by Peter Baker
82 “I never completely gave up on my idea”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 49.
83 “George, you can’t win”: Ibid., 52–53.
84 “I thought she was unbeatable”: Younger interview.
85 “born with a silver foot”: Ann Richards, keynote address, Democratic National Convention, July 18, 1988, http://gos.sbc.edu/r/richards.html. For video, go to http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/27252-1.
86 “I’m not running against her”: Randy Galloway of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, e-mail exchange with author. See also Gail Sheehy, “The Accidental Matter,” Vanity Fair, October 2000, http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2000/10/bush200010.
87 “This is going to be rough”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 54.
88 “He just flat outworked”: O’Neill interview.
89 “Why do you feel bad”: Schweizer and Schweizer, Bushes, xii.
90 “disappointed, even hurt”: Powell, My American Journey, 554. Asked about that during his Miller Center oral history, Cheney said, “I didn’t want to go around and throw my arms around people and say, ‘Gee, it’s been great.’ ”
91 “beating the water as hard”: Sean O’Keefe, author interview.
92 “I just decided I didn’t want to do this”: Williams interview.
93 “You have to first be able to visualize”: Stephen Hadley, author interview.
94 told a Wyoming newspaper: Hayes, Cheney, 268–69.
95 “I see you have solved”: Bill Thomson, author interview.
96 opposing unilateral sanctions: While at Halliburton, Cheney was an active supporter of a bipartisan group called USA Engage that generally resisted unilateral sanctions. In a speech, Cheney called the sanctions issue “my favorite hobbyhorse” and argued that while he was not opposed to all sanctions, the times they should be used “are relatively rare” and generally when they are multilateral, citing Iraq as an example. Unilateral sanctions, he said, “almost never work” and were “the cheap, easy thing to do” to look like action. “I think it is important for us to recognize as a nation the enormous value of having American businesses engaged around the world.” Richard B. Cheney, “Defending Liberty in a Global Economy,” Cato Institute, June 23, 1998, http://www.cato.org/speeches/sp-dc062398.html.
97 bought Dresser for $7.7 billion: Peter Elkind, “The Truth About Halliburton,” Fortune, April 18, 2005, http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2005/04/18/8257012/index.htm.
98 would expand to an $11.9 billion giant: David J. Lesar, chairman, president and chief executive officer, Halliburton, “Letter to Our Shareholders,” Halliburton Company 2000 Annual Report. http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/IROL/67/67605/reports/company/letter_index_01.html.
99 “an irascible, crazy old Texas politician”: Sandy Kress, author interview.
100 “Governor, on this I’m going to”: Dave McNeely, “Missing Bullock’s Unvarnished Advice,” Austin American-Statesman, September 9, 1999. See also McNeely and Henderson, Bob Bullock, 262–63; and George W. Bush, Decision Points, 57.
101 “What do you think about us?”: Draper, Dead Certain, 50–52. Draper tracked down the teenager, Johnny Demon Baulkmon, in 2006. He had become an adult petty criminal and was serving time in prison. Draper asked him what he thought of Bush. “He doesn’t care about anything but himself,” Baulkmon said. “He’s complete trash, a horrible evil person.”
102 “I didn’t have an answer”: Kuo, Tempting Faith, 114.
103 “I just don’t know if I can”: Ibid., 111–12.
104 “I’ll never again be able to”: Hughes, Ten Minutes from Normal, 4–5.
105 received a check for $14.9 million: Elizondo, “Bush Earns $14.9 Million from Team Sale.”
106 “I’m not going to run”: Wead, All the Presidents’ Children, 4–5.
CHAPTER 3: “THE FIRE HORSE AND THE BELL”
1 “I feel like a cork”: Dan Balz, e-mail exchange with author. The visiting journalists were Balz and David S. Broder, both of the Washington Post. See also Von Drehle, Deadlock, 8.
2 There were not many times: John Ellis, author interview.
3 “We have the opportunity”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 60–61.
4 “He is talking to you”: Ibid. This story changed slightly in the retelling. In his campaign autobiography, A Charge to Keep, ghostwritten by Karen Hughes, Bush described his mother saying this after the service and in the past tense: “He was talking to you.”
5 “I feel as if God were talking”: Schweizer and Schweizer, Bushes, 438.
6 “Are you nuts?”: Ibid., 458.
