Tuesday, June 02, 2009

book notes

Angler by Barton Gellman

Cheney was involved on behalf of Ford on Ford's negotiations with Reagan in 1980 to be a deputy president to Reagan.

During the Bush-Gore recount, Cheney ran the transition from the kitchen table at his McLean, VA, kitchen table.

Dan Quayle provides an interesting perspective on vp power, since Cheney was def sec when quayle was vp and refused to attend an emergency security council meeting while Daddy Bush was in flight and refused to accept any orders from quayle, waiting to to hear directly from Bush -- in contrast to the military orders Cheney surely issued to Rumsfeld during 9/11.

One of the things that made Cheney so distrustful of intel is the downfall of USSR. As Sec Def he was reading reports about its stability up to the day it fell.

Cheney told his staff that "An Autumn of War" by Victor Davis Hanson "captured his owns views exactly"

Bush was shocked to discover at the last minute that the director of the FBI, in addition to 5 other top Justice officials, were about to resign over the warrantless wiretapping program.

One big change in the 2nd admin was Andy Card replaced by Josh Bolton as chief of staff.