by Peter Baker
16 “The Iraqis need to pull up”: O’Sullivan interview.
17 “you are just sending more”: Crouch interview.
18 “So are we now responsible”: Rice, No Higher Honor, 541–42.
19 “That meeting is where”: Crouch interview.
20 “went horrendously”: O’Sullivan interview.
21 “How do you think”: O’Sullivan and Dan Bartlett, author interviews.
22 shown up in the New York Times: Michael R. Gordon, “Bush Aide’s Memo Doubts Iraqi Leader,” New York Times, November 29, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/world/middleeast/29cnd-military.html?pagewanted=all.
23 “The political pressure”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 374–75.
24 he had all but decided: Ibid.
25 “The situation in Iraq is”: Report of the Iraq Study Group, December 6, 2006, http://media.usip.org/reports/iraq_study_group_report.pdf.
26 “a responsible exit”: Cullen Murphy and Todd S. Purdum, “Farewell to All That: An Oral History of the Bush White House,” Vanity Fair, February 2009, http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/02/bush-oral-history200902.
27 “We’re not giving you”: Alan Simpson, author interview.
28 “While I knew he was not”: Leon Panetta, author interview.
29 “was not a strategy for winning”: Dick Cheney, In My Time, 447–49.
30 “support a short-term”: Iraq Study Group report.
31 “you can’t refuse to talk”: Dick Cheney, In My Time, 447–49.
32 “worthy of serious study”: George W. Bush, news conference, December 7, 2006, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/12/20061207-1.html.
33 “It’s bad in Iraq”: Ibid.
34 “I was really skeptical”: Condoleezza Rice, author interview.
35 “tried to be a good soldier”: Gordon Smith, speech on the Senate floor, December 7, 2006, http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/SenateSession3798/start/32510/stop/33526.
36 “I for one am”: Ibid.
37 “a tipping point”: Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine said, “I think for some, that speech was a tipping point. It was a reality check. We have to admit that something has gone terribly wrong.” James Risen, “GOP Senator in Spotlight After a Critical Iraq Speech,” New York Times, December 28, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/28/washington/28smith.html?pagewanted=all.
38 “So what’s your plan, Condi?”: Rice, No Higher Honor, 544.
39 “accelerate the transition”: Donald Rumsfeld, attachment to memo sent to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, December 8, 2006. Accessed at http://www.rumsfeld.com.
40 producing a forty-five-page paper: Frederick W. Kagan, “Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq,” American Enterprise Institute, http://www.aei.org/files/2007/01/05/20070111_ChoosingVictoryupdated.pdf.
41 “One of the biggest problems”: Eliot Cohen, author interview.
42 “to my mind, this is a major”: Ricks, Gamble, 98–101.
43 “This is a fool’s errand”: Barry McCaffrey, author interview at the time.
44 “It was clear that Bush thought”: Stephen Biddle, author interview.
45 “How is it that Jack Keane’s getting”: Senior military official, author interview.
46 “I guess you have to resign”: John Abizaid and Eric Edelman, author interviews.
47 “Keane is great as a validator”: Stephen Hadley, author interview.
48 “If senior generals had resigned”: Feaver, “Right to Be Right.”
49 “Steve Hadley,” recalled William Luti: William Luti, author interview.
50 Casey was “adamantly opposed”: Casey, Strategic Reflections, 143–44.
51 “Without a basic level”: Baker, “Final Days.”
52 “We will fade it”: Bartlett interview.
53 “Hadley, do you think the surge”: Hadley interview.
CHAPTER 30: “EVERYBODY KNEW THIS WAS THE LAST BULLET IN THE CHAMBER”
1 “The president didn’t want”: J. D. Crouch, author interview.
2 “Cheney was supposed to”: Dan Bartlett, author interview.
3 “The question is when do”: Dick Cheney, In My Time, 450–52.
4 “We’re betting the farm”: Ibid.
5 “I don’t think that you have”: Several participants, author interviews. See also Woodward, War Within, 287–89; and Feaver, “Right to Be Right.”
