizes his mood when he writes his book) eventually acknowledging that the event was chiefly designed to give air time to key corporate donors. O'Neill hung up and dashed off a quick memo to self that read in part: ''Get KR and others in the press/media operation to agree we're going to coordinate our outside face and that the outside face will be driven by substance, not by the need to have a line of the day.'' I'm guessing here that you can see why the relationship came to naught.

The Rove chat aside, O'Neill entered the Bush administration confident that he could effect change and reform. After all, he was assuming arguably the most venerable position in the cabinet, and he was no Washington neophyte. He first came to the city in 1961, when he landed a job in the Veterans Administration. He had worked in high-level capacities in the administrations of Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford. In 1988, George H. W. Bush's transition team approached him to consider becoming Secretary of Defense (demurring, he recommended his old pal Dick Cheney). So he knew the town and most of the principals with whom he would be serving, and his ideological credentials -- he backed privatization of Social Security, large tax cuts and so forth -- seemed sound. But he had settled in Pittsburgh, where he had been the chief executive officer of Alcoa since 1987. Washington -- and, more to the point, conservatism -- had changed.

more…
http://nytimes.com/2004/02/01/books/review/01TOMASKT.html?8hpib

[On the Road]

1. I'm Struck by the Same Thing

as I'm reading it. O'Neill was a fish out of water. He didn't know Bush, but he had known Cheney and Rumsfeld since the 60's. They obviously evolved in different directions.

[kskiska]

2. There comes a point about halfway through the book

where O'Neill asks himself, "Just who is Dick, really?" Creepy.