by Peter Baker
25 “I’m pleased to see, Dick”: Video clip of Cheney-Lieberman debate, October 5, 2000, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr1O7FaEJ1M&t=7m10s.
26 overlooked the $763 million: House Committee on Government Reform Minority Staff, “Dollars Not Sense: Government Contracting Under the Bush Administration,” June 2006, http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/reports/waxman0606.pdf.
27 “The debate was actually”: Lieberman interview.
28 “He’s not going to do that”: Rob Portman, author interview.
29 “He put the move on me”: Stevens, Big Enchilada, 262.
30 “I’ll be the most surprised man”: Von Drehle, Deadlock, 16–17. In an e-mail exchange with the author, an aide to Tommy Thompson said he did not recall the conversation.
31 “ ‘Miss Pessimistic’ (me) really”: Barbara Bush, Reflections, 365.
32 “His face didn’t change”: Hughes, Ten Minutes from Normal, 168–69.
33 “This thing has gone from probably-win”: Dowd interview. Nationally, Bush’s six-point lead in the Gallup/CNN/USA Today poll just before the revelation shrank to two points by Election Day. http://www.pollingreport.com/wh2gen1.htm.
34 four million evangelical voters: Rove, Courage and Consequence, 364.
35 cost Bush the states: Stevens, Big Enchilada, 275. Gore won New Mexico by just 366 votes, Iowa by 4,144, Oregon by 6,765, and Maine by 33,335, according to the Federal Election Commission. In the case of the first three, that was less than one-half of 1 percent. http://www.fec.gov/pubrec/2000presgeresults.htm.
36 “The one thing on which”: Michael Toner, author interview. In fact, the lawyers thought if anything out of the ordinary happened, it would be Bush winning the popular vote while losing the electoral vote, and they developed talking points on the virtues of the popular vote—talking points that of course were quickly discarded when the results came in the other way around.
37 precisely 10:39 p.m. Texas time: Cannon, Dubose, and Reid, Boy Genius, 174.
38 “It could be a long night”: Von Drehle, Deadlock, 31–33.
39 At 6:48 p.m. in Texas: Joan Konner, James Risser, and Ben Wattenberg, “Television’s Performance on Election Night 2000: A Report for CNN,” January 29, 2001, http://archives.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/stories/02/02/cnn.report/cnn.pdf.
40 “I felt like I had let him down”: Koch, My Father, My President, 476.
41 “I’m not going to stay around”: Von Drehle, Deadlock, 31–33.
42 would win with 320 electoral votes: Cannon, Dubose, and Reid, Boy Genius, 171.
43 “Back from the ashes!”: Koch, My Father, My President, 477–78.
44 At 8:54 p.m. in Texas: Konner, Risser, and Wattenberg, “Television’s Performance on Election Night 2000.”
45 “We’re still alive”: Hughes, Ten Minutes from Normal, 172–78.
46 “when she’s stressed”: Jenna Bush, interview on Today, NBC, November 6, 2012, http://www.today.com/video/today/49708400. “She has a little bit of an OCD issue,” Jenna said of her mother.
47 “suddenly looked old, tired”: Barbara Bush, Reflections, 369.
48 voted Democratic in fourteen: National Archives and Records Administration, http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/votes/votes_by_state.html.
49 “What do you think?”: Von Drehle, Deadlock, 43–44.
50 at 1:15 a.m. Texas time: Konner, Risser, and Wattenberg, “Television’s Performance on Election Night 2000.”
51 “Congratulations,” Gore told him: Hughes, Ten Minutes from Normal, 172–78.
52 “Dad, you just got elected”: Dick Cheney, In My Time, 288.
53 Mary Cheney remembered her mother: Mary Cheney, Now It’s My Turn, 112–16.
54 “Get up, bastard!”: Alan Simpson, author interview.
55 “You’ve just been elected”: Mary Cheney, Now It’s My Turn, 108–10.
56 “Circumstances have changed”: This exchange is described in multiple accounts, including Von Drehle, Deadlock, 49–50; Toobin, Too Close to Call, 24–25; and Simon, Divided We Stand, 43. The wording is slightly different in each of the accounts but broadly the same.
57 “He took it back”: David Hume Kennerly, author interview for unpublished New York Times interview.
58 “George, don’t do it”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 77–78.
