Word on the street in Pittsburgh is that local hero Paul O'Neill spanks Bush a little bit in Ron Suskind's forthcoming new book,
The Price of Loyalty:
The book, "The Price of Loyalty," chronicles O'Neill's tenure at Treasury and conveys his impression of President Bush as a man uninterested in government policy, who tuned out detailed discussion of the economy and whose decisions were driven primarily by partisan politics.
...
Author [of the highly embarrassing "Mayberry Machiavellis" article] Ron Suskind, a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal, declined to comment on the book yesterday. Details obtained through other sources, however, suggested that O'Neill's experience in the Bush Cabinet left him disappointed at what he saw as the lack of a comprehensive economic plan.
...
Word of the book rumbled through Washington yesterday as speculation widened on how hard O'Neill would be on Bush and other key White House apparatchiks, including political adviser Karl Rove.
Paul O'Neill is famous around these parts for callin' 'em like he sees 'em, so I look forward to reading it.
Update: via Brad DeLong I learn that:
President Bush was so disengaged in cabinet meetings that he "was like a blind man in a roomful of deaf people," says former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill in his first interview about his time as a White House insider.
Lesson: don't piss off Paul O'Neill.
