by Peter Baker
73 “we need to do this”: Michael Gerson, author interview.
74 “I am fortunate to have”: George W. Bush, acceptance address at Republican National Convention, September 2, 2004, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/09/20040902-2.html.
75 “I didn’t look at the audience”: Gerson interview.
76 “we can hear you now”: Rocco Chierichella, author interview.
77 “Mr. President, my daughter’s”: Eric Draper, author interview.
78 Half of the twenty-two grants: John Solomon, Alec MacGillis, and Sarah Cohen, “How Rove Directed Federal Assets for GOP Gains,” Washington Post, August 19, 2007.
79 grew alienated when his office: Kuo, Tempting Faith, 206–7.
80 death toll in Iraq hit one thousand: “U.S. Death Toll in Iraq Tops 1,000,” BBC News, September 8, 2004, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3636340.stm.
81 “It’s absolutely essential that”: Dick Cheney, town hall meeting, Des Moines, September 7, 2004, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/09/20040907-8.html.
82 “Dick Cheney’s scare tactics”: Amy Lorentzen, “Cheney Says ‘Wrong Choice’ on Election Day Would Risk Terrorist Attack,” Associated Press, September 7, 2004.
83 to ban the New York Times: Rick Lyman of the Times wrote an amusing piece about trying to chase Cheney around the country without access to Air Force Two. See Rick Lyman, “Desperately Seeking Dick Cheney,” New York Times, September 19, 2004, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/19/weekinreview/19lyma.html.
84 “That is what I meant”: Anne Womack Kolton, author interview.
85 “Bush thought Kerry”: Rove, Courage and Consequence, 392–93.
86 “You didn’t feel the heightened”: Judd Gregg, author interview.
87 dubbed this presidentialitis: Bartlett interview.
88 The latest Gallup poll: George W. Bush led with 52 percent of likely voters compared with John Kerry’s 44 percent in the Gallup poll taken September 24–26, 2004. http://www.gallup.com/poll/18610/trial-heat-bush-vs-kerry-likely-voters.aspx.
89 “If the president does reasonably”: Matthew Dowd, author interview.
90 “what do you want me to say”: Bartlett interview.
91 “a colossal error of judgment”: Bush-Kerry debate transcript, University of Miami, September 30, 2004, http://www.debates.org/index.php?page=september-30-2004-debate-transcript.
92 “They’re going to report”: Draper, Dead Certain, 256–57.
93 “his dislike for”: Rove, Courage and Consequence, 392–93.
94 “he didn’t really want to be”: Ronald Kessler, Laura Bush, 189.
95 “I don’t know what happened”: Thomas and the Staff of Newsweek, Election 2004, 150.
96 “I don’t think I was that”: Sammon, Strategery, 172.
97 The eight-point advantage: George W. Bush and John Kerry were tied at 49 percent each in the Gallup poll taken October 1–3, 2004, immediately after the debate. http://www.gallup.com/poll/18610/trial-heat-bush-vs-kerry-likely-voters.aspx.
98 “We came out of that debate”: Dowd interview.
99 “Sir, have you ever looked”: Patel interview.
100 “This is the situation”: Dowd interview.
101 “insane questions”: Patel interview.
102 “In the early ones”: Tevi Troy, author interview.
103 The day before the debate: Hayes, Cheney, 457–58.
104 “Your children and grandchildren”: Mary Cheney, Now It’s My Turn, 205–6.
105 “Senator, frankly, you have”: Cheney-Edwards debate, Case Western Reserve University, October 5, 2004, http://www.debates.org/index.php?page=october-5-2004-transcript.
106 “He thinks they love me”: Mary Cheney, Now It’s My Turn, 205–6.
107 “use the Constitution”: Debate transcript.
108 “was essentially destroyed”: Report of the Iraq Survey Group, October 6, 2004, https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/general-reports-1/iraq_wmd_2004/Comp_Report_Key_Findings.pdf.
109 “U.S. Report Finds Iraqis”: New York Times, October 6, 2004, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/06/international/middleeast/06CND-INTE.html.