59 “Bushie,” she said teasingly: Laura Bush, Spoken from the Heart, 161–62.
60 “We spent literally hours”: Andy Card, author interview for unpublished New York Times article.
61 “You are entering a time”: The dinner was at the home of Mary and Tim Herman on the night of November 18. Anne Johnson, the wife of Bush’s college friend Clay Johnson, opened the fortune cookie. Clay Johnson, e-mail exchange with author. See also Von Drehle, Deadlock, 110.
62 with instant messages: Koch, My Father, My President, 479.
63 “We talk all the time”: George Bush, letter to Hugh Sidey, December 16, 2000. See Bush, All the Best, 636.
64 “If they’re going to steal”: Fleischer, Taking Heat, 11.
65 “I just can’t conceive”: Danforth interview. See also James Baker, “Work Hard, Study … and Keep out of Politics!,” 380.
66 Karen Hughes ordered the doctors: Dick Cheney, In My Time, 292–93.
67 “I feel good and everything’s looking”: Larry King Live, CNN, November 22, 2000, http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0011/22/lkl.00.html.
68 briefing House Speaker: Hastert interview.
69 it ruled 7 to 2: George W. Bush et al. v. Albert Gore Jr. et al., Supreme Court 00-949, December 12, 2000, http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/00-949.ZPC.html.
70 “Dick, the Supreme Court”: Kennerly interview.
71 “Hello, Mr. Vice President–elect”: Dick Cheney, In My Time, 296–97. See also Baker, “Work Hard, Study … and Keep out of Politics!,” 161.
72 “I’m going to open the good bottle”: Kennerly interview.
73 “Congratulations, Mr. President”: Toobin, Too Close to Call, 267.
74 “I’m not a lawyer”: Koch, My Father, My President, 481.
75 “I’m not calling back this time”: Hughes, Ten Minutes from Normal, 180–81.
76 Two extensive recounts: The first study, by USA Today, the Miami Herald, and Knight Ridder, found that Bush would have actually increased his vote margin under the counting standards advocated by the Gore campaign. If every hanging chad and dimpled ballot had been counted, Bush would have won by 1,665 votes, instead of 537, the study found. The only scenario that would have possibly given Gore a chance was if only ballots with a clean punch were counted, the opposite of what Gore sought. In such a case, the study found Gore with 3 more votes than Bush out of 6 million cast—so razor-thin close that it would be impossible to conclude that Gore would necessarily have won because different counters might have assessed the ballots differently enough to change the margin by 4 votes. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2001-04-03-floridamain.htm. The other study, by a consortium of eight news organizations, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and CNN, found that neither the limited statewide recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court nor the recount sought by Gore in the four Democratic counties would have changed the ultimate outcome. The only scenario for a Gore victory in this study was if Florida had conducted a broader recount in every county, something neither sought by Gore nor ordered by the Florida Supreme Court. Judge Terry Lewis, who was overseeing the recount, said later that he was thinking about ordering a reexamination of ballots rejected by machines because they purportedly recorded more than one vote for president, which theoretically might have resulted in a Gore victory, but neither side had asked that such ballots be counted. It is also fair to assume that the confusion over the butterfly ballot in Palm Beach County cost Gore thousands of votes and, in the end, the election. But his lawyers could not come up with a legal way to address that confusion after the fact, and it was not at issue in the litigation that determined the outcome. In ot
her words, if the U.S. Supreme Court had not issued its controversial ruling in Bush v. Gore and the process had gone forward as ordered by the Florida high court, Bush still would have won. http://www.factcheck.org/2008/01/the-florida-recount-of-2000/ or http://www.nytimes.com/images/2001/11/12/politics/recount/preset.html.
77 “pouring alcohol in an open wound”: Karen Hughes, author interview.
78 “Here in a place”: George W. Bush, acceptance speech, Austin, Tex., December 13, 2000, http://www3.nationaljournal.com/members/news/2000/12/1213bush_speech.htm.
CHAPTER 5: “I’M GOING TO CALL DICK”
1 “Our attitude was hell no”: Dick Cheney, unpublished interview with journalist Robert Draper.
2 “What really unnerved me”: Chafee, Against the Tide, 2–10.
3 “Our votes at this table”: Ibid.
4 “How will this work?”: Nick Calio, author interview.