6 “My concerns were practical”: Peter Schoomaker, e-mail exchange with author.
7 “We’re concerned we’re going to break”: Joshua Bolten, author interview.
8 “we will break” the military: Ann Scott Tyson, “General Says Army Will Need to Grow,” Washington Post, December 15, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/14/AR2006121400803.html.
9 “a man of rectitude”: Dick Cheney, address, Donald Rumsfeld departure ceremony, December 15, 2006, http://207.245.165.145/news/releases/2006/12/20061215-8.html.
10 “We need to reset our military”: George W. Bush, interview with Peter Baker, Michael Abramowitz, and Michael Fletcher for the Washington Post, December 19, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/19/AR2006121900880.html.
11 “Our commanders do not want”: Gordon and Trainor, Endgame, 305–6. Robert Gates was so pessimistic about a surge that he recommended developing a “Plan B should the Baghdad effort fail to show much success.”
12 he was alarmed and alerted: Ricks, Gamble, 118; and Woodward, War Within, 297–99.
13 reached out to Petraeus: O’Sullivan and David Petraeus, author interviews.
14 “Look, Chairman, this is”: Petraeus interview.
15 “You’re going to do it”: Rice, No Higher Honor, 544–45.
16 “No, I am going to commit”: Crouch interview.
17 “another Washington Post debate”: Ibid.
18 “Go to hell,” one yelled: Sudarsan Raghavan, “In Hussein’s Last Minutes, Jeers and a Cry for Calm,” Washington Post, December 31, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/30/AR2006123000392.html.
19 “We’ve decided to be a bear”: Administration official, author interview.
20 “Enough! Does the guy want”: Ibid.
21 Donald Rumsfeld “went ballistic”: Dan Senor, author interview.
22 “Tell me how this ends”: Atkinson, In the Company of Soldiers, 6.
23 She suggested the Library: Draper, Dead Certain, 410.
24 “I know you feel really alone”: O’Sullivan interview.
25 Seventy-three percent: USA Today/Gallup poll, conducted January 5–7, 2007.
26 “Let’s go”: William Burck, author interview.
27 “wound tightly”: Crouch interview.
28 “The situation in Iraq is”: George W. Bush, address to nation, January 10, 2007, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2007/01/20070110-7.html.
29 “a lot of persuasive power”: Matthew Scully, author interview.
30 “Watching his facial expressions”: Crouch interview.
31 “So how did it go?”: Rice, No Higher Honor, 547.
32 “the most dangerous foreign policy”: Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, January 11, 2007, Federal News Service transcript.
33 “bought into his dream”: Ibid.
34 “The country was tired”: Peter Wehner, author interview.
35 “the loneliest of George’s”: Laura Bush, Spoken from the Heart, 421.
36 “It’s such a lonely job”: Rice interview.
37 “Self-pity is the worst”: Draper, Dead Certain, 418.
38 “Thinking about what Lincoln”: O’Sullivan and administration official interviews.
39 “You know, I am no Lincoln”: Peter Feaver and O’Sullivan interviews.
40 “I know the decision’s unpopular”: O’Sullivan and administration official interviews.
41 “The president himself was”: David Gordon, author interview.
42 “Bush was very seriously”: O’Sullivan interview.
43 “was kind of a nonentity”: Administration official, author interview.
44 “thought that was a mistake”: Neil Patel, author interview.
45 “what the U.S. auto fleet is”: Ibid.
46 With just 33 percent of Americans: Peter Baker and Jon Cohen, “Bush to Face Skeptical Congress,” Washington Post, January 23, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/22/AR2007012200236.html.
47 “I respect you and the arguments”: George W. Bush, State of the Union address, January 23, 2007, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2007/01/20070123-2.html.
48 “With the pressures from some”: Dick Cheney, interview with Wolf Blitzer, The Situation Room, CNN, January 24, 2007, http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0701/24/sitroom.03.html.
49 “By the time I leave here”: Dick Cheney, interview with Richard Wolffe, Newsweek, January 28, 2007, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2007/01/20070128.html.
