by Peter Baker
24 comparing the president: Senator Charles Schumer told a news conference, “The president is looking more and more like Herbert Hoover, sort of whistling a happy tune as the economy heads south.” Federal News Service transcript, March 14, 2008.
25 “We’re going to get killed”: Sorkin, Too Big to Fail, 38–39.
26 “Two-thirds of Americans”: Martha Raddatz, interview with Dick Cheney, March 19, 2007. After a furor arose about his answer, Cheney tried to pass it off, saying Raddatz had simply made a statement and he was prompting her for a question. He gave another interview to Raddatz on March 24, 2007, and when she asked about it, he said, “Well, you didn’t really ask me a question, Martha, as I recall.” But he went on to essentially reaffirm his meaning. “The point I wanted to make and I will make again is the president of the United States under these circumstances dealing with these kinds of issues can’t make decisions based on public opinion polls.”
27 “He believed that losing”: John Hannah, author interview.
28 “Everything else was less important”: Liz Cheney, author interview.
29 “It was very, very precipitous”: David Petraeus, author interview.
30 “Everybody here thought this”: Douglas Lute, author interview.
31 “Don’t tell me this is a bad”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 389.
32 “This has some potential”: Petraeus interview.
33 “We have wanted him to step up”: Lute interview.
34 “This is going to be a decisive”: Petraeus interview.
35 “I hope it’s going to be”: Ibid.
36 “He came back from Basra”: Lute interview.
37 “went from being docile”: Lindsey Graham, author interview.
38 “So you’re saying you’re”: Fiona Hill, author interview.
39 “You’re not with the policy”: Ibid. In an e-mail exchange with the author, Joe Wood said he did not recall saying those words but may have said that “I didn’t think she should push any policy view one way or the other.”
40 “I looked in his eyes and I saw”: Administration official, author interview.
41 “If they want it and they’ve”: Second administration official, author interview.
42 “This is about me and Angela”: Damon Wilson, author interview.
43 “I will see you at the OK”: Ibid.
44 Putin had compared the United: Vladimir Putin, speech, Munich Security Conference, May 9, 2007. He said, “We do not have the right to forget the causes of any war, which must be sought in the mistakes and errors of peacetime. Moreover, in our time, these threats are not diminishing. They are only transforming, changing their appearance. In these new threats, as during the time of the Third Reich, are the same contempt for human life and the same claims of exceptionality and diktat in the world.” Andrew E. Kramer, New York Times, May 9, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/09/world/europe/10cnd-russia.html.
45 “Look, the only way I can”: Wilson interview.
46 “We agreed today that”: Bucharest Summit Declaration, NATO Summit, April 3, 2008, http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/official_texts_8443.htm.
47 “The Russians were furious”: Hill interview.
48 “flashing yellow light”: Carl Bildt, the Swedish foreign minister, used the term in describing how Mikheil Saakashvili interpreted messages from Washington. Asmus, Little War That Shook the World, 142–44.
49 “wanted something more robust”: David Gordon, author interview.
50 “We were arguing that”: Ibid.
51 “We had an extremely”: Patel interview.
52 “There were a lot of questions”: Jim Connaughton, author interview.
53 “The wrong way is”: George W. Bush, speech on climate change, Rose Garden, April 16, 2008, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2008/04/20080416-6.html.
54 “Most people looked around”: Patel interview.
55 “Looking back, maybe we”: Connaughton interview.
56 “going fucking crazy”: Hayden interview.
57 Palestinians 94 percent: Rice, No Higher Honor, 651–53.
58 “It sounds like he’s serious”: Ibid.
59 playing “Trumpet Voluntary”: Sandra Sobieraj Westfall and Beth Perry, “Jenna Bush’s Texas Style Wedding,” People, May 26, 2008, http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20203980,00.html.
60 Bush had it rewritten: Ed Gillespie, author interview. See also Matt Latimer, “When Bush Caved to Egypt,” The Daily Beast, January 30, 2011, http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/01/30/president-bush-pulled-his-punches-on-egypts-mubarak-too.html.
