O'Neill covering his ass on the Today Show - man is scared silly

[soleft]

Defending Bush, defending the White House, saying quips from book are being taken out of context, said some of the language he used he would have taken back.

Pushing the GOP talking point the Bush inherited regime policy from Clinton

[kanrok]

1. What did he say?

[morgan2]

2. seems mr rove had a talk with him about

his families health

[buff2]

17. Yes,the bu$h thugs got to him alright........

Wow.....what a difference a day makes! He's done a complete 180% turn. NO ONE goes against Jesus Bu$h....unless you want to DIE. How pathetic. This is the reason nothing sticks to that lowdown bastard. They've got everyone running for their lives if anything negative is said about their God. I don't see any hope of ever seeing justice done when it comes to the chimp. I've never seen anything in my life that can compare to this. Chimp is the only one in history that CAN'T BE TOUCHED!!! :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[soleft]

3. Just said he's going to vote for Bush in 2004 - this is going away folks

[Junkdrawer]

4. Yep. He backs way down...

Wishes he could take back the "blind man in a roomful of deaf people" quote.

Repeats the line that Iraq policy was simply a continuation of Clinton policy - "Of course we should have contingency plans".

Retreats to "I opposed the third tax cut".

[mouse7]

35. Doesn't matter - O'Neill's only real use was as document source

Come on... we did know they would wipe out O'Neill with smears. It's the documents that matter. They are the real evidence. O'Neill has certified the evidence chain on 60 Minutes nationwide. 90% of the guy's usefullness is already on the books.

[glarius]

5. I saw it....pathetic...he just verified their description of him as being

someone nobody would want to listen to....He backtracked all over the place....:puke:

[soleft]

6. Suskind must be going nuts

Like the scene in Godfather II when they bring in Frankie for the big testimony and Michael's got hit brother in the back of the court room.

[glarius]

13. Sadly O'Neill came across as a befuddled old man

His non-stop talking didn't help any either...Too bad....I really thought there was finally something that was going to stick to Bush!

[Native]

7. Unbelievable

You've got to be kidding? Please tell me you're kidding.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

8. When Ross Perot said Bush threatened his family...

everyone said he was crazy...

[kayell]

41. It does answer the question of whether he was naive or crafty

with his remark about "why should I be afraid of telling the truth". So sad. The BFEE fully deserves those RICO charges because they truly are mafiosa. There are Godfathers jealous as hell of the BFEEs ability to intimidate people.

Sadly, this man apparently did not figure just how far the BFEE would go to make him, or someone dear to him suffer.

[Cassandra]

50. Perot was crazy...

but probably not about that.

[jogi1969]

9. maybe the soundbte

"* was like a blind man in a room full of deaf people"
will linger on
anything that points toward how clueless * is will eventualy
sink in to the sheeple

[qanda]

10. I know which book I won't be buying

That was the most pitiful backtrack I have ever witnessed. When he said he would still vote for Bush, I couldn't believe it. He says the system is broken and then signs on for it to continue. Talk about a man with all questions and no answers.

[greyl]

16. Oh come on. Suskind's book relies on hundreds of people.

There's no cause for badtalking the book because of what an ex-Alcoa exec says to Katie Couric, is there?

[glarius]

18. That's one of the things I've noticed since this began....No media is

mentioning the fact that Susskind got the same assessment of Bush from many others in the White House...It's always made to look like it's just the opinion of one old man!

[Native]

32. Considering the title of the book is

The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill

I don't see how any number of other interviewees really makes a difference at this point. "The Price of Loyalty" - got to love the irony of it now.

[patricia92243]

11. Surprise, surprise - did anybody really think anything different would....

happen? To give credit where it's due, I wouldn't want the Republican party after me - be afraid of the, very afraid.

Get them out of WH -vote.

[dweller]

12. what did Suskind say?

much?

i watched it. pathetic. Continuation of Clinton's policy.
O'neill will vote for Bush, nobody else has his policy expertise (?)

O'neill asks KCouric " you read the book, is it critical of Bush?"
her answer: nothing....just asks another question.

this story is now defunct, done, forked.

dp

[spooky3]

52. Katie did a good job. It's not her job to answer questions

and you'll see pretty consistently that she and Matt work hard to keep the focus on the interviewee.

She asked him the right questions and was clearly surprised but not rattled by the answers. She kept pushing.

This is why the focus on O'Neill and his motivations for speaking out were not and are not the issue. The issue is, what evidence is there that wrongdoing has occurred? In this case, there is a lot of evidence to be considered that is independent of O'Neill, and there is no need for a he said/he said kind of credibility debate.

[RainDog]

14. The damage is done

to quote Yo La Tengo...

This is the same thing that DiIulio did after his article in Esquire magazine, which coined the phrase "Mayberry Machiavellis." Soon after the article appeared, he "retracted" and said that all was well in the Bush administration (all signs of reality to the contrary.)

