State of Denial - Random Thoughts

I'm down to the last fifty pages of Woodward's latest. I think it's overly cynical (even for Washington) to dismiss this book as a feeble attempt to for Bob to get back on the "right side" of Washington. It's well researched and no one, despite feverish attempts,has been able to poke any serious holes into Woodward's reporting. It's readable, though frequently humdrum. Woodward in this book, as in others, has the tendency to seemingly randomly toss in stories that don't seem to fit neatly in the narrative, but give rise to quotable items for book reviews and/or talking heads book discussions (i.e.; Bush and Rove's predilection for fart jokes).

That said, I found the chapter discussing the 2004 election day compelling (okay,I admit I'm a loser). Much to my surprise, Rove and the troops were sweating it out like the rest of the political junkies. Apparently, while they have extremely detailed voter results and polling coming in that allows them to assess trends, they actually utilize information very similar to the info publicly available to the networks and over the internets(intentional inside reference to that national treasure, the architect of the bridge to nowhere, the Senior Senator from Alaska, Ted Stevens - who by the way takes the time to pile on Donny Rumsfeld in the book).

No surprise that virtually anyone that deals or has dealt with SECDEF Rumsfeld thinks he's an asshole, although often this characterization is made with grudging respect. He's a consummate bureaucratic infighter and a zen master at Hot Potato, the potato is never in his hands when the music stops - just like the responsibility for missteps in Iraq.

VP "Shoot'em Up" Dick Cheney gets short shrift. We know he did speak to Woodward extensively regarding the previous book, Plan of Attack as well as for a book Woodward is working on now. Those discussions lead to the disclosure that Henry Kissinger has met regularly with Cheney and Bush regarding Iraq. According to a recent tv interview with Woodward, Cheney called him regarding that disclosure pissed off, claiming that the disclosure was purely on background and not for attribution. Woodward disagreed and said that Cheney mentioned it in a rather off-hand fashion at the start of a recent interview regarding the new book (Woodward claims emphatically that the tapes of that interview support his position). At that point, according to Woodward the VP said "Bullshit" and hung up. Class act. You half expect Big Dick to send over a couple of guys from Balck Ops to poison Woodward's goldfish or something.

Otherwise, Cheney sits silently in meetings with the President and principals that are used to one-on-one sessions with the President (i.e.: Sec of State Powell) with a Darth Vader-like presence. He appears to relish the reputation he has built and everybody around him treds very softly and avoids fights with him at all costs.

Sec. of State Rice is skewered as too weak for the task and too interested in cheerleading for GWB to tell him what he really needs to hear. Throughout the book military and policy professionals complain that the truth is sugarcoated for easy digestion for a President that lacks intellectual curiousity and doesn't fancy internal dissent.

Oh sure there's ample discussion of the Administration keeping disturbing facts from timely entering the public domain, particularly at politically inopportune moments, but that's no shock to anyone that pays attention. Overall, I've found it interesting and informative. People in positions of power in large part are willing to tell their side of the story to Woodward.