Thursday, January 15, 2009

Bob Woodward: Take George Bush.....Please

10 Takeaways from the Presidency of 43

From the WaPo, and Bob Woodward.

My fave:

1. Presidents set the tone. Don't be passive or tolerate virulent divisions.

In the fall of 2002, Bush personally witnessed a startling face-off between National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in the White House Situation Room after Rumsfeld had briefed the National Security Council on the Iraq war plan. Rice wanted to hold onto a copy of the Pentagon briefing slides, code-named Polo Step. "You won't be needing that," Rumsfeld said, reaching across the table and snatching the Top Secret packet away from Rice -- in front of the president. "I'll let you two work it out," Bush said, then turned and walked out. Rice had to send an aide to the Pentagon to get a bootlegged copy from the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Bush should never have put up with Rumsfeld's power play. Instead of a team of rivals, Bush wound up with a team of back-stabbers with long-running, poisonous disagreements about foreign policy fundamentals.


Really? Rumsfeld snatched the thing away from the National Security Adviser?

I hate Rumsfeld more every day. I wouldn't have thought it possible, but....

3 comments:

Michael said...

off topic: I was really surprised to see a young Rumsfeld in "Free to choose".

what was he doing in there? - how is it possible that this student of Milton screwed up so badly?

Shawn said...

yeah, me too phat...i was like...hol' on a second there, boys! I know that face!

just goes to show you why Adam Smith had nothing good to say about businessmen...and I don't think Milton really ever did either, though he was never rude about it.

Anonymous said...

Not sure I buy that story. how do I know that Rice should have had that info (if accurate)?