Posted by Mark Silva at 5:40 pm
With the release today of Bob Woodward's third book about the Bush administration at war, the White House has gone to war with the author over contentions that the president suppressed calls for more troops in Iraq, sheltered his embattled defense secretary from a campaign within the administration - and even within his own household - to remove Donald Rumsfeld and ignored an early warning about the threat of a terrorist attack.
The president's press secretary has compared the book, State of Denial, to a carnival confection: "The book is sort of like cotton candy - it kind of melts on contact," Tony Snow said this week. And the White House today unleashed a litany of "myths" in Woodward's writing and "facts" according to the White House's take on the war. But it was the author who occupied center stage today, on the national mall - a strangely evasive show that left many questions unanswered.
Woodward became the star attraction at the National Book Festival staged on the grass mall between the Capitol and Washington Monument today - a festival that opened with a breakfast for authors in the East Room of the White House with host Laura Bush, a cosponsor, along with the Library of Congress, of the D.C. book fair. A few thousand people crowded into and around the main tent of the book fair for Woodward's talk - expecting perhaps, some insights about the war and the president who had declined to cooperate with an interview with Woodward during the writing of his new book.
In a truly Musharraf-like moment, Woodward declined to talk about the book today, citing a deal he has made with CBS' 60 Minutes, which will air a segment about the book Sunday evening. The president of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, had declined to comment on threats the U.S. made to him after Sept. 11, 2001, in the East Room of the White House recently because he too had a book coming out last week and had cut an exclusive interview deal with CBS - Woodward and Musharraf even share the same publisher, Simon and Schuster.
Woodward "will not be able to talk about that book, because of his agreement with 60 Minutes," Marie Arana, editor of The Washington Post's book reviews, said to loud boos throughout the big book tent.
"The reason is, 60 Minutes sends one of their best producers down to my house... Moves in for days... Reads the book... The documentation... Just to make sure that it's right," Woodward explained. "I make that agreement with them," he said, but "after 60 Minutes, I am going to be on every television and radio show."
The president's own silence during Woodward's research for his newest book stands in sharp contrast to the cooperation that he provided for the first two.
In the first two books, "I interviewed him for seven or eight hours," Woodward recalled, retelling a story that Bush had told him about the invasion of Iraq - that Bush hadn't spoken with his father about it beforehand. "I asked him, 'Didn't you say, Gee Dad, what do you think?' And he said no."
The war, as Woodward knows better than any other popular writer, is the central narrative of the Bush administration.
"With Bush, when he came to office I thought the story was going to be the tax cut," he said. But all that changed. "You have to go to the center. The center, for George Bush, is the war."
But Woodward missed a prime opportunity to comment today on the White House's criticism for his newest book on the war. The White House earlier today had released a list of what it calls the "myths" in Woodward's book and what it considers the "facts." Woodward, sounding a bit like the White House on some days, was not taking questions about any of this at the book fair.
Of course, the White House relies on the quoted comments of its own people - Tony Snow, Donald Rumsfeld and others - to rebut what Woodward has written about them. The mere recitation of these rebuttals serves as a sign of how troubled the White House is with Woodward's "myth"-making:
Here it is:
"Five Key Myths In Bob Woodward’s Book:"
MYTH #1: Woodward Says The Facts Of A May 24 Intelligence Assessment Refuted The President’s Forecasts In A Chicago Speech Two Days Earlier. (Bob Woodward, State Of Denial, 2006)
Ø FACT: President Bush Knows We Are In A Tough, Critical Struggle And Consistently Reminds The American People Of This, Including In His Chicago Remarks. In Chicago, the President said: “Our nation has been through three difficult years in Iraq. And the way forward will bring more days of challenge and loss.” (President Bush, Remarks, Chicago, IL, 5/22/06)
* President Bush: “The Path To Freedom Is Always One Of Struggle And Sacrifice. And In Iraq, Our Brave Men And Women In Uniform Have Accepted The Struggle And Have Made The Sacrifice.” (President Bush, Remarks, Chicago, IL, 5/22/06)
* President Bush: “The [Iraqi] Government Is Still A Work In Progress, And Overcoming Longstanding Divisions Will Take Time. Iraq’s New Leaders Know They Have A Great Deal Of Work Ahead To Broaden The Base Of Their Government And To Unite The People.” (President Bush, Remarks, Chicago, IL, 5/22/06)
* President Bush: “And I Can Understand Why People Are Concerned About Whether Or Not Our Strategy Can Succeed, Because Our Progress Is Incremental. Freedom Is Moving, But It’s In Incremental Steps.” (President Bush, Remarks, Chicago, IL, 5/22/06)