61 “a fateful misstep”: McClellan, What Happened, xii.
62 find a way to forgive: Dana Perino, author interview at the time.
63 Karen Hughes was struck: Karen Hughes, author interview.
64 “The only reason I have”: Brett McGurk, author interview. This was a favorite Cheney line. When Mark Leibovich, then a reporter for the Washington Post, asked him in the first term whether he would write a memoir someday, Cheney said, “Sometimes I think I got this job because I didn’t write about the last job.” See Leibovich, “The Strong, Silent Type,” Washington Post, January 18, 2004.
65 “If he doesn’t want me to go”: Latimer, Speech-Less, 267–69.
66 “He can’t get five hundred”: Ibid.
67 “What do you guys think about”: Administration official, author interview. In an interview with the author, Ed Gillespie said he did not remember that conversation.
68 “shall not be suspended”: Article I, Section 9, U.S. Constitution, http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html.
69 “The laws and Constitution”: Anthony M. Kennedy, majority opinion, Boumediene v. Bush, June 12, 2008, http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/06-1195.ZO.html.
70 she refused to use them: Sean McCormack, author interview.
71 “We’re just signing a piece of paper”: Matt Latimer, author interview.
72 “Now that’s verifiable”: Rice interview.
CHAPTER 35: “OUR PEOPLE ARE GOING TO HATE US FOR THIS”
1 “That’s ridiculous”: Baker, “Final Days.”
2 “Nothing can erase”: John Bolton, “The Tragic End of Bush’s North Korea Policy,” Wall Street Journal, June 30, 2008, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121478274355214441.html?mod=djemEditorialPage.
3 “Let me just say from”: Baker, “Final Days.”
4 “Phyllis Schlafly with a mustache”: Christopher Hill, author interview.
5 “Do you really want to”: Stephen Hadley, author interview.
6 “seemed so out of keeping”: Dick Cheney, In My Time, 486.
7 “he was only going to fight”: Cheney friend, author interview.
8 “Cheney won that one”: Ibid.
9 “On balance”: Michael Hayden, author interview.
10 “We have been 0 for ’07”: Ibid.
11 “We’re seeing a dangerous accumulation”: Juan Carlos Zarate, author interview.
12 The plan called for a much: Senior administration officials, author interviews. See also Schmitt and Shanker, Counterstrike, 102–3.
13 “a Home Depot–sized warehouse”: Hayden interview.
14 “We’re going to stop playing the game”: Mazzetti, Way of the Knife, 267.
15 69 percent disapproval: Gallup Poll, April 18–20, 2008, http://www.gallup.com/poll/106741/bushs-69-job-disapproval-rating-highest-gallup-history.aspx.
16 just 28 percent supported: New York Times/CBS News poll, March 28–April 2, 2008. http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/politics/20080404_POLL.PDF.
17 contemplating Bush’s assassination: Nicholson Baker published Checkpoint in 2004 about a character who threatens to kill Bush. In 2006, Gabriel Range produced the movie Death of a President with computer-generated special effects depicting Bush’s assassination. Among those who considered it in poor taste was Hillary Clinton, who called it “despicable” and “absolu
tely outrageous.” Dwight R. Worley, “Sen. Hillary Clinton Blasts Bush Assassination Film,” Journal News, September 16, 2006, http://web.archive.org/web/20061023003633/http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060916/UPDATE/609160394. And in 2007, Krandall Kraus published the novel The Assassination of George W. Bush: A Love Story, in which a disillusioned Secret Service agent from Midland, Texas, decides to kill Bush.
18 68 percent of Americans: USA Today/Gallup poll, June 15–19, 2008, http://www.gallup.com/poll/108490/americans-worry-mccain-would-too-similar-bush.aspx.
19 “He became an albatross”: Joseph Lieberman, author interview.
20 “It wasn’t fair”: Charles Black, author interview.
21 Black was deputized: Ibid. See also Heilemann and Halperin, Game Change, 366.
22 “It was so ingrained in”: Nicolle Wallace, author interview.