50 the Senate voted 81 to 0: U.S. Senate roll call record, January 26, 2007, http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ntquery/z?nomis:110PN0017800:.
51 planted Petraeus in an office: Peter Baker, “General Is Front Man for Bush’s Iraq Plan,” Washington Post, February 7, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/06/AR2007020601918.html.
52 “This is a pretty significant”: Petraeus interview.
53 “So now I’m an October”: Draper, Dead Certain, 419.
CHAPTER 31: “I’M GOING TO FIRE ALL YOUR ASSES”
1 first time since 1928: In 1928, President Calvin Coolidge decided not to run for reelection, and Vice President Charles Dawes did not run. Even then, the incumbent administration had one of its own in the race, in the form of Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover. In every election since then, the incumbent president or vice president made a run for the White House, and in every one of those elections but one he won the nomination of his party. The one year that did not happen was 1952, when President Harry Truman gave up his reelection campaign after losing the New Hampshire primary. Vice President Alben Barkley, at age seventy-four, jumped into the race just two weeks before the party convention but lost to Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois. Barkley later returned to the Senate.
2 “I’ve talked to a lot of”: Wayne Berman, author interview.
3 a Pioneer, collecting more: Texans for Public Justice, http://info.tpj.org/docs/pioneers/pioneers_view.jsp?id=156.
4 “I’ve taken the Sherman”: Dick Cheney, interview with Bob Schieffer, Face the Nation, March 19, 2006. The Sherman statement refers to William Tecumseh Sherman, the Union general from the Civil War who in 1884 gave what became known as the most definitive expression of noninterest that a politician could give: “I will not accept if nominated, and will not serve if elected.” In modern politics, anything less definitive often encourages speculation, and often is intended to.
5 “a warm welcome like that”: For example, see Dick Cheney, speech to the Federalist Society’s national convention, November 17, 2006, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/11/20061117-11.html.
6 approval rating in the thirties: In a survey taken March 11–14, 2007, Gallup found that 34 percent of Americans approved of Dick Cheney’s job performance while 56 percent disapproved. http://www.gallup.com/poll/28159/americans-ratings-dick-cheney-reach-new-lows.aspx#2.
7 “I’m going to go work”: Berman interview.
8 “There were a lot of”: Michael Gerson, author interview.
9 “It constitutes a kind of a double”: Dean McGrath, author interview.
10 “a disgraceful policy”: Elliott Abrams, author interview.
11 “We had a good relationship”: Dick Cheney, author interview.
12 “North Korea policy was”: Stephen Yates, author interview.
13 “They never had an answer”: Christopher Hill, author interview.
14 “Even before they exploded”: Condoleezza Rice, author interview.
15 “I am not going to go to war”: Eric Edelman, author interview.
16 “I don’t think he had less”: Stephen Hadley, author interview.
17 “I just think he became a lot”: Rice interview.
18 “He had a lot of experience”: Cheney interview.
19 “a spent force”: David Gordon, author interview.
20 “He looked tired”: Neil Patel, author interview.
21 “He fell asleep quite often”: Senior administration official, author interview.
22 “Did you see?”: Latimer, Speech-Less, 168.
23 “as a matter of principle”: Robert Joseph, author interview.
24 “brilliant, fearless, and argumentative”: Holbrooke, To End a War, 80.
25 “I don’t think in my”: Administration official, author interview.
26 “He was a junior Holbrooke”: Michael Green, author interview.
27 “I love Chris, and I made”: Rice interview.
28 pushed through the House: U.S. House Clerk’s Office, http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll099.xml.
29 “never cut off funding”: Nancy Pelosi, interview with ABC News, January 19, 2007, http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=2805714&page=1#.T4XyOHgjj-A.
30 “No, this is important”: Ronald Neumann, author interview.
31 described as “a loud boom”: Dick Cheney, remarks to traveling press, Air Force Two, February 27, 2007, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2007/02/20070227.html.
32 “They clearly try to find”: Ibid.
