by Peter Baker
16 “charged and pointed debate”: Annan, Interventions, 4–5.
17 “I can’t be his national security”: Rice, No Higher Honor, 478–79.
18 “Blair, what are you”: Peter Baker, “Bush’s Bull Session: Loud and Clear, Chief,” Washington Post, July 18, 2006. The conversation was mistakenly transmitted via a live microphone to a separate press center where reporters heard it. When he later heard about the conversation, Kofi Annan wrote that he wished he “could simply ‘make something happen’ with just a phone call.” See Annan, Interventions, 4–5.
19 “Speaking of sanctions against”: Peter Finn and Peter Baker, “Kremlin Sells Russia’s Best Self,” Washington Post, July 18, 2006.
20 “I left St. Petersburg more”: George W. Bush, call with Tony Blair, July 28, 2006. Notes of call provided to author.
21 staged a ceremony: George W. Bush, remarks to audience in East Room, July 19, 2006, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/07/20060719-3.html.
22 “We were trying to keep”: Sara Taylor Fagen, author interview.
23 “If I were running”: Mary Clare Jalonick, “Thune Says He Would Distance Himself from Bush Agenda,” Associated Press, July 19, 2006.
24 “He thought Thune was ungrateful”: White House official, author interview.
25 “The deteriorating security”: Administration official, author interview.
26 “Do people call you Sparky?”: Ibid.
27 pulse rate of forty-seven: The White House released a four-page summary after George W. Bush’s annual physical exam. http://www.bethesda.med.navy.mil/professional%5Cpublic_affairs%5Cpress_releases%5C2005%5C019_-_pres_annual_physical.htm.
28 “He’s the first one to admit”: Peter Baker, “The Final Days,” New York Times Magazine, August 29, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/magazine/31bush-t.html?pagewanted=all.
29 “It’s something you can solve”: Pamela Hudson Nelson, author interview.
30 “When you’re working for the president”: Baker, “Final Days.”
31 “Riding helps clear my head”: Steve Holland, Reuters, August 5, 2006.
32 “The more pressure there was”: Mark McKinnon, author interview.
33 “I was just, you know, trying”: Tony Snow told the story in a commencement address at Catholic University on May 12, 2007. http://publicaffairs.cua.edu/Releases/2007/07CommencementAddress.cfm.
34 “crater the runways”: John Hannah, author interview.
35 “We need to let the Israelis”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 414.
36 “Here’s a copy of something”: Condoleezza Rice, author interview.
37 “He is a natural debater”: Ibid.
38 “It made a difference when”: Michael Gerson, author interview.
39 “It wasn’t personal”: Liz Cheney, author interview.
40 “George Bush’s mental weakness”: Joe Scarborough, Scarborough Country, MSNBC, August 15, 2006, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14375558/#.T3x_Fngjj-A.
41 “success in Iraq seems more”: “A Fighting Chance in Iraq,” National Review, August 10, 2006, http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/218448/fighting-chance-iraq/editors.
42 “we seem not to be winning”: Quin Hillyer, “Lessons from the Black and Silver,” American Spectator, August 16, 2006, http://spectator.org/archives/2006/08/16/lessons-from-the-black-and-sil.
43 mocked neoconservative aspirations: George F. Will, “The Triumph of Unrealism,” Washington Post, August 15, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/14/AR2006081401163.html.
44 “would eventually lead to death”: Peter Wehner, e-mail, August 16, 2006, distributed inside the White House and to a list of outside political figures and journalists. It was posted on the conservative Web site TownHall.com. http://townhall.com/columnists/peterwehner/2006/08/16/responding_to_george_wills_realism/page/full/.
45 “Iraq was not a communications”: Peter Wehner, author interview.
46 “They weren’t pushing things up”: George Casey, author interview.
47 One close aide to the secretary: Pentagon official, author interview.
48 “I’m not sure Rumsfeld”: Another Pentagon official, author interview.