23 “listened too much”: Roger Simon, “McCain Bashes Cheney over Iraq Policy,” Politico, January 22, 2007, http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0107/2390.html.
24 “His attitude was, look”: Black interview.
25 to the storm as “disgraceful”: Elisabeth Bumiller, “McCain Assails Administration for ‘Disgraceful’ Response to Katrina,” New York Times, April 25, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/world/americas/25iht-mccain.4.12355635.html.
26 “Republicans will be saying”: Notes taken by participants after private conversations with George W. Bush, provided to author.
27 “I felt that a straightforward”: Dick Cheney, In My Time, 520.
28 “He had the sometimes”: George W. Bush remarks, Tony Snow memorial service, July 17, 2008, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2008/07/20080717-1.html.
29 “Mr. President, it is in this”: Administration official, author interview.
30 “when I made the decision”: Senior official, author interview.
31 “It was literally like William Wallace”: Tony Fratto, author interview.
32 “We’re worse off than we”: John McCain, campaign ad, “Broken,” August 5, 2008, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylJkmMR8Fek.
33 He found Medvedev “hot”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 434–35.
34 Later reports indicated: A European Union investigation, citing a Russian official agency, reported that 162 South Ossetian civilians were killed during the entire course of the war from August 7 to 12. South Ossetia produced a list of 365 residents killed during the entire war, including both civilians and members of the armed services. Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia, 223–24, http://www.ceiig.ch/pdf/IIFFMCG_Volume_II.pdf.
35 “I hope you’re not”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 434–35.
36 “I’ve been warning you”: Ibid.
37 “Look, I’m already in a war”: Fiona Hill, author interview.
38 “I need to give him an answer”: Several administration officials, author interviews.
39 “a fair amount of chest beating”: Rice, No Higher Honor, 688–89.
40 “I think you need to poll”: Stephen Hadley, author interview.
41 regime change as their goal: Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, told Condoleezza Rice by phone that one condition of a cease-fire was that “Misha Saakashvili has to go.” Rice rejected the demand and made it public. See Rice, No Higher Honor, 688.
42 “I want to hang Saakashvili”: French newspaper accounts, cited by Asmus, Little War That Shook the World, 199.
43 “Did you look at a map?”: Condoleezza Rice, author interview.
44 “What’s the one thing”: William Luti, author interview.
45 the announcer say “Pawlenty”: Heilemann and Halperin, Game Change, 382.
46 “I’m trying to remember”: Latimer, Speech-Less, 273. In an interview with the author, Ed Gillespie said that “would capture the sentiment” that the president felt about Palin.
47 “reckless choice”: Heilemann and Halperin, Game Change, 368. In an interview after leaving office, Cheney told Jonathan Karl of ABC News that the Palin pick was a “mistake” because “she’d only been governor for, what, two years” and “I don’t think she passed that test” of being prepared to take over the presidency. See Karl, “Dick Cheney: Picking Sarah Palin for VP Was ‘a Mistake,’ ” July 29, 2012, http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/07/dick-cheney-picking-sarah-palin-for-vp-was-a-mistake/.
48 “You really want me to”: Latimer, Speech-Less, 269–70. In an interview with the author, Gillespie said he did not recall that.
49 “From stem to stern, President Bush”: Wayne Berman, author interview.
50 “not chasing the public opinion polls”: Latimer, Speech-Less, 271.
51 “My fellow citizens, we live”: George W. Bush, video address to Republican National Convention, September 2, 2008, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2008/09/20080902-11.html.
52 twelve times as often: Peter Baker, “The Party in Power, Running as If It Weren’t,” New York Times, September 5, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/05/us/politics/05assess.html.
53 McCain thanked “the president”: John McCain, acceptance speech, Republican National Convention, September 4, 2008, http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/president/conventions/videos/transcripts/20080904_MCCAIN_SPEECH.html.
54 “did the president say”: Murphy and Purdum, “Farewell to All That.”
55 “Do they know it’s coming, Hank?”: Paulson, On the Brink, 1.
56 “What the hell is going on?”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 456–58.
57 “Will we be able to explain”: Ibid.
