Scrapbook
Scrapbook The O'Neill Fizzle Paul O'Neill's revenge on the Bush administration turns out to be the Comet Kohoutek of political scandals— over almost before it began and deeply underwhelming. The...
...But how come only journalists deserve credit...
...We have a societal interest in exposing him...
...Drudge was in full-promotional mode ("Bush savaged by former Treasury chief...
...One of the biggest malfeasances of the left right now is the mislabeling of Hitler...
...Molly's Sorry Two weeks ago we reported on Molly Ivins's latest run-in with the plagiarism police...
...He approved of the leak investigation but didn't think he had done anything wrong...
...But hopes were high out in Bush-bashing land on January 9, the Friday before O'Neill's interview with Leslie Stahl aired on 60 Minutes...
...We'd call it par for the course...
...One of those documents, held up on the 60 Minutes camera, had the word "secret" on it...
...absolutely nothing" was wrong with them...
...So I'm pro-choice...
...Quit saying this guy is Hitler,' he said, referring to Mr...
...I certainly would never agree to destroying a stem cell if there was any chance at all, any chance at all, that the embryo would turn into a human being...
...Miller has been an increasingly out-of-the-closet right-winger since 9/11...
...O'Neill was said to have proof of a secret Bush plan to invade Iraq in the early days of his administration...
...In July 2001, Specter said on Face the Nation., "I certainly would never agree to cloning...
...There was O'Neill's very mean-sounding (though incomprehensible) criticism of the president and his cabinet: a "blind man in a roomful of deaf people...
...I think that Hussein being imprisoned for decades would be very salutary for minor tyrants...
...Would he have so lackadaisically released thousands of documents from his tenure as CEO of Alcoa...
...When Treasury announced it was investigating, O'Neill hastily back-pedaled on Tuesday morning's Today show...
...I think society's best interests are served by keeping him on display," said Specter, according to a Dec...
...Pat Toomey, the self-term-limited conservative congressman who's taking on Specter in the Republican primary, was all over the flip-flop, calling it "disturbing...
...But at a press conference in April 2002 he said that he "disagrees with President Bush's statement in opposition to reproductive cloning...
...Well, okay by us...
...As Alison Hawkes of the Doylestown Intelligencer noted last week, Specter said this repeatedly: * "If he's in jail for a long period of time, he'd be a constant reminder," to the world, said Specter in a Bucks County Courier Times editorial board meeting on Dec...
...But anybody whose last vision is of a tile pattern on a bathroom floor, I don't know what kind of genius they are...
...The fired former Treasury secretary had a great 48 hours of publicity...
...What he gave Suskind, he claimed, had been vetted by the general counsel of Treasury, who put everything releasable from his tenure, some 19,000 documents, on "a couple of CDs which I've frankly never opened...
...Miller Time We're looking forward to comedian Dennis Miller's new cable talk show, which debuts on CNBC on January 26...
...So I gave Ron the CDs...
...forces captured Saddam Hussein in December, Specter was gung-ho to throw the dictator in jail—but not to execute him...
...He'll do a lot more good on the outside...
...7. And the Specter campaign told Fox News the following day that he's "never voiced an opinion that Saddam Hussein should not face the death penalty...
...CBS was touting the "19,000 documents" O'Neill had provided to Suskind...
...Ideally, this book will cause people to stop and think about the current state of our political process and raise our expectations for what is possible," said O'Neill...
...In her syndicated column last week, she fessed up: "Crow Eaten Here: I learn via The Weekly Standard that I owe credit for a line I've used about Arnold Schwarzenegger—"looks like a condom stuffed with walnuts"—to an Australian journalist named Clive James...
...It's hardly his first such flip-flop...
...He was smart to resist their pitch...
...Hitler is Hitler...
...A Specter Haunts Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter, senior senator from the state, must be having a senior moment...
...California Republicans tried to talk Miller into running for the Senate against Barbara Boxer...
...Finally, he writes himself out of polite Boomer society by taking an iconoclastic shot at comedian Lenny Bruce: "Lenny was a heroin addict, and I could care less about heroin addicts...
...once I hear a guy is a heroin addict, and they tell me he's a genius, I think, really...
...Probably just the sort of thing someone with two faces finds appealing...
...Then, poof: The fizzle was so complete that by the end of the week, even the most partisan of columnists, Slate's Michael Kinsley, would conclude: "The only solid punch he lands on President Bush is unintentional: What kind of idiot would hire this idiot as secretary of the Treasury...
...20 article in the Norristown Times Herald...
...As Kinsley was right to point out: The president certainly should have had higher expectations for his cabinet...
...I first heard the line from a civil libertarian in Vermont and had no idea it had come from James, or I would have given him credit...
...If The Scrapbook were a "civil libertarian in Vermont," it would be very peeved that Molly thinks it's okay to rip us off without credit...
...And now he's a leading sponsor of legislation that would authorize cloning...
...First, he's unapologetic about his "slide to the right," telling Weinraub, " 'Well, can you blame me...
...After U.S...
...In this situation, I am not inclined to think that the death penalty would be the best for society's interests," Specter told a public gathering in Somerset County, as reported by the Daily American on Dec...
...Nice try at keeping the closet door ajar, Dennis...
...Nonetheless, "I gave them to Ron believing, as I do, if you're going to trust someone you need to trust them completely...
...Can't quarrel with that...
...Specter "is now, and always has been, for the death penalty for Saddam," the AP quoted him as saying on Jan...
...Naturally Rep...
...He said the Iraq documents were ordinary government studies...
...But this definition of pro-choice will never pass muster with NARAL...
...He can't seem to remember what he said last month...
...I'm not trying to be judgmental...
...We refer to his January 15 interview with the New York Times's Bernard Weinraub...
...Oops...
...The comparisons are] grotesque to me.'" Then he confesses: "I think abortion's wrong, but it's none of my business to tell somebody what's wrong...
...That's a remarkable confession from a former cabinet officer...
...CBS's publicity machine had released juicy excerpts from O'Neill's as-told-to memoir, The Price of Loyalty, by Ron Suskind...
...That was then...
...And there's obviously no going back for him now...
...My apologies...
Vol. 9 • January 2004 • No. 19
