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Politics : Proof that John Kerry is Unfit for Command -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (5358)	8/31/2004 5:01:44 PM
From: Richnorth	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 27181

Joe Conason gives us the Shorter Paul O'Neill/Ron Suskind: re: "The Price of Loyalty" ========================== "The White House believes that massive deficits don’t matter. The White House serves the narrow interests of the wealthiest few. The White House diligently heeds oil men and coal operators. The White House willfully ignores scientists and environmentalists. The President and his advisers care about politics rather than policy. The President and his advisers prefer scripted consensus to candid debate. The President and his advisers jump at the command of corporate donors. The President won’t read any document longer than three pages. The President can’t discuss substantive policy issues. The Vice President is in charge." Among O'Neill's revelations and conclusions: - Deposing Saddam via an invasion was on the table from Bush's first National Security Council meeting days after he took office. - In 2001, O'Neill and Alan Greenspan thought big tax cuts were "irresponsible" unless paired with "triggers" that would suspend them if projected budget surpluses eroded, but they got rolled. - After the 2002 elections, when O'Neill objected that further tax cuts would compound the emerging fiscal crisis, Cheney barked, "Reagan proved deficits don't matter." O'Neill knew the opposite was true: that it took two decades for government to dig out of the fiscal mess Reagan created. - O'Neill came to believe that he, Colin Powell and Christine Whitman, the three GOP moderates in senior posts, were appointed to provide "cover" for an administration bent on an ideological agenda on the environment, tax cuts and foreign policy. - White House deception in a State of the Union address actually preceded the infamous 18 words on uranium in Niger last year. In Bush's first State of the Union, O'Neill asserts, White House politicos overstated by $700 billion the amount of public debt that (for technical reasons) could not be paid down with projected budget surpluses, in order to help hype their case for massive tax cuts. - Corporate governance reforms were watered down by Bush in a bow to industry pressure after Enron and related scandals broke - squandering what ex-CEO O'Neill judged to be a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve the culture of the executive suite. Beyond any specific outrage is the scary White House decision-making "process" O'Neill describes. "It seemed," O'Neill wonders at one point, "there were no let's-look-at-the-facts brokers in any of the key White House positions." O'Neill, who served earlier government stints under Presidents Nixon and Ford, clings quaintly to the notion that sound policy decisions should be made first, before you bring in the political types to help sell them. Karl Rove must be having a good laugh over that one! mattmilleronline.com