49 “The situation seems to be”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 371.
50 But growth was slowing: Nell Henderson, “Economy Gained Strength in 2006,” Washington Post, February 1, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/31/AR2007013100422.html.
51 “We can’t predict when”: Paulson, On the Brink, 47.
52 “It’s time to put our pride”: Peter Baker, “For Bush, War Anguish Expressed Privately,” Washington Post, September 25, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/24/AR2006092400747.html.
53 “I do the best I can to cry”: George W. Bush, interview with Katie Couric, CBS News, September 6, 2006, http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-500923_162-1980081.html.
54 “a deafening kind of quiet”: Laura Bush, Spoken from the Heart, 305.
55 “The number of people that”: Joe Hagin, author interview.
56 “He did his job”: Stephen Hadley, author interview.
CHAPTER 28: “DON’T LET THIS BE YOUR LEGACY”
1 “We had just a huge blood”: Senior administration official, author interview.
2 “I want to keep some of it”: Michael Hayden, author interview.
3 fewer than a hundred detainees: Michael Hayden and Michael B. Mulkasey, “The President Ties His Own Hands on Terror,” Wall Street Journal, April 17, 2009, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123993446103128041.html.
4 “just like a conductor”: Senior administration official interview.
5 “Democracies don’t disappear”: Condoleezza Rice, author interview.
6 “I think we have to empty”: Hayden interview.
7 “I oppose this, Mr. President”: Senior official interview.
8 “don’t let this be your legacy”: Rice, No Higher Honor, 502.
9 “He was very animated”: William Burck, author interview.
10 “These are dangerous men”: George W. Bush, speech, September 6, 2006, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060906-3.html.
11 waterboarded 183 times: The details of the waterboarding were revealed in April 2009 after President Barack Obama ordered the release of secret legal memos justifying the interrogation program. http://s3.amazonaws.com/nytdocs/docs/151/151.pdf.
12 threatened with a power drill: Mark Mazzetti, “Report Provides New Details on C.I.A. Prisoner Abuse,” New York Times, August 22, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/us/politics/23cia.html.
13 “I want to be absolutely clear”: George W. Bush, remarks to reporters, September 6, 2006, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060906-3.html.
14 Bush was sending legislation: The proposal asked Congress to set up a military commission system built on the traditional military court-martial system but different in important respects. For instance, suspects would not have to be read Miranda warnings about their rights, and classified evidence in some circumstances could be introduced against them without allowing them or their attorneys to review it. http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060906-6.html.
15 “we had clutched defeat”: John Bellinger, author interview.
16 “Do you want to tell me”: Joshua Bolten, author interview.
17 “your unpopularity is going”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 355. Mitch McConnell later denied Bush’s account of their talk but would not discuss what he recalled saying. “That’s not my recollection of the conversation,” McConnell told Ryan Alessi, a political talk show host in his home state of Kentucky, in January 2011. “But I’m not going to get into an argument with President Bush and go back and rehash all of that.” http://mycn2.com/politics/mcconnell-said-he-had-different-recollection-of-conversation-with-bush. But Cheney in his memoir referenced the same conversatio
n and said he later had a follow-up with McConnell in which the senator admitted he was wrong. In My Time, 462. An aide to Bush also recalled the president telling him about the conversation immediately afterward. In an e-mail to the author, a spokesman for McConnell said the senator was only talking about timing, that if the president was going to make a change in Iraq policy, he should do it before the election rather than wait until afterward.
18 “Cutting and running is not”: Mitch McConnell, remarks to reporters alongside Senator Bill Frist, U.S. Capitol, September 5, 2006, Federal News Service transcript.
19 “Hey, guys!” he exclaimed: Administration official and Meghan O’Sullivan, author interviews.
20 “We’re edging toward strategic”: Woodward, War Within, 129–38.
21 “We were working that”: Donald Rumsfeld, author interview.