7 “who makes the Energizer Bunny”: Cannon, Dubose and Reid, Boy Genius, 267.
8 “Huge amounts of charisma”: Ibid., 14.
9 “I need your help”: Richard Perle, author interview.
10 “It was very much like”: Marvin Olasky, author interview.
11 “inherited half of his friends”: George W. Bush, “The First Son,” P.O.V., June 1999. This essay honoring his father on his seventy-fifth birthday was republished a decade later by the Daily Beast. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2009/06/11/happy-birthday-dad.html.
12 “Rove let me know that”: Novak, Prince of Darkness, 562.
13 “We had to be the back-of-the-bus”: Ron Kaufman, author interview.
14 Shultz gave him the blessing: Draper, Dead Certain, 53–54.
15 “This is your candidate”: David Von Drehle, “In Iowa, Bush Hits Rhetorical Notes, Trail,” Washington Post, June 13, 1999, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/wh2000/stories/bush061399.htm.
16 “the only thing we haven’t done”: Milbank, Smashmouth, 63.
17 “Look, I’m really committed”: Hayes, Cheney, 276–77.
18 The dissenters were: Zakheim, Vulcan’s Tale, 8–9.
19 “That mission is to deter wars”: Bush, speech at the Citadel, September 23, 1999. A transcript can be found at http://www3.citadel.edu/pao/addresses/pres_bush.html. But it appears to be the prepared text, as Bush deviated slightly in some parts. A video of the actual speech as delivered can be found at http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/152320-1.
20 “grinchy old Republican”: Hughes, Ten Minutes from Normal, 109–11.
21 a term that unbeknownst to her: Weisberg, Bush Tragedy, 92–93. In tracing the origin of the phrase, Weisberg noted that Doug Wead also used it as a chapter title of a book he ghostwrote for James Watt in 1985 and that Karl Rove “was especially concerned” that not become known for fear of association with Ronald Reagan’s controversial interior secretary.
22 “Somewhat different from many”: Glenn Hubbard, author interview.
23 “sounded less like a philosophy”: Frum, Right Man, 6.
24 “It took a little getting used to”: Michael Gerson, author interview.
25 “You’re going to get asked”: Hughes, Ten Minutes from Normal, 124.
26 “I don’t think they ought to”: Terry M. Neal and Juliet Eilperin, “Bush Faults House GOP Spending Plan,” Washington Post, October 1, 1999, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/wh2000/stories/congress100199.htm.
27 “I’m always amazed when I read”: Schweizer and Schweizer, Bushes, 334.
28 his favorite philosopher was Jesus: John Bachman of WHO-TV asked the candidates which “philosopher or thinker” they identified with the most. Bush answered, “Christ, because he changed my heart.” When Bachman said viewers would like to know how, Bush said, “Well, if they don’t know, it’s going to be hard to explain. When you turn your heart and your life over to Christ, when you accept Christ as the savior, it changes your heart. It changes your life. And that’s what happened to me.” Republican debate, Des Moines, December 13, 1999, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=76120#axzz1nnD78oFi.
29 “I don’t think your answer”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 71.
30 Ronald Reagan, who once said: Lou Cannon, President Reagan, 247. Reagan made this comment in an inte
rview with the British television journalist David Frost in 1968 when he was setting his eyes on the White House.
31 “This is not only no new taxes”: Bush during Republican debate, Durham, N.H., January 6, 2000, http://partners.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/010700wh-gop-debate-text.html.
32 “I can see a little chemistry”: Alexandra Pelosi, Journeys with George, 2002.
33 “Please, don’t kill me”: Tucker Carlson, “Devil May Care,” Talk, September 1999.
34 “I’m not going to kick”: David D. Kirkpatrick, “In Secretly Taped Conversations, Glimpses of the Future President,” New York Times, February 20, 2005.
35 “Rarely is the question asked”: Jacob Weisberg of Slate magazine made a point of collecting such misstatements and coined a name for them, “Bushisms,” that later inspired a book, The Ultimate George W. Bushisms: Bush at War (with the English Language).
36 “He’s going to wear very thin”: Kirkpatrick, “In Secretly Taped Conversations.”
37 McCain thrashed Bush: John McCain won 48.5 percent of the vote, George W. Bush won 30.4 percent, Steve Forbes won 12.7 percent. Federal Election Commission, February 1, 2000, http://www.fec.gov/pubrec/fe2000/2000presprim.htm#NH.