5 “What’s CEQ?”: Christine Todd Whitman, author interview. Whitman said she did not know whether Bush was joking or not, so she chose to take it as a joke.
6 “keeping me on a much shorter”: Colin Powell, author interview.
7 “To be in a position where”: Dick Cheney, author interview.
8 Bush attributed the idea: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 83–84.
9 “awkward issue”: Ibid.
10 “All I’m going to say to you”: Draper, Dead Certain, 282.
11 “I had no way of knowing”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 83–84.
12 Rove also argued against: Rove, Courage and Consequence, 220.
13 “Dick, here’s an interesting”: Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, 284–85.
14 thought it was like the second: Greenspan, Age of Turbulence, 208.
15 “My God, talk about a replay”: Ottaway, King’s Messenger, 143.
16 “We got to be very close”: Daschle, Like No Other Time, 51–53. Bush would later tell the author Robert Draper that he doubted he told Daschle not to lie to him that bluntly but may have put it differently, like urging that they both be honest with each other.
17 “How many more do you”: Dick Cheney, In My Time, 302–4.
18 “I will live and lead”: George W. Bush, inaugural address, January 20, 2001, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/inaugural-address.html.
19 “shockingly good”: Hendrik Hertzberg, “The Word from W.,” New Yorker, February 5, 2001, http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2001/02/05/010205taco_talk_hertzberg.
20 “Had you closed your eyes”: Kirbyjon Caldwell, author interview.
21 “Welcome, Mr. President”: “Bushes: 41 and 43,” video made by Mark McKinnon for the Republican National Convention, August 29, 2012, http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/29/backstage-at-the-bush-movie.html.
22 “I don’t think I need a valet”: Laura Bush, Spoken from the Heart, 175.
23 the “Johnny Q Room”: Jay Winik, author interview.
24 “A Charge to keep I have”: Charles Wesley wrote the hymn in 1762. United Methodist Church, http://gbgm-umc.org/umhistory/wesley/hymns/umh413.stm.
25 In fact, it was commissioned: This has been documented in a series of blogs and articles over the years, as well as in Weisberg’s Bush Tragedy. See in particular http://www.milwaukeeworld.com/html/horne/h-040223.php; http://www.talk2action.org/story/2006/5/12/7393/57216; http://www.salon.com/2007/04/26/torture_policy/.
26 “a lone, arrogant cowboy”: Cannon and Cannon, Reagan’s Disciple, 239.
27 He preferred lunch: Scheib, White House Chef, 232.
28 His staff had laid out his first: Brad Blakeman, author interview.
29 “It was probably the good”: John Bridgeland, author interview.
30 When Colin Powell showed up late: Draper, Dead Certain, 107. Colin Powell later said he had been “delayed by an important phone call” but added that he did not consider himself dissed because Bush “did it all the time to others,” including even “Karl Rove, to my delight.” See Powell, It Worked for Me, 144.
31 “No, sir”: Cesar Conda, author interview.
32 “We said great”: Michael Green, author interview.
33 “Mr. President, this is what”: Rice, No Higher Honor, 17.
34 “Mr. Vice President, your staff”: Stephen Hadley, author interview.
35 “seemed very much of one”: Rice, No Higher Honor, 17.
36 Bush’s scheduling director: Blakeman interview.
37 Juleanna Glover, suggested: White House official, author interview.
38 “I think those guys are always”: Neil Patel, author interview.
39 “We’ve all done it”: Gellman, Angler, 57–58.
40 “You could lose the 6 or 7”: Matthew Dowd, interview with PBS’s Front-line, January 4, 2005, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/architect/interviews/dowd.html. Dowd confirmed his memo in an e-mail exchange with author. See also Edsall, Building Red America, 50.
41 Bush “was eager and fervent”: Sandy Kress, author interview.
42 “disaggregation of data”: Peter Baker, “An Unlikely Partnership Left Behind,” Washington Post, November 5, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/04/AR2007110401450.html.
43 “You know, Senator, they are”: Kress interview.
44 “Who is this guy?”: Pritchard, Failed Diplomacy, 52.
45 “It did not change the president’s”: Ibid.
46 “we urgently need”: Richard A. Clarke to Condoleezza Rice, memo, “Subject: Presidential Policy Initiative/Review—the Al-Qaida Network,” January 25, 2001, http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB147/clarke%20memo.pdf.