22 “I wanted to call you in”: Kenneth Adelman, author interview. See also Jeffrey Goldberg, “The End of the Affair,” New Yorker, November 20, 2006, http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/11/20/061120ta_talk_goldberg.
23 “fresh pair of eyes”: Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, 2.
24 “The good news”: Ibid. In actuality, the calculation was wrong, though it is not clear whether Dick Cheney had it wrong or Donald Rumsfeld remembered it wrong. Rumsfeld identified this conversation happening in “early October.” But it would not be until November 18 that there would be 794 days left, which was well after Rumsfeld had been forced to resign.
25 “He stood by me”: Dick Cheney, In My Time, 51–52.
26 “Maybe he didn’t have”: Ibid., 442–43.
27 “If Rumsfeld saw a Kosovo”: J. D. Crouch, author interview.
28 feeding him excerpts: John Hannah, author interview.
29 “The friendship with Rumsfeld”: Senior administration official, author interview.
30 “Even though Cheney knew”: White House official, author interview.
31 “some in the Pentagon civilian”: Dick Cheney, In My Time, 439.
32 “He didn’t say it to me”: Rumsfeld interview.
33 “I’ve got to get someone”: Jack Morrison, author interview.
34 “Tell me where they are”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 215–16.
35 “They almost came to blows”: Rice, No Higher Honor, 444–45.
36 “Look, I want to assure you”: Congressional official, author interview.
37 “Cheney was losing steam”: Ibid.
38 “We had to waterboard him”: Second congressional official, author interview.
39 “The world is beginning to”: Colin Powell to John McCain, September 13, 2006. The stationery ignored his service in Bush’s cabinet and listed him as “General Colin L. Powell, USA (Retired).” http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2006/images/09/14/powell.article.pdf.
40 “contained everything we asked”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 179.
41 “It’s a disgraceful day”: Senior White House official, author interview.
42 “The transfer of nuclear”: George W. Bush, remarks to reporters, October 9, 2006, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/10/20061009.html.
43 “Is this the best they can do?”: Christopher Hill, author interview.
44 “We cannot solve this”: Ibid.
45 “whether the United States”: George W. Bush, speech, Washington, D.C., June 19, 2006, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/06/20060619-14.html.
46 “We will win in Iraq so long”: George W. Bush, speech, Milwaukee, July 11, 2006, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/07/20060711-11.html.
47 “We will stay the course”: George W. Bush, speech in Salt Lake City, August 30, 2006, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/08/20060830-10.html.
48 “the situation is simply drifting”: Anne Plummer Flaherty, “Sen. Warner Casts Dismal View of Iraq,” Associated Press, October 11, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/05/AR2006100501364.html.
49 Ed Gillespie called to see: Ed Gillespie, author interview.
50 “The characterization of”: George W. Bush, news conference, October 11, 2006, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/10/20061011-5.html.
51 “Listen, we’ve never been stay”: George W. Bush, interview on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, ABC, aired October 22, 2006, http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/story?id=2594541&page=1&singlePagerue#.TtQfRWAjj-A.
52 “If you had a clean sheet”: William Luti, author interview.
53 military in Baghdad acknowledged: John Ward Anderson, “General Says Mission in Baghdad Falls Short,” Washington Post, October 20, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/19/AR2006101900891.html.
54 “I’ve had people call”: Dick Cheney, interview with Scott Hennen, WDAY, October 24, 2006, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/10/20061024-7.html.
55 “didn’t say anything about”: Dick Cheney, interview with White House reporters, October 27, 2006, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/10/20061028-2.html.
56 “Do you think we’re winning”: George W. Bush, news conference, October 25, 2006, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/10/20061025.html.
57 “they’re coming after us”: George W. Bush, interview with conservative journalists, October 26, 2006, http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/219056/interview-commander-chief-nro-primary-document.
58 “Dick, can I talk to you”: Dick Cheney, In My Time, 442–43.