38 “Consultants don’t concede”: John Weaver, e-mail exchange with author. See also Milbank, Smashmouth, 102.
39 “We said good-bye as friends”: McCain, Worth the Fighting For, 378.
40 “This is my fault, not yours”: Mark McKinnon, author interview.
41 “He really was like a coach”: Judd Gregg, author interview.
42 “You got defined”: Draper, Dead Certain, 25–26.
43 “McCain has managed to steal”: Hughes, Ten Minutes from Normal, 130–31.
44 “a combination of the Cowardly Lion”: Yvonne Abraham and Anne E. Kornblut, “McCain to Halt Campaign,” Boston Globe, March 9, 2000.
45 “I endorse Governor Bush”: Transcript of Bush-McCain news conference, Pittsburgh, May 9, 2000.
46 “I cited all the reasons why”: Dick Cheney, author interview.
47 “Are you on it?”: Alan Simpson, author interview.
48 “I am so glad to be out”: Pete Williams, author interview.
49 “If someone says no, do they”: Evan Thomas and Martha Brant, “A Son’s Restless Journey,” Newsweek, August 7, 2000.
50 “He didn’t have any desire”: Liz Cheney, author interview.
51 “Cheney engineered the whole”: Friend of Cheney’s, author interview.
52 “What do you think about me”: Mary Cheney, Now It’s My Turn, 1–4.
53 “You’re not going to do this”: Lynne Cheney, unpublished interview with journalist Robert Draper.
54 “The man I really want”: Hughes, Ten Minutes from Normal, 142–46.
55 “punishingly hot”: Dick Cheney, In My Time, 255–59.
56 harbored “real doubts” about Cheney: Rove, Courage and Consequence, 169–71.
57 “Tell me why you think”: Ibid.
58 “falling back on his father’s”: Ibid.
59 “He’d looked at me impassively”: Ibid.
60 “Dick,” Bush said dismissively: Dick Cheney, In My Time, 262–67.
61 would be funeral director: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 67–69.
62 “absolutely inaccurate”: Bruni, Ambling into History, 151–52.
63 “the mature person sitting”: Dennis Hastert, author interview.
64 “He was the most prominent”: Sean O’Keefe, author interview.
65 “I really wasn’t looking”: Bush told this to Christine Todd Whitman, the former governor of New Jersey who would go on to become head of the Environmental Protection Agency in his administration. Roger Simon, “Reporter’s Notebook,” U.S. News & World Report Web site, July 31, 2000, http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/election/gop/notebook1.htm.
66 “You’d think it would be about”: John Danforth, author interview.
67 Cheney told Liz to call back: Dick Cheney, In My Time, 262–67.
68 David Gribbin called another Cheney: Joe Meyer, author interview.
69 Karen Hughes tried to find out: Dick Cheney, In My Time, 262–67.
70 lied to him: Rove, Courage and Consequence, 173–74.
71 “You’re going to hear something”: David Hume Kennerly, author interview.
72 “Honey, let’s sell the house”: Hayes, Cheney, 292.
73 “I was impressed by the thoughtful”: Bush introduction of Cheney as running mate, July 25, 2000, http://archives.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0007/25/bn.16.html.
74 “I was deeply involved”: Ibid.
75 “the most insignificant office”: John Adams told his wife, Abigail: “My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.” http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/johnadams.
76 “not worth a bucket of warm spit”: The quotation was never reported at the time it was supposedly made, and there remains a debate as to when Garner first said it, and even what word he used. One biographer said he actually said “warm piss,” and possibly another four-letter word even more profane. For an interesting essay on the origin of this quotation, see “Not Worth a Bucket of Warm Spit” by Patrick Cox, associate director for American history at the University of Texas at Austin, posted on George Mason University’s History News Network, August 20, 2008, http://hnn.us/articles/53402.html.
77 “I detested every minute of it”: Shesol, Mutual Contempt, 75.
78 “characterized by ambiguity”: Walter F. Mondale to Jimmy Carter, memo, “The Role of the Vice President in the Carter Administration,” December 9, 1976, http://www.mnhs.org/collections/upclose/Mondale-CarterMemo-Scanned.pdf. See also Richard Moe, “The Making of the Modern Vice Presidency: A Personal Reflection,” Minnesota History, fall 2006, http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/60/v60i03p088-099.pdf.
