 | abichara (60)
03/30/2004 |  Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill isn't going to be getting any invitations to Kennebunkport or Crawford after that book, titled The Price of Loyalty came out which was written by Ron Suskind. Paul O'Neill was the CEO and Chairman of Alcoa before becoming Treasury Secretary. In that position he turned around the company by enacting transparency in decision making. During the 1970's, he worked in the Nixon and Ford Administrations as a budget analyst. O'Neill spoke fondly of those times when both Nixon and Ford would take the time to debate and review economic and social policy. This was in contrast to Bush, who was portrayed as intellectually incurious. The whole project was a stab in the back for Dubya, the Bush family is a lot like the Mafia, they place a very high premium on loyalty. Outing the President as an incompetent is very bad, but O'Neill doesn't seem to care one bit. He's even more disparaging about Cheney, whom he portrays as the real brains behind the Bush administration's policy and political operation. The account at the end of the book about ONeills firing is quite telling Bush never bothered to call him; it was Cheney doing the dumping. I understood why they did it, it looks bad politically having a Treasury Secretary not towing the official line. I personally liked O'Neill as Treasury Secretary; he was a straight shooter who made decisions based on the facts and not ideological expectations. Maybe he didn't care about playing the Washington game, but its that game that keeps good people out of politics and policy making. So what, we need more of O'Neill's straight talk. You can't nuance the fact that the deficit is unnecessarily sky high, that our tax policy needs to be revamped, that Social Security and Medicare needs real reform. After reading the book, I got the impression that he was a bit naive about the nature of cutthroat politics in DC, but his biggest sin was that he was honest. Unlike most people in the Bush administration, this man placed creative solutions for policy issues like Social Security, government budgeting, industrial policy, and environmental issues. It's a shame that Bush didn't listen to him more, unlike the political hacks around him, O'Neill offered sensible, pragmatic advice that took into account the long term interest of the country rather than short term covers designed to win the support of the right-wing base of the party.
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