110 “U.S. ‘Almost All Wrong’ ”: Washington Post, October 6, 2004, http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A9790-2004Oct5?language=printer.
111 “I did some real homework”: John McLaughlin, author interview.
112 “We at CIA are not trying”: Suskind, One Percent Doctrine, 330.
113 “John Kerry exceeded voters’ ”: Internal campaign summary of Orlando focus group, provided to author.
114 “You’re going to be great”: Peter Baker, “The Final Days,” New York Times Magazine, August 31, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/magazine/31bush-t.html?pagewanted=all.
115 “Man, is he spun up”: Ibid.
116 “I think if you were to”: Bush-Kerry debate, Arizona State University, October 13, 2004, http://www.debates.org/index.php?page=october-13-2004-debate-transcript.
117 “You son of a bitch”: Mary Cheney, Now It’s My Turn, 222–27.
118 “A complete and total sleazeball”: Ibid.
119 “Mom was especially furious”: Liz Cheney, author interview.
120 Mary was “fair game”: Chris Wallace of Fox News asked Cahill if it was “over the line” for John Kerry to bring up Mary Cheney’s sexual orientation. “There are a lot of questions here about gay marriage,” she answered, “and she is someone who’s a major figure in the campaign. I think that it’s a fair game, and I think she’s been treated very respectfully.” Fox News Channel, October 13, 2004.
121 “Well, sir, as long as Mary’s”: Mary Cheney, Now It’s My Turn, 222–27.
122 “Make it hurt”: Ibid.
123 “That this is a man with a dark”: Liz Cheney interview.
124 “She’s my daughter”: Patel interview.
125 “I did have a chance to assess”: David Stout, “Cheneys Criticize Kerry’s Remarks on Daughter,” New York Times, October 15, 2004, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/14/politics/campaign/14CND-DEBA.html?pagewanted=print&position=.
126 “You saw a man who will”: Michael Laris and Mike Allen, “Cheneys Steamed at Kerry Reference to Daughter,” Washington Post, October 15, 2004, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33588-2004Oct14.html.
127 “I love my daughters”: John Kerry, statement, October 14, 2004, cited in Tom Vanden Brook, “Kerry Lesbian Remark Angers Cheneys,” USA Today, October 15, 2004, http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-10-14-lynne-cheney_x.htm.
128 “I think that it indicates a certain”: Elizabeth Edwards, interview with ABC Radio, October 14, 2004.
129 “Mary Cheney bounce”: Dick Cheney interview.
130 he had Osama bin Laden: Notes taken by one of the reporters present, provided to author.
131 “why we did not attack Sweden”: Osama bin Laden, audiotape, aired October 30, 2004, and translated by Reuters. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/29/international/29WIRE-TRANS.html.
132 “A vigorous, some might say”: Ridge, Test of Our Times, 235–39.
133 “I don’t have to tell you”: Bartlett interview.
134 Over twenty-four hours: David Hume Kennerly, “Dick Cheney’s Final Assault Across America,” The Digital Journalist, November 2004, http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0411/dis_kennerly.html.
CHAPTER 19: “THE ELECTION THAT WILL NEVER END”
1 call his “accountability moment”: Jim VandeHei and Michael A. Fletcher, “Bush Says Election Ratified Iraq Policy,” Washington Post, January 16, 2005, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12450-2005Jan15.html.
2 “What is going to happen”: Matthew Dowd, author interview.
3 “Only one”: Ken Mehlman, author interview.
4 “What is Karl making me”: White House official, author interview.
5 Taylor read them over the phone: Sara Taylor, author interview. After the White House, Taylor married
and changed her name to Sara Taylor Fagen.
6 “felt like he had just”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 294–95.
7 “That doesn’t make any”: Draper, Dead Certain, 268–69.
8 An upset Condoleezza Rice: Rice, No Higher Honor, 287.
9 “Look, if it is what it is”: Draper, Dead Certain, 268–69.
10 “Whatever happens, I love you”: White House official interview.
11 “Here’s why I think it’s wrong”: Mehlman interview.
12 “He was in a dark place”: Taylor Fagen interview.
