61 not "looking to point fingers": Tumulty, Carney, and Waller, "Behind All the Finger-Pointing."

62 "Putin is at huge risk": Bolton, Surrender Is Not An Option, 77.

63 "This treaty liquidates": George W. Bush, statement at treaty signing, May 24, 2002, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/05/20020524-10.html.

64 "I know you have separate": Baker and Glasser, Kremlin Rising, 221.

65 "Dick Cheney's notion of prophylactic aggression": Weisberg, Bush Tragedy, 197.

66 "We cannot defend America": George W. Bush, commencement address, U.S. Military Academy at West Point, June 1, 2002, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/06/20020601-3.html.

67 "He didn't get dragged": Steve Biegun, author interview.

68 "Finally, they buckled": Joseph Lieberman, author interview.

69 On poster board, they scratched: Susan B. Glasser and Michael Grunwald, "Department's Mission Was Undermined from Start," Washington Post, December 22, 2005, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/21/AR2005122102327.html.

70 "This thing has a head of steam": Cooper and Block, Disaster, 7677.

71 "The president will announce": Donald Rumsfeld, author interview.

72 "Tell him to shake his": Annan, Interventions, 273.

73 "I had to start by saying": George W. Bush made this comment during a joint presentation with Bill Clinton at IHS Forum at CERAWeek, Houston, March 11, 2011. The event was closed to reporters, but a transcript was provided to the author.

74 "He was dead set": Dan Bartlett, author interview.

75 "Whoever gave a damn": Michael Gerson, author interview.

76 went through thirty drafts: Abrams, Tested by Zion, 3943.

77 "Of the three of you": Hughes, Ten Minutes from Normal, 279.

78 "I call on the Palestinian": George W. Bush, address, Rose Garden, June 24, 2002, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/06/20020624-3.html.

79 "How's the first Jewish president": George W. Bush, Decision Points, 4045.

80 "Even with our friends": George W. Bush made the comment in an off-the-record session with reporters in the Oval Office on January 4, 2005. The author was not among those reporters but obtained notes taken by a participant.

81 "You couldn't wait for there": Dick Cheney, author interview.

82 "Al-Zarqawi has been directing": Rice, No Higher Honor, 178.

83 "doable, but challenging": Micah Zenko, "Foregoing Limited Force: The George W. Bush Administration's Decision Not to Attack Ansar Al-Islam," Journal of Strategic Studies, August 2009, http://www.cfr.org/iraq/foregoing-limited-force-george-w-bush-administrations-decision-not-attack-ansar-al-islam/p20035.

84 Cheney and Rumsfeld argued: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 23637. See also Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, 44647.

85 After one sharp debate: Rice, No Higher Honor, 178.

86 "super cautious": George W. Bush, comments to reporters, South Lawn, June 29, 2002, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/06/20020628-8.html.

87 "He's standing by": Ibid.

88 Sitting on a couch: Mike Allen, "Bush Resumes Power After Test," Washington Post, June 30, 2002.

89 "transfer temporarily": George W. Bush, letter passing power to Dick Cheney, June 29, 2002, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/06/20020629-5.html.

90 "resuming those powers": George W. Bush, letter revoking transfer of power, June 29, 2002, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/06/20020629-3.html.

91 "Here you have this liberal": Karen Hughes, author interview.

92 "There was a perceptible shift": The memo was dated July 23, 2002, and written by Matthew Rycroft summarizing a meeting between Tony Blair and top British officials. It was published in the Sunday Times of London on May 1, 2005, http://people.virginia.edu/~jrw3k/mediamatters/readings/SundayTimes_SecretDowningStreetMemo.pdf. [website is no longer active]

93 she brushed away his concerns: Haass, War of Necessity, War of Choice, 21316.

94 "They were really beating": Senior administration official, author interview.

95 "I really have to see": Colin Powell, author interview.

96 "Most Iraqis will rejoice": Dick Cheney, In My Time, 386.

97 "If you break it": Powell interview.

98 "We should take the problem": Powell, It Worked for Me, 211.

99 "Even if the UN doesn't solve it": Powell interview.

100 "Colin was more passionate": George W. Bush, Decision Points, 23738.

101 "The United States could certainly": Brent Scowcroft, "Don't Attack Saddam," Wall Street Journal, August 15, 2002.

102 "He was pissed off": Dan Bartlett, author interview.

103 "Son, Brent is a friend": George W. Bush, Decision Points, 23738.

104 "pre-9/11 mind-set": Dick Cheney, In My Time, 388.

105 "Brent, you know, I wish": Condoleezza Rice made the recollection during an Aspen Institute panel discussion honoring Scowcroft on August 6, 2011, http://www.aspeninstitute.org/video/summer-celebration-2011.

106 "thought it might be helpful": Rice, No Higher Honor, 17879.

107 "I got taken to the woodshed": Brent Scowcroft made the remark during the Aspen forum.