33 “I’ve seen some press reporting”: Dick Cheney, briefing for traveling press, Air Force Two, February 27, 2007, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2007/02/20070227-8.html. While the briefing was on “background,” meaning Cheney could be identified only as a “senior administration official,” his cover was soon blown by the transcript sent out by the White House. The transcript used the “senior administration official” terminology but left the quotations in the first person, as in “That’s not the way I work.”
34 “there is a cloud over”: Byron York, “Scooter Who? In Closing Arguments, Fitzgerald Points the Finger at Dick Cheney,” National Review, February 21, 2007, http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/220047/scooter-who-closing-arguments-fitzgerald-points-finger-dick-cheney/byron-york.
35 alone in his office, Cheney: Hayes, Cheney, 519–20.
36 “mistakes were made”: Alberto Gonzales, news conference, March 13, 2007, Federal News Service transcript.
37 “something of a shock”: Sammon, Evangelical President, 189–90.
38 “felt that cancer was stalking”: Peter Baker, “White House Spokesman’s Colon Cancer Has Returned,” Washington Post, March 28, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/27/AR2007032700828.html.
39 “I think he’s become more”: Jim Rutenberg, “Ex-aide Says He’s Lost Faith in Bush,” New York Times, April 1, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/washington/01adviser.html?pagewanted=all.
40 “a little crying heap”: Meghan O’Sullivan, author interview.
41 “George, I’m asking you to”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 420–22. Elliott Abrams said he did not remember Olmert saying that. See Tested by Zion, 246–47.
42 “You were right”: Michael Hayden, author interview.
43 “If this stuff leaks”: Eric Edelman, author interview.
44 “impatient and spoiled”: Reid, Good Fight, 4.
45 “this war cannot be won”: Ibid., 15.
46 “If you think this is about”: Ibid., 18.
47 “this war is lost”: The full quotation was “Now, I believe myself that the secretary of state, the secretary of defense and—you have to make your own decision as to what the president knows—that this war is lost and that the surge is not accomplishing anything, as indicated by the extreme violence in Iraq yesterday.” Harry Reid, news conference, April 19, 2007, Federal
News Service transcript.
48 “chewed my ass”: Woodward, War Within, 346. While Harry Reid later said he might have chosen his words more carefully, he refused to apologize.
49 Sixty-four times, he said: Republican senators were scathing as Alberto Gonzales repeatedly pleaded a bad memory. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma called for his resignation. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania called his testimony “at variance with the facts.” John Cornyn of Texas used the phrase “really deplorable.” Dana Milbank, “Maybe Gonzales Won’t Recall His Painful Day on the Hill,” Washington Post, April 20, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/19/AR2007041902571.html.
50 “He talked a lot about”: Peter Baker, “A President Besieged and Isolated, yet at Ease,” Washington Post, July 2, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/01/AR2007070101356.html.
51 “He actually touched the eye”: Ibid.
52 House passed a spending bill: The bill authorized a total of $124 billion in spending, of which $95 billion would go to the wars. The rest was for Hurricane Katrina recovery, emergency aid to farmers, medical care for veterans, homeland security, and other spending items. The House voted for it 218 to 208, with two Republicans joining the Democratic majority and thirteen Democrats voting no. U.S. House Clerk’s Office, April 25, 2007, http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll265.xml.
53 “Why did you replace”: Tom Davis, author interview.
54 “You guys aren’t coming”: Ibid.
55 “The very fundamental issue”: Peter Baker and Thomas E. Ricks, “3 Generals Spurn the Position of War ‘Czar,’ ” Washington Post, April 11, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/10/AR2007041001776.html.
56 In April, 104 American troops: Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, known as icasualties.org, http://icasualties.org/iraq/ByMonth.aspx. Note that this link goes to the page showing all coalition casualties; to get the American casualties requires using the filter at the bottom.
57 “Look, Mr. President”: Douglas Lute, author interview.
58 He was reading a column: David Ignatius, “After the Surge,” Washington Post, May 22, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/21/AR2007052101439.html.