* President Bush’s December 2005 Address To The Nation: “Yet Our Work Is Not Done. There Is More Testing And Sacrifice Before Us.” “Since the removal of Saddam, this war, like other wars in our history, has been difficult. The mission of American troops in urban raids and desert patrols, fighting Saddam loyalists and foreign terrorists, has brought danger and suffering and loss. … The work in Iraq has been especially difficult – more difficult than we expected. Reconstruction efforts and the training of Iraqi security forces started more slowly than we hoped. We continue to see violence and suffering, caused by an enemy that is determined and brutal, unconstrained by conscience or the rules of war. … The terrorists will continue to have the coward’s power to plant roadside bombs and recruit suicide bombers. And you will continue to see the grim results on the evening news.” (President Bush, Address To The Nation, Washington, DC, 12/18/05)
MYTH #2: Woodward Claims The Administration Ignored Paul Bremer’s Requests For More Troops. (Bob Woodward, State Of Denial, 2006)
Ø FACT: Bremer Has Said His Request Was Considered. BREMER: “[Rumsfeld] said he’d received it and would consider it and he did he consider it.” (NBC’s “Meet The Press,” 1/15/06)
Ø FACT: Sec. Rumsfeld Has Said Bremer’s Request Was Considered. RUMSFELD: “Just before he left he sent a memorandum to me indicating that he thought there should be more troops, and it was within a matter of weeks before he departed. And I took that and sat down with General Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and said, this is a reasonable proposal from a reasonable person; let’s look at it. And he took it down into the Joint Staff and the tank and had the chiefs – and they spent several weeks in making evaluations with respect to it, and at some moment came back to me – I acknowledged receiving the memo from Jerry Bremer when I received it, told him what I was going to do with it, giving it to General Myers.” (Sec. Donald Rumsfeld, Press Briefing, 1/12/06)
Ø FACT: Gen. Pace Has Said Bremer’s Request Was Considered. PACE: “Sir, we did a very thorough analysis of that recommendation and when we got done, all the chiefs agreed with the commanders in the field that the numbers of troops in the field then, as now, was appropriate to what we were fighting.” (Gen. Peter Pace, Press Briefing, 1/12/06)
* Tony Snow: “The Idea That Somehow The President Rejects Or Ignores Advice Is Simply Wrong.” “There is a chain of command, and the chain of command involves a lot of people, and the President will give differing advice. But the idea that somehow the President rejects or ignores advice is simply wrong. And the President – and so what you have here are people making serious determinations. Donald Rumsfeld is the Secretary of Defense, and in the chain of command, he is the person who will make the recommendations. What you have not heard, I don’t think, are the Generals involved in the theaters saying, I asked for something and I didn’t get it. Tommy Franks’ book is replete with discussions of that. And you can ask the Generals in the field, because the President has said it over and over again, if they ask for it, they’ll get it.” (Tony Snow, Press Briefing, 9/29/06)
MYTH #3: Woodward Claims Condoleezza Rice Brushed Off George Tenet And Cofer Black’s July 2001 Warning About Al Qaeda. (Bob Woodward, State Of Denial, 2006)
Ø FACT: According To State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack, The Recollections Portrayed By Woodward Do Not Reflect Tenet And Black’s 9/11 Commission Testimony. “But Rice and other State Department officials denied [Woodward’s claim], noting that the report of the Sept. 11 commission, which had sworn testimony from Tenet and others at the meeting, made no mention of the July 10 encounter. ‘The recollections as portrayed in the Woodward book in no way reflect the public and private testimony under oath of those individuals to the 9/11 commission,’ said Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman.” (David E. Sanger, “White House Disputes Book’s Account Of Rifts On Iraq,” The New York Times, 9/30/06)
MYTH #4: Woodward Claims Gen. Abazaid Alleged Sec. Rumsfeld “Doesn’t Have Any Credibility Anymore.” (Bob Woodward, State Of Denial, 2006)
Ø FACT: Gen. Abizaid’s Spokesman Says Gen. Abizaid Denies Saying This, And In Fact “General Abizaid Has Nothing But The Greatest Respect For Mr. Rumsfeld.” (David E. Sanger, “White House Disputes Book’s Account Of Rifts On Iraq,” The New York Times, 9/30/06)
MYTH #5: Woodward Claims Then-Chief Of Staff Andy Card Tried To Remove Sec. Rumsfeld, And Mrs. Bush Also Wanted Him Removed. (Bob Woodward, State Of Denial, 2006)
Ø FACT: Card Has Made Clear That Woodward Ignored The Situation’s Context. “‘Right after the election, I went to Camp David and talked to the president, and we talked about a lot of changes, starting with the chief of staff,’ Mr. Card said, recounting how he used to tote around what he called his ‘hit by a bus book,’ a notebook of lists of potential replacements for senior White House staff members and top cabinet officials. ‘It’s not inaccurate to say that we talked about Rumsfeld,’ he said. ‘I can understand why Bob would try to create a climate around these conversations.’ But he added: ‘There was no campaign, and I didn’t go out and solicit others to back any view about getting rid of anyone. I could talk about these things with the president, and plant seeds, because there is a cadence to life in Washington and you raise these issues periodically.’ Mr. Card acknowledged that he renewed the question of replacing Mr. Rumsfeld this year, but again insisted that it was not part of a specific effort to single out the defense secretary for removal.” (David E. Sanger, “White House Disputes Book’s Account Of Rifts On Iraq,” The New York Times, 9/30/06)
Ø FACT: “Mrs. Bush’s Office Has Said, Not True … Flatly Not True.” (Tony Snow, Press Briefing, Washington, DC, 9/29/06)
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Comments
I doubt if this really adds anything to what we already know -- some more details, perhaps. But we've always known how this administration went to war; according to their own (unrealistic) scenario and simply shutting out anybody who may have contradicted it.
