Some Reuters excerpts from "the book "

Yes, that means it's in the news, kiddies.

"The president started from scratch and relied on advice of ideologues without any honest brokers in sight," O'Neill said.

At Cabinet meetings, it was clear Bush had not read the memos O'Neill had sent him, which he kept intentionally brief. In a one-on-one discussion about Social Security, O'Neill said the President just "checked out."

Cabinet discussions were usually pre-scripted with the outcome determined in advance. On one occasion when there was real discussion on tax policy, Bush quickly became "befuddled," according to O'Neill.

"If the president didn't connect in the first minute or two, it was a lost cause," he said.

...In the first National Security Council meeting he presided over on Jan. 30, 2001, Bush quickly decided to put Arab-Israeli peacemaking on the back burner and concentrate on Iraq.

..."Bush described meeting (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon...'We flew over the Palestinian camps. Looked real bad down there. I don't see much we can do over there at this point. I think it's time to pull out of that situation'," he said, according to O'Neill.

Secretary of State Colin Powell warned the consequences of that could be more bloodshed. "Bush shrugged. 'Maybe that's the best way to get things back in balance'."

...O'Neill asserts that with Bush unwilling or unable to read detailed briefing papers, policy was decided on and controlled by Vice President Dick Cheney, supported by political advisers Karl Rove and Karen Hughes and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice -- a "Praetorian Guard" that surrounded the president and kept alternative viewpoints out.

In O'Neill's eyes, Bush's "lack of inquisitiveness or pertinent experience" meant he did not really care about long-established positions of the U.S. government and was willing to abandon them without scruple or regret.   article

If people are going to turn a blind eye to this kind of information, then you can abandon hope. With O'Neill's long service in Washington and his reputation for telling it like it is (even Bubblehead is on record characterizing O'Neill as someone above reproach), plus his generally conservative politics and business savvy, it's going to be hard to smear the man.

I wonder what the ruthless criminals will do as more and more of this gets made public.

Probably won't have to wait long for an answer, since it took the Treasury Dept. only one day to launch an investigation into the secrecy matter of any documentation O'Neill may have provided the book's author. (A bit quicker on that draw than the national-security threat leak of a covert CIA agent.)

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.