13 “Whatever happens, we left”: Nicolle Devenish, author interview. Devenish later married and changed her name to Nicolle Wallace.
14 “There are people still”: Sammon, Strategery, 185–88.
15 he were “in a daze”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 294–95.
16 “moped around the Treaty Room”: Ibid.
17 “were feeling a little sick”: Lynne Cheney, unpublished interview with journalist Robert Draper.
18 “I blew it off”: Sammon, Strategery, 185–88.
19 “This is the election”: Rove, Courage and Consequence, 400.
20 “some of them were a little”: Ibid.
21 At 12:41 a.m., Fox News: Rachel Smolkin, “Lesson Learned,” American Journalism Review, December/January 2005, http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=3783.
22 “He just looked relieved”: Eric Draper, author interview.
23 “We’re getting different”: Sammon, Strategery, 193–98.
24 “Katie, you’re the youngest”: Lynne Cheney, unpublished Draper interview.
25 “Go on, nothing’s going to”: Sammon, Strategery, 193–98.
26 Bush and Cheney advisers debated: Michael Gerson, author interview. Some accounts have Andy Card calling Mary Beth Cahill a third time, but in an e-mail exchange with the author, she said she remembered only two calls.
27 But Nicolle Devenish had been: Wallace (Devenish) interview.
28 Hold off, he urged: Michael McCurry, author interview.
29 “You cannot go out there”: Woodward, State of Denial, 348–49.
30 “George, you can’t go out”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 294–95.
31 Card called James Baker: Baker, “Work Hard, Study … and Keep out of Politics!,” 391–94.
32 Jordan made the call: Vernon Jordan, e-mail exchange with author.
33 “Kerry is calling now”: Nicolle Wallace (Devenish) interview.
34 “grinning ear to ear”: McClellan, What Happened, 235.
35 “That was a job interview”: Administration official, author interview.
36 “Mr. President, I have Senator”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 296.
37 “You were an admirable”: Notes of phone call taken by White House official, provided to author.
38 50.7 percent of the vote: National Archives and Records Administration, http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/2004/popular_vote.html. History records no popular vote margins for the first four reelected presidents, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe.
39 to win an absolute majority: Bill Clinton won 43 percent of the popular vote in 1992 and 49 percent in 1996, with Ross Perot running as an independent in both races. George W. Bush won 48 percent of the popular vote in 2000.
40 Bush picked up 286 votes: John Kerry won states totaling 252 electoral votes, but one elector in Minnesota voted for John Edwards instead. National Archives and Records Administration, http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/2004/election_results.html.
41 party increasing its hold: Republicans picked up three seats in the House and four in the Senate as George W. Bush won reelection. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard M. Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton all suffered losses in the Senate the years they were reelected, and Eisenhower and Clinton also lost seats in the House. See http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/presidential_elections_seats.php.
42 He improved his showing: Exit poll results, 2000 and 2004. Overall, George W. Bush improved his share of the popular vote by three percentage points, but he improved by five points among women, nine points among Latinos, seven points among those sixty and older, ten points among those without a high school degree, and six points among Jews. He won 86 percent of those who named terrorism as the most important issue and 80 percent of those who named moral values, while Kerry won 73 percent of those who named Iraq. Of those voting in 2004, 43 percent said they voted for Bush four years earlier and 37 percent said they voted for Gore, which, given that Gore won the popular vote in 2000, means that Kerry did not get as many Gore voters to the polls as Bush did his own supporters. The 2000 exit polls are available at ABC News at http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/2000vote/general/exitpoll_hub.html, while the 2004 exit polls are available at CNN at http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/US/P/00/epolls.0.html.
43 Just 51 percent of Americans: Exit polls. http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/US/P/00/epolls.0.html.
44 “We’re going to have fun”: Draper, Dead Certain, 274.
45 “Where’s the vice president?”: White House official, author interview.
46 “Congratulations, Dick”: Ibid.
47 “He’s a man of deep conviction”: Dick Cheney, victory speech, November 3, 2004, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/11/20041103-5.html.
48 “The vice president serves”: George W. Bush, victory speech, November 3, 2004, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/11/20041103-3.html.
