O'Neill Says Book Intended to Spark Debate
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer
[Excerpts]
WASHINGTON - Paul O'Neill says he wanted to participate in a book that reveals the inner workings of the Bush administration because he believes the current political system badly stifles meaningful debate on public issues and needs to be fixed.
"I hope people will read it because I think it makes a contribution to illuminating, especially for young people, what I consider to be a bipartisan, broken political process," O'Neill said Tuesday, the day the book, "The Price of Loyalty," began appearing in bookstores nationwide.
However, the Bush administration and its supporters, unhappy with the unflattering portrait of the president that emerges from the book, written by former Wall Street Journal reporter Ron Suskind, stepped up their attacks, charging that a disgruntled O'Neill was seeking retribution for his dismissal as Treasury secretary in December 2002.
With the use of the documents he obtained, which in some cases included transcripts of key White House meetings, author Suskind was able to provide a rare inside look at a White House that has placed a high premium on guarding against unauthorized leaks.
Suskind, in an interview with The Associated Press, said that he planned to post many of the documents on the Internet in coming weeks so that the public can get a firsthand look at how policy has been made in the Bush administration.
"We will begin releasing them in a week or two so the American people can then read these documents for themselves," Suskind said. "This is very much a fact-based view of the administration's first two years."
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