BUT, that phrase, Mayberry Machiavelli, has not gone away, and it serves to correctly lable Rove and Bush. Krugman has used it in a column, as have others. It correctly pins the Rove machine against the wall.

DiIulio also noted that every decision which was made was based upon politics, not policy. These are issues which have come up again and again, and even though they got a "retraction" of sorts from DiIulio, the facts have not changed and many, many people know this.

Who, but the Mayberry Machiavellis, would out a CIA agent to score political points??

It's not only O'Neill who is making claims of deaf and dumb and blind...the War College and Col. Karen K. are doing the same.

The Plame investigation is not going away.

It takes some time for things to filter through the bullshit of talk radio and Fux news, but more and more there are people on the street who seem to have the 4-11 on the reality of this administration, no matter how hard they try to spin it or threaten it away.

[izzie]

45. Yes the' Prince 'has power. Well it is out there anyhow.

Loyal to the voters should be the line in the sand.

[greyl]

15. Did he recant on the lack of WMD evidence? nt

[Junkdrawer]

19. I have a high standard - but it was a judgement call and Bush was elected

to make such calls. :puke:

[DrBB]

20. His John DiIulio moment already?

What DOES Karl use on these guys? Gotta be serious, whatever it is.

Remember DiIulio--coiner of the phrase "Mayberry Machiavellis"? Followed within days by this:

"John DiIulio agrees that his criticisms were groundless and baseless due to poorly chosen words and examples. He sincerely apologizes and is deeply remorseful."

Written by Karl, signed by John. I guess they decided it would be too suspicious to have O'Neil do exactly the same thing, but it's close.

[SpaceCatMeetsMars]

40. That Suskind Esquire article on Rove

Couldn't find it, but found the relevant quote at a blog:

"Suskind is the one who originally wrote the story of witnessing Rove's anger and wrath:

But after a moment, it was like ignoring a tornado flinging parked cars. "We will fuck him. Do you hear me? We will fuck him. We will ruin him. Like no one has ever fucked him!" As a reporter, you get around—curse words, anger, passionate intensity are not notable events—but the ferocity, the bellicosity, the violent imputations were, well, shocking. This went on without a break for a minute or two. Then the aide slipped out looking a bit ashen, and Rove, his face ruddy from the exertions of the past few moments, looked at me and smiled a gentle, Clarence-the-Angel smile."

http://www.yatpundit.com/archives/000259.html

I would like to know what they threaten people with.

[Karenina]

44. WHOOMP! Dey it is!

THAT is the link! Thanx, CJ! :yourock:

[DrBB]

46. Re: Suskind wrote the DiIulio article in Esquire as well

Bet they've had him tracked. Bet they knew he was working with O'Neill. Bet they had weeks to figure out what the leverage was to make O'Neill do a DiIulio. Bet they were chuckling at the irony of it all, and couldn't wait for the story to break so they could spring this.

edit: tweaked subject

[muchacho]

21. shame

I guess he's not old or rich enough....

[The Backlash Cometh]

22. The man has been threatened. It's obvious.

He will turn out to be a martyr if Bush isn't careful.

[DrBB]

23. Rather leaves KRUGMAN twisting in the wind today

From Krugman's op-ed in today's Times:

"I was one of the few commentators who didn't celebrate Paul O'Neill's appointment as Treasury secretary. And I couldn't understand why, if Mr. O'Neill was the principled man his friends described, he didn't resign early from an administration that was clearly anything but honest.

But now he's showing the courage I missed back then, by giving us an invaluable, scathing insider's picture of the Bush administration."

Guess you were right about him after all, Paul.

[w13rd0]

24. To the person that asked what Rove has on them...

...the contract they signed with the Devil. That's all Rove needs...

[glarius]

26. "These people are nasty and have a long memory"...O'Neill's words

which he now seems to be trying to disprove.

[Mika]

29. No need for Rove when there are hundreds of people advising O'Neil..

.. not to fly on small planes and such. Like some of the people giving advice here on DU.

[Guaranteed]

25. WE'VE STILL GOT THE DOCUMENTS.

I'm frickin' pissed about this- still waiting to see it, myself. But, the damage has been done, and Suskind has the documents. And the 60 Minutes episode already showed.

Too late, Bush. Everything from here on out is Bush's damage control and his being vindictive.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

27. BINGO!!!! the documents can NOT lie!....bushco is doing damage control!!!

[w13rd0]

31. I don't know...

...they went after O'Neil hard and fast once the talking points came down. Think they are sparing Suskind? I don't think it's likely. They'll rely upon this to drive down his book sales. But I think someone needs to "find" a copy of that CD, or something. Suskind needs to just make a couple copies and drop them here and there. He needs to do something, otherwise he'll be Hatfield in three months time.

[Guaranteed]

34. He needs to get what he knows out NOW.

Hit them FIRST, hit them HARD. Go all in, remove all doubt.