59 “It wasn’t open for discussion”: Dick Cheney, author interview.
60 “Both those men are doing”: Terence Hunt, “Bush Says Rumsfeld, Cheney Should Stay,” Associated Press, November 1, 2006, http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2006Nov01/0,4670,Bush,00.html.
61 “I think we’re going to lose”: Ken Mehlman, author interview.
62 “He’s my guy”: Joshua Bolten, author interview.
63 “I disagree with your decision”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 91–94.
64 “Dick, would you like to be”: Dick Cheney, In My Time, 442–43.
65 “the president has decided”: Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, 705–6.
66 “I’m just too much of a”: Dick Cheney, In My Time, 442–43.
67 “time for a major adjustment”: Donald Rumsfeld to White House, memo, “Iraq—Illustrative New Courses of Action,” November 6, 2006. Accessed at http://www.rumsfeld.com.
68 Of twenty recent polls: Peter Baker, “President Who Sees in Absolutes Awaits Voters’ Definitive Answer,” Washington Post, November 7, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/06/AR2006110601218.html.
69 “ripped the guy a new one”: Bolten interview.
70 “What’s your plan?”: George W. Bush, rally for Governor Rick Perry of Texas, Dallas, November 6, 2006, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/11/20061106-6.html.
71 “I’ve prepared this letter”: Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, 707–8.
72 Republican incumbents went down: Dan Balz, “Democrats Take House,” Washington Post, November 8, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/07/AR2006110701838.html. In the end, thirty seats changed hands in the House, giving Democrats a majority of 233 to 202. Ultimately, Democrats picked up six seats in the Senate, eking out a 51-vote majority with two independents who sided with the party.
73 “Even today”: Bolten interview.
74 “Why all the glum faces?”: George W. Bush, news conference, November 8, 2006, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/11/20061108-2.html.
75 there was just angry silence: Scott Palmer, e-mail exchange with author.
76 “We shed no tears in Kabul”: Neumann, Other War, 144–45.
77 “in a complete depression”: National Security Council official, author interview.
78 “Don Rumsfeld has been”: George W. Bush, news conference, Novembe
r 8, 2006, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/11/20061108-2.html.
CHAPTER 29: “THE ELEPHANTS FINALLY THREW UP ON THE TABLE”
1 “I’m just thinking about”: Dan Bartlett, author interview.
2 “He really felt strongly that”: Karen Hughes, author interview.
3 “He was noticeably colder”: George Casey, author interview.
4 “It should not take a large”: Administration official, author interview.
5 “We’d be betting the whole house”: Administration official interview.
6 “is either ignorant of what”: Stephen Hadley to George W. Bush, memo, November 8, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/world/middleeast/29mtext.html?_r=1&oref=slogin.
7 “How’s your boy?”: Michael D. Shear, “In Following His Own Script, Webb May Test Senate’s Limits,” Washington Post, November 29, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/28/AR2006112801582.html.
8 “Get me the one-pager”: Peter Baker, “Karl Rove Remains Steadfast in the Face of Criticism,” Washington Post, November 12, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/11/AR2006111101103.html.
9 “The Republican philosophy”: Ibid.
10 Exit polls found that 36 percent: National Exit Polls, November 8, 2006, http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2006/pages/results/states/US/H/00/epolls.0.html.
11 “He would call every now”: Bill Clinton, author interview. This came from an interview conducted for a piece in the New York Times Magazine called “The Mellowing of William Jefferson Clinton,” May 31, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/magazine/31clinton-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print. Some of this was used in the article, and some was not.
12 “You could do it”: Administration official, author interview.
13 “political progress will help”: White House briefing slides, later declassified and released when the president made his surge speech to the nation, January 10, 2007.
14 “the hardest and worst memo”: Meghan O’Sullivan, author interview.
15 “may take additional forces”: J. D. Crouch, author interview.
