While introducing Paul O’Neill to the nation as his choice as Treasury Secretary in 2001, George W. Bush lauded O’Neill as “a straight shooter.”
Bush didn’t know the half of it.
Proving that hell hath no fury like a Treasury Secretary scorned, O’Neill, who was pushed out of his job in December 2002 as part of an attempt to bring in a “fresh” economic team, has told CBS News that Bush was so disengaged during Cabinet meetings that he was like a “blind man in a roomful of deaf people.”
When Democrats say stuff like this, the GOP calls it “hate speech.” But remember, this is Bush’s own Republican Treasury Secretary.
Apparently a little bitter about the way he was mistreated by the White House, O’Neill has written a tell-all book painting Bush as a know-nothing leader who discouraged and avoided substantive discussions.
Relaying the story of his first meeting with the president, O’Neill said, “I went in with a long list of things to talk about and, I thought, to engage (Bush) on. … I was surprised it turned out me talking and the president just listening. It was mostly a monologue.”
You know, I knew there was something about Paul O’Neill I always liked…