[SpiralHawk]

28. Paging Mr. Pulitzer Prize Suskind

Will you please report to the nation's major TV studios and stand up for your work.

Thank you very much.

PS - I hope you get the scoop on what BushCo did to threaten O'Neill. You deserve it.

[Guaranteed]

30. He was on the Today Show yesterday.

Anyone have a transcript?

[Native]

38. You can view the video of yesterday's Suskind interview

at their website http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3032633/

[Guaranteed]

47. Everyone needs to see that video from yesterday

The tone of that interview is VERY different from the tone of today's. Something DEFINITELY happened.

[Jose Diablo]

36. Mr. Suskind has been depressed lately n/t

[spooky3]

53. There is also the timing--it's election year and Dems can make an issue of

it. And, the longer the Iraq mess goes on, the more people will listen to them. I just wish there were a way to make the long term consequences of *'s disastrous management of the economy apparent to people now.

[PATRICK]

33. To be expected

This is a conflicted, genuine corporate conservative. Like David Brooks he can recoil at the excess and horror but never question his allegiance or ideology. A peculiar madness, but mainly an insufficiency I noted earlier. When Bono took him on the African misery tour, O'Neill was genuinely horrified and involved. yet, he could not conceive of any means of alleviating the problem except through the filter of his own ideology. I suppose O'Neill is equally innocent in his own conflicts of business interest.

And taxes. This is the naif after all who was ebullient about WH plans to cut all corporate taxes- and oh yeah, in the ensuing workers' paradise maybe theirs would just go away too. He let that interview out very early in 2001 in the Financial Times- and now he complains a bit about inequities?

This was the tearful, truly offended whiner who took offense to Byrd's dressing down in Senate Hearings, touting his own poor man's origins to the wrong guy.

No, what we have most to learn here is the absolute intransigence of some honest(apparently they exist!) Conservative backers of Bush, and how the corporate world cannot imagine how the monsters in their midst are destroying them(their pals!) much less how it is rooted in bad ideology. It is easier fro an elephant to go through a needle's eye... They never would own up to the same in Nixon's crimes or Reagan's failures, just rewrite their memories and ignore true instincts. Like any blinkered, close knit group they cannot police their own.

[Guaranteed]

37. O'Neill on Today Show very shortly for Central Time

And Suskind is THERE.

[Guaranteed]

42. Yup, pretty serious backtrack.

Not as bad as I thought it was going to be, though.

[0007]

39. I don't know why this surprises anyone? Disappointed maybe!

But think about it for a moment. This is great for us, because now it will cause more examination and a cause for more questions.

Christ! Paul O'Neill is a snake. Now he realizes this snake pit is bigger and blacker with larger snakes than his vindictiveness. Reality has just set in for the first time in a year for Paul.
I thinks it great!!

Talk about the clowns running the show this is hilarious.

[trof]

43. Wellll...maybe not a complete 180.

Maybe a 90 degree turn.
Just saw it, Central time.
Some backing and filling, some damage control, but not a complete 180.
That's just how it seemed to me.
Time will tell.

[Guaranteed]

48. Have a look at this:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3032633/

That's yesterday's interview with Suskind.

[spooky3]

56. darn, it doesn't work on Macs. Sorry I missed this.

[kayell]

49. He now knows that he really loves Big Brother

and will retire to drink that special clove flavored gin down at the Chestnut Tree Cafe.

[Snivi Yllom]

51. what a whore. An Olympic caliber Whore

He said that he planned on voting for Bush in 2004 as he had seen no other viable alternative/candidate.

WTF!?!?!?!?!?!?!

I knew all this was too good to be true.

[Gin]

54. Suskind had experience with the DiLulio story being backtracked...

This may be factored into the whole plan already....mentioning
the documents so many times was odd to me....whatever their reasoning...the story got out...will not be forgotten...and any publicity is good publicity.

Shrub is still portrayed in a way we will not forget. The whole scene was worth it for me.

[Tatiana]

55. From TPM.com:

So now the White House has pilloried Paul O’Neill as a sorry doofus and, by all appearances, launched a punitive investigation against him.

How about denying any of his claims or those in Suskind’s book?

Just a thought ...

And will O'Neill go the way of John DiIulio and Nick Smith? Where's the document they want him to sign? And who writes them?

From the archives, DiIulio's Kamenev moment: "John DiIulio agrees that his criticisms were groundless and baseless due to poorly chosen words and examples. He sincerely apologizes and is deeply remorseful."

Yikes, I'd hate to make enemies out of these guys. Or, wait ...

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

[nolabels]

57. It's all just a missunderestimation

This is funny, change of heart Paul? From brave soul back to chicken heart, again.

I guess what they say is true, many are called upon, but few answer the call. * and cabal putting razor wire over this gapping hole only means it is all true and to walk onto the other side one need only find the correct tools to get around it. ( I would use a good pair of leather gloves, set of fence pliers and a 24" bolt cutter)


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