49 “Everybody was buoyant”: Frederick Jones, author interview.
50 “I want to especially thank Scotty”: Mark Leibovich, “Unanswer Man,” Washington Post, December 22, 2005, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/21/AR2005122102272.html.
51 “I expect there to be lots”: Notes of meeting, provided to author.
52 “I remember our conversation”: Ibid.
53 “They were toast if you lost”: Ibid.
54 “I hear you’re thinking”: Gerson interview.
55 “I earned capital”: George W. Bush, news conference, November 4, 2004, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/11/20041104-5.html.
CHAPTER 20: “NOT A SPEECH DICK CHENEY WOULD GIVE”
1 “wasn’t fully on board”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 90.
2 “insurgency against the rest”: Stephen Yates, author interview.
3 “was for the best”: Dick Cheney, In My Time, 425–26.
4 “secretive, little-known cabal”: Lawrence B. Wilkerson, “The White House Cabal,” Los Angeles Times, October 25, 2005, http://articles.latimes.com/2005/oct/25/opinion/oe-wilkerson25.
5 “Powell really thought that”: White House official, author interview.
6 “He had thought about it”: Dick Cheney, author interview.
7 refer to Bush as “my husb—”: Condoleezza Rice was at a dinner at the home of Philip Taubman, Washington bureau chief of the New York Times, and his wife, Felicity Barringer, a Times correspondent, when she was overheard to say, “As I was telling my husb—” before catching herself and saying, “As I was telling President Bush.” Deborah Schoeneman, “Condi’s Slip,” New York, April 26, 2004, http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/columns/intelligencer/n_10245/. In her book on Rice, Elisabeth Bumiller of the Times wrote that two guests heard the remark but she and most others did not. See Bumiller, Condoleezza Rice, 228–29, 370.
8 “She was treated like”: Senior administration official, author interview.
9 “I can count on one hand”: Christine Todd Whitman, author interview.
10 “He was very wary”: David Gordon, author interview.
11 “People don’t understand”: Draper, Dead Certain, 286.
12 “I personally favor an NSC”: Donald Rumsfeld, author interview.
13 “I was struck by how deft”: McClellan, What Happened, 243.
; 14 “I want you to be secretary”: Condoleezza Rice, author interview.
15 “repair work to do”: Rice, No Higher Honor, 292–93.
16 “I don’t intend to spend”: Ibid., 541.
17 “At times, Don frustrated”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 91–94.
18 “was criminal negligence”: Kenneth Adelman, author interview.
19 “the right fit”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 91–94.
20 “He was not going to trust”: Peter Baker and Susan Schmidt, “Ashcroft’s Complex Tenure at Justice,” Washington Post, May 20, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/19/AR2007051901275.html.
21 “a self-promoter and grandstander”: Senior administration official, author interview.
22 “I thought we were going”: Colin Powell, author interview.
23 “If I go, Don should go”: Woodward, State of Denial, 362.
24 “out of nowhere”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 91–94.
25 Powell told no one: DeYoung, Soldier, 8–10.
26 “As we have discussed”: Colin Powell to George W. Bush, resignation letter, November 12, 2004, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/documents/cabinetresignations/powell.pdf.
27 “You mean Rumsfeld?”: Michael Gerson, author interview.
28 “one of the great public”: George W. Bush, written statement, November 15, 2004, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/11/20041115-2.html.
29 “We are not winning”: Gordon and Trainor, Cobra II, 496.
30 About fifteen thousand American and British troops: “US Troops Storm Towards Centre of Fallujah,” Agence France-Presse, November 9, 2004.
31 Three relatives of Prime: Karl Vick and Naseer Nouri, “3 Allawi Relatives Held Hostage,” Washington Post, November 11, 2004.
32 2,175 insurgents reported killed: Gordon and Trainor, Endgame, 120.
33 “The elections should not be”: George W. Bush and President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, remarks to reporters, December 2, 2004, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/12/20041202-3.html.
34 uncover a trove of disturbing: John Solomon and Peter Baker, “White House Looked Past Alarms on Kerik,” Washington Post, April 8, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/07/AR2007040701398.html?hpidopnews.