47 “Condi Rice will run these meetings”: Suskind, Price of Loyalty, 70–75.
48 “We’re going to correct”: Ibid.
49 “Almost from the very beginning”: Rice, No Higher Honor, 29.
50 “Why are we even bothering”: DeYoung, Soldier, 314–16.
51 “Factories all over the world”: Paul O’Neill, author interview.
52 “What’s going on?”: Rice, No Higher Honor, 27–28.
53 “a routine mission was conducted”: George W. Bush, news conference, San Cristóbal, Mexico, February 16, 2001, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/02/20010216-3.html.
54 “I’m going to call Dick”: Rice, No Higher Honor, 27–28.
55 “That said something to me”: Condoleezza Rice, author interview.
56 “relaxed while at the same time”: Campbell, Blair Years, 505–6.
57 “had a certain Soviet woodenness”: Meyer, DC Confidential, 176.
58 “I don’t expect that they are”: Ibid., 171.
59 “He was a curious mix of cocky”: Campbell, Blair Years, 505–6.
60 “self-effacing and self-deprecatory”: Tony Blair, Journey, 392.
61 one American official noticed: James Dobbins, author interview.
62 “we both use Colgate toothpaste”: George W. Bush and Tony Blair, joint news conference, February 23, 2001, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/02/20010226-1.html.
63 “Why don’t we all watch”: Cherie Blair, Speaking for Myself, 261.
64 “Well, what did they say”: Laura Bush, Spoken from the Heart, 179–80.
65 thirty-seven fishing books: Labash, Fly Fishing with Darth Vader, 57.
66 Cheney began to feel uncomfortable: Eric Schmitt, “Cheney Complains of Pains in Chest; Artery Is Cleared,” New York Times, March 6, 2001.
67 “Well, I feel great”: Late Edition, CNN, March 4, 2001, transcript.
68 he found a headline: Steven Mufson, “Bush to Pick Up Clinton Talks on N. Korean Missiles,” Washington Post, March 7, 2001.
69 “Have you seen the Washington Post?”: Rice, No Higher Honor, 35–36.
70 “the fatal word: ‘Clinton’ ”: DeYoung, Soldier, 324–26.
71 “There was some suggestion”: Colin Powell, remarks to reporters, March 7, 2001, Federal News Service transcript.
72 “Someti
mes you get a little”: Doug Struck, “N. Korean Leader to Continue Sales of Missiles,” Washington Post, May 5, 2001.
73 “I oppose the Kyoto Protocol”: George W. Bush to Senators Chuck Hagel, Jesse Helms, Larry Craig, and Pat Roberts, March 13, 2001, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/03/20010314.html.
74 both parties voted 95 to 0: The nonbinding resolution expressed the “sense of the Senate” that the United States should not sign any agreement at Kyoto that mandated new commitments to limit greenhouse gas emissions unless it included developing countries like China and India. The Senate adopted it July 25, 1997. While it did not hold the force of law, it made pretty clear that ratification was unlikely to say the least. http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=105&session=1&vote=00205.
75 “Do you have it?”: Whitman, It’s My Party Too, 173–79.
76 “That one was a done deal”: Christine Todd Whitman, author interview.
77 “Somebody better tell Christie”: Chafee, Against the Tide, 105.
78 “Slow this thing down”: DeYoung, Soldier, 327–28. Powell remembered saying he would come, while Rice remembered asking him to come. See Bumiller, Condoleezza Rice, 148–49.
79 “But the letter is already gone”: Rice, No Higher Honor, 41–42.
80 “you’re going to see the consequences”: DeYoung, Soldier, 327–28.
81 “The way they did it”: Whitman interview.
82 “They had built this beautiful”: Gordon Johndroe, author interview.
83 “While he was right on Kyoto”: Stephen Hadley, author interview.
84 she was “appalled”: Rice, No Higher Honor, 41–42.
85 “It wasn’t that the vice president”: Whitman interview.
86 “We thought we knew Dick”: Suskind, Price of Loyalty, 124–26.
87 Cheney secretly signed a letter: Dick Cheney, In My Time, 320–22.
88 “This is not your decision”: Ibid.
CHAPTER 6: “IRON FILINGS MOVING ACROSS A TABLETOP”
1 “He was not going to be”: Judd Gregg, author interview.
2 Besides, he said: Shelton, Without Hesitation, 438–41.