58 “How did we get to this”: Paulson, On the Brink, 235–37.
59 “If we don’t shore up”: Ibid.
60 “Someday you guys are going”: Ibid.
61 “stopped saying he was glad”: Charlie Younger, author interview.
62 “what else can go wrong”: Karen Hughes, author interview.
63 “do you have a death wish?”: David Petraeus, author interview.
64 “What happens if we don’t?”: Ed Gillespie, author interview. For a slightly different version of the conversation, see Paulson, On the Brink, 255–57.
65 “I will give you all”: Joel Kaplan, author interview.
66 “Our people are going to hate us”: Tony Fratto, author interview.
67 “In that political environment”: Ibid.
68 “Tell Hank to calm down”: Michele Davis, author interview. See also Paulson, On the Brink, 255–57.
69 “If we’re really looking at”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 439–40.
70 despite twenty-five trips by Condoleezza Rice: Rice visited Israel and the Palestinian territories three times as much as Colin Powell did and twice as much as any other destination during her four years in office. http://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/travels/secretary/rice-condoleezza.
71 should be called MARX: Latimer, Speech-Less, 265–66.
72 a “strong supporter” of it: Dick Cheney, In My Time, 506–8.
73 “They were a nonfactor”: Matt Latimer, author interview.
74 It was “a stunt”: Latimer, Speech-Less, 258–62.
75 calling McCain a “stupid prick”: Ibid.
76 “I could see the headlines”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 460–62.
77 “McCain asked for this”: David Axelrod, author interview.
78 “We can’t even defend”: Latimer, Speech-Less, 258–62.
79 concluded there were $3 trillion: Ed Lazear, author interview.
80 “our entire economy”: George W. Bush, address to nation, September 24, 2008, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2008/09/20080924-10.html.
81 “I don’t think Congress has”: George W. Bush, telephone call with Angela Merkel, September 25, 2008. Notes of call provided to author.
82 “What’s McCain going to”: Heilemann and Halperin, Game Change, 387–89.
83 “Hank, we are going to get”: Kaplan intervie
w. See also Paulson, On the Brink, 295–300.
84 “We need to get there”: Kaplan interview. See also Paulson, On the Brink, 295–300.
85 “If money isn’t loosened up”: Several participants, author interviews. See also George W. Bush, Decision Points, 460–62; Dick Cheney, In My Time, 509; Paulson, On the Brink, 295–300; Sorkin, Too Big to Fail, 492–93; Heilemann and Halperin, Game Change, 387–89; and Balz and Johnson, Battle for America, 348.
86 “I told you you’d miss me”: Jonathan Alter, The Promise: President Obama, Year One (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011), 12. Alter added this to the paperback edition.
87 “It was almost like children”: Eric Draper, author interview.
88 “Well, I’ve clearly lost control”: Several participants, author interviews.
89 “That was the most ridiculous”: White House official interview.
90 “Gee, Hank, I didn’t know”: Paulson, On the Brink, 295–300.
91 “They’re not going to get”: Fratto interview.
92 “Six hundred points!”: Julie Hirschfeld Davis, “Bailout Bill Slapped Aside; Record Stock Plunge,” Associated Press, September 29, 2008.
93 went down 228 to 205: U.S. House Clerk’s Office. http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll674.xml.
94 had plummeted 777 points: Davis, “Bailout Bill Slapped Aside.”
95 “Let’s get Hank back over”: Fratto interview.
96 “this could be worse than 9/11”: Draper interview.
97 “Give us the ball for twenty-four hours”: Kaplan interview.
98 “If you don’t pass this”: Specter, Life Among the Cannibals, 141.
99 74 to 25 later that day: U.S. Senate roll call record. http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00212.
100 263 to 171 two days later: U.S. House Clerk’s Office. http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll681.xml.
101 smoked cigars to mark: Fratto interview.
102 “I realized this is not”: Petraeus interview.
103 “How important is this”: Stephen Hadley, author interview.
104 “You know, Condi, you”: Ibid.
105 “I just don’t think it is”: Ibid.