Posted by: Juanito | September 30, 2006 5:59 PM
Hey but thats OK Juanito...I'ld vote for them again because they're not democrats...
right Juanito?
Posted by: bill r. | September 30, 2006 6:55 PM
And paper shredders all over Washington are humming -- ensuring the WH spin.
Fortunately, the American government is still "a work in progress" and voters will be able to participate in goverment's boldest experiment -- democracy-- in November.
Apologies to Elmore James, "I believe I'll dust my broom."
Posted by: Kenny Bunkport | September 30, 2006 6:57 PM
Juan,let's stay the course,that's a policy.
Posted by: Raving Loon | September 30, 2006 7:57 PM
Someone else shouting 'the truth!' in a crowded theater.
Guess Woodward didn't hear the news; Truth not covered by the 1st Amendment.
Posted by: C.Morris | September 30, 2006 8:12 PM
Boy, I didn't see this coming. I thought for sure Bob Woodward would always be welcomed after his first book on the Bush White House (which led to his second, less flattering book on the Bush White House).
I guess the Bushies realized Woodward was getting too close to the truth that second time around to let him interview Bush and Cheney for the third book.
Posted by: Roger | October 1, 2006 9:31 AM
Hey kids,
This is off topic, but sort of related. Clarence Page has an interesting riff about Oprah, Obama, racial symbolism and the leadership vacuum in American politics.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0610010255oct01,1,4258611.column?coll=chi-opinionfront-hed
Posted by: Juanito | October 1, 2006 10:26 AM
It's funny that the other books that Bob Woodward wrote about George W.,Cheney and Co.,that were more flattering towards the the Dubya Whitehouse,were held up as gospel by the Dubya team.......fastforward to today...and all of a sudden Dubya tells us that Woodward doesn't know what he's talking about.
Haven't we heard this kind of stupidy from George Jr.,and Cheney before ???
Posted by: John E. | October 1, 2006 12:07 PM
NYT
WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 — Members of the Sept. 11 commission said today that they were alarmed that they were told nothing about a White House meeting in July 2001 at which George J. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, is reported to have warned Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser, about an imminent Al Qaeda attack and failed to persuade her to take action.
*******************************
Slowly, remorselessly, painfully, 'Lady Truth' shakes off the steel reinforced concrete that has been so painstakingly applied.
Now the American people are being confronted by the awful, awful truth.
"I have seen the enemy, and he is us'ins."
(Pogo)
Posted by: C.Morris | October 1, 2006 8:09 PM
Let me look into my crystal ball...I'm guessing we'll be seeing attacks on the messenger in the days to come...Bruce, where are you?
Posted by: jethro | October 2, 2006 8:27 AM
The most insulting thing is that we in America seem to be just as gullible and stupid as Dick and "W" believe we are.
Posted by: Jdoyle | October 2, 2006 11:55 AM
Juanito...sorry I didn't respond to you until now. I understand and can sympathize with your beliefs. I guess I lean now(have voted rep before) towards the dems because I find the attitude of the republicans smug,hypocritical,and mean spirited. Someday maybe there will be some sort of party that would actually have their poop together..we'll see!
thanks
Posted by: bill r. | October 2, 2006 3:23 PM
bill r,
I'm glad you understand. I hope we both see that day.
Posted by: Juanito | October 2, 2006 7:14 PM