O'Neill & Suskind on NPR's "Fresh Air" today

[G_j]

http://freshair.npr.org/

Wednesday

Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and Ron Suskind. Suskind is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, whose controversial new book, The Price of Loyalty, is about O'Neill's observations of how the Bush administration operates.

[blondeatlast]

1. "Fresh Air" comes on just as I leave work--I ALWAYS listen.

Definitely today--an intelligent, fair interview with these guys!

[gWbush is Mabus]

2. I hope she asks Paul if...

he has spoken with "Fuck him like he's never been fucked" Rove since the 60 minutes interview?

That would explain the back-tracking in my view.

[librechik]

3. Yes; Suskind is the reporter who overheard Rove say that

he saw everything behind the scenes then. And this is the followup. Absolutely brilliant.

The pieces are starting to fall into place

[seemslikeadream]

4. This interview is on now

in the midwest

[IkeWarnedUs]

5. I've been listening to the show

And recording it.

I think O'Neil is the perfect person to blow this whistle. He was on the inside of the Bush White House - including the Cabinet, NSA and Energy Task Force - and has the resume to make him a credible observer. He is also absolutely meticulous (almost anal) about his facts and careful not to hyperbolize. He takes care not to bash Bush - he let's the truth do that. And he has the respect of a LOT of intelligent, influential people in business - Bush's bankrollers.

Btw, at the beginning of the show he says ALL of the 19,000 documents he gave Suskind he got from the chief legal counsel for the Energy Department and didn't take them himself. He said he told the counsel he was writing a book and wanted to know what he could have and they gave them to him.

We couldn't design a better whistle blower.

Edit for spelling.

[barbaraann]

16. I have a feeling the Energy legal counsel thought the book would be

a bush admin puff piece. Teehee

[WillyT]

23. I Agree IWU, I Think So Too !!!

He's telling the truth; 'The Emperor has no clothes'. The fact that he's not jumping up and down with glee about it, makes it even more potent.

We, OTOH, can start enjoying a bit of glee here.

I'm bettin this book takes WAY off!!!

:bounce::hi::bounce:

[Ernesto]

6. This is great drama!

Our advocate Suskind with his reluctant "star witness". Terry is working very hard on this one..... ..O Neill, the classic techy nerd who is very cautious about his quotes while his agent explains what he is talking about!.... All the while, Terry trying to make the "big headline". the show even went a full 55 minutes! I love it! ..... on edit, I've got to agree with "IkeWarnedUs". ONeill is the perfect whistle blower!

[G_j]

8. thanks

I'm looking forward to listening to it. It will be playing here shortly.

[CatWoman]

11. listen online

that's what I'm doing:

http://freshair.npr.org/day_fa.jhtml?display=day&todayDate=01/14/2004

[ArkDem]

7. I'm afraid something bad will happen here.

Very hard for me to trust a writer from the Wall Street Journal.

[AP]

9. WSJ WRITERS have blown cover on important stories. It's the editors who...

...suck.

[cthrumatrix]

10. it's the book and facts in the book which are OUT and damaging

[spooky3]

14. yep; Susan Faludi (Backlash) was a WSJ writer.

[CatWoman]

20. two words:

Paul Gigot x(

[Terwilliger]

12. I can't get the segment to play

it loads and plays the commercial but nothing else happens :shrug:

[seemslikeadream]

13. There's print coverage of it here

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/01/14/kennedy.iraq/

oops I thought this was the Kennedy thread, sorry

[Terwilliger]

15. thanks, but, wrong topic

:D

This is O'Neill...not Kennedy

[Terwilliger]

17. oh *BLECH*

O'Neills apologizing for Bush all over the place...this is SUCH a non-event...the whistleblower is marginalizing himself!

[Ernesto]

18. Sorry it ain't a sound bite.

[Terwilliger]

19. O'Neill is still backtracking

he's basically arguing that "I had concerns, but they're nothing I would have put forward on my own"

He's still a right-wing nutball who believes in the superiority of Republicans and Republicanism.

[Papa]

21. I wouldnt say he was backtracking, just the opposite

He confirmed that Bush is indeed a blind man in a room full of deaf people. He said he regrets using those words in trying to convey his point. He was trying to illustrate how Bush just sits there and doesn't ask questions, how Bush can't connect the dots.

To me it was like he was trying to temper his remarks so they were not construed as personal attacks against Bush, but did back away from anything that was said in the book. I thought the interview was very damaging to the administration.

[skippysmom]

22. Local NPR affiliate here in Boston

Decided to play second hour of Talk of the Nation, which was covering Bush's space shot, instead of Fresh Air with O'Neill and Suskind. I wonder why???