79 “It is a crappy job”: Cheney interview.
80 “I was impressed and believed”: Ibid.
81 “The idea of not wearing a tie”: Williams interview.
82 activists had threatened to out: Mary Cheney, Now It’s My Turn, 35. In her book, Mary Cheney wrote that she came out to her parents while a junior in high school. She had just broken up with her first girlfriend and in her sorrow wrecked the family car. She wrote that when she arrived home and told her mother about the crash, she also revealed that she was gay. She added that when she told her father, he said, “You’re my daughter and I love you and I just want you to be happy.” In his book, though, Dick Cheney wrote that Mary came out to him in the Denver airport during a trip home to Wyoming. In My Time, 148.
83 Howard Fineman of Newsweek: Mary Cheney, Now It’s My Turn, 12–13.
84 “Your daughter’s sexual orientation”: Howard Fineman, e-mail exchange with author.
85 “The secretary loves”: Ibid.
86 “There is one issue we need”: Dan Bartlett, speech to U.S. Chamber of Commerce, September 13, 2007, http://www.leadingauthorities.com/speaker/dan-bartlett.aspx.
87 It was Lynne who came up with: John McConnell, author interview.
88 Cheney ignored them: Cheney interview.
89 “I came up and gave them”: Ibid.
90 “done nothing to help children”: Dick Cheney, acceptance speech, Republican National Convention, Philadelphia, August 2, 2000, http://www.gwu.edu/~action/chen080200.html. For video, go to http://www.c-span.org/Events/Dick-Cheney-2000-Republican-National-Convention-in-Philadelphia-PA/1805/.
91 “coasted through prosperity”: George W. Bush, acceptance speech, Republican National Convention, Philadelphia, August 3, 2000, http://www.gwu.edu/%7Eaction/bush080300.html. For video, go to http://www.c-span.org/Events/George-W-Bush-2000-Republican-National-Convention-in-Philadelphia-PA/1804/.
92 “just straining for big themes”: Matthew Scully, author interview.
CHAPTER 4: “WE WRAPPED BILL CLINTON AROUND HIS NECK”
1 “There w
ere some issues on which”: John McLaughlin, author interview.
2 “Times Have Never Been Better”: Stevens, Big Enchilada, 151.
3 “pathologically a liar”: Kirkpatrick, “In Secretly Taped Conversations.”
4 “I may have to get a little”: Ibid.
5 “What we did with Gore”: Dick Cheney, author interview.
6 “If he decides he can’t help”: Halperin and Harris, Way to Win, 132.
7 “The binders came back”: Stuart Holliday, author interview.
8 “The whole thing was a surprise”: Alan Simpson, author interview.
9 “He basically sort of laid down”: Holliday interview.
10 “There’s Adam Clymer”: Mike Allen, “Bush Appeals for ‘Plain-Spoken Folks’ in Office,” Washington Post, September 5, 2000.
11 Cheney’s staff debated whether: Former Cheney aide, author interview.
12 “was careful to break almost every”: Stevens, Big Enchilada, 227–28.
13 “There was no quarter given”: Judd Gregg, author interview.
14 he was “flat”: Stevens, Big Enchilada, 227–28.
15 “Lambs to the slaughter”: Ibid., 225.
16 the staff was overwhelmed: Hughes, Ten Minutes from Normal, 163–65.
17 he called Kirbyjon Caldwell: Kirbyjon Caldwell, author interview.
18 “He believes in nation building”: Transcript of Bush-Gore debate, October 3, 2000, http://www.debates.org/index.php?page=october-3-2000-transcript.
19 “felt like a cross between”: Stevens, Big Enchilada, 229–30.
20 “she would throw him off”: Liz Cheney, author interview.
21 “He was getting all kinds of advice”: Matthew Dowd, author interview.
22 “I think that probably includes you”: Democratic talking points provided to author.
23 “It is a loser, don’t attack him”: Joseph Lieberman, author interview.
24 urged the candidate to go after Cheney: Stan Greenberg, e-mail exchange with author. In his memoir, Shrum wrote that they advised Lieberman to “go after Bush on the issues, and make sure Cheney didn’t break out of his special-interest Halliburton box.” Shrum, No Excuses, 357–58.