108 "All the neocons were saying": Jeffrey Goldberg, "Breaking Ranks," New Yorker, October 31, 2005.

109 "Dick, I think you may": Lott, Herding Cats, 23536.

110 "authorizing all necessary means": James Baker, "The Right to Change a Regime," New York Times, August 25, 2002, http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/25/opinion/the-right-way-to-change-a-regime.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm.

111 "Simply stated, there is no doubt": Dick Cheney, speech to Veterans of Foreign Wars, August 26, 2002, Nashville, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/08/20020826.html.

112 "Condi, anybody look at": Senior administration official, author interview.

113 "Bush was hot about it": Ari Fleischer, author interview.

114 "Call Dick and tell him": Rice, No Higher Honor, 180.

115 "The president is concerned": Ibid., 180.

116 "It's cut off the president's": Hayes, Cheney, 38182.

117 "Many have suggested": Dick Cheney, speech to veterans of the Korean War, August 29, 2002, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/08/20020829-5.html.

118 "went well beyond": Tenet, At the Center of the Storm, 31516.

119 "I should have told": Ibid.

CHAPTER 12: "A BRUTAL, UGLY, REPUGNANT MAN".

1 "What are we talking about Iraq for?": Karen Hughes, author interview.

2 Rice knew how much: Condoleezza Rice, author interview.

3 "I didn't volunteer it": Joe O'Neill, author interview.

4 "Saddam Hussein is a serious threat": Fleischer, Taking Heat, 27778.

5 "I will be with you": Ibid. Fleischer in his book identifies Biden only as a Democratic senator who later voted for the war. But in an e-mail exchange with the author, Fleischer confirmed that the senator in question was Biden.

6 "If you invade Iraq": Dick Armey, author interview. See also Isikoff and Corn, Hubris, 2425.

7 the session was "a disaster": Christine Ciccone (White House legislative aide) to Nick Calio (director of White House legislative affairs), memo, September 4, 2001. Reviewed by author.

8 "yet one more meaningless": Dick Cheney, In My Time, 39091.

9 "Either he will come clean": George W. Bush, Decision Points, 23839.

10 "It was very much on everybody's": Bartlett interview.

11 "In neither this meeting": Dick Cheney, In My Time, 39091.

12 "There was no disagreement": Rice, No Higher Honor, 181.

13 "very sour throughout": Campbell, Blair Years, 635.

14 "as never before Cheney's influence": Meyer, DC Confidential, 251.

15 "I think ultimately he bought": Tony Blair, Journey, 406.

16 "Your man has got cojones": George W. Bush, Decision Points, 23839. Alastair Campbell remembered the line as "Your guy's got balls." But Bush was prone to use the word "cojones" and later referred to the session as "the cojones meeting." Christopher Meyer, the British ambassador, likewise remembered it being "cojones," noting that he was probably the only Briton there to understand the reference. See Meyer, DC Confidential, 252.

17 "I suppose you can tell": Campbell, Blair Years, 635.

18 "from a marketing point of view": Elisabeth Bumiller, "Bush Aides Set Strategy to Sell Policy on Iraq," New York Times, September 7, 2002.

19 might be a mushroom cloud: Michael R. Gordon and Judith Miller, "U.S. Says Hussein Intensifies Quest for A-Bomb Parts," New York Times, September 8, 2002, http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/08/world/threats-responses-iraqis-us-says-hussein-intensifies-quest-for-bomb-parts.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm.

20 "There's a story": Dick Cheney, Meet the Press, NBC, September 8, 2002, http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/bush/meet.htm.

21 "We don't want the smoking": Condoleezza Rice, Late Edition, CNN, September 8, 2002, http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0209/08/le.00.html.

22 "It was pretty clear that": Ricks, Fiasco, 60.

23 It would be the only time: Actually, it would be the only time in eight years of speeches to the General Assembly that Bush would be interrupted by applause.

24 "Our greatest fear": George W. Bush, speech to UN General Assembly, September 12, 2002, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/09/20020912-1.html.

25 "It's like speaking": Fleischer, Taking Heat, 282. It was a line that clearly stuck with Bush when it came to addressing the General Assembly because he used it again as late as 2008 with an aide just before giving his final speech to that group.

26 could cost $100 billion to $200 billion: Bob Davis, "Bush Economic Aide Says the Cost of Iraq War May Top $100 Billion," Wall Street Journal, September 16, 2002.

27 "were furious" that he was so off: Lindsey, What a President Should Know, 3639.

28 "So, Lindsey, you're estimating": Lawrence Lindsey, unpublished interview with journalist Robert Draper.

29 "likely very, very high": "White House Budget Chief Questions War Cost Estimates," Agence France-Presse, September 18, 2002.

30 "Mark my words": White House notes of meeting, September 19, 2002. Reviewed by author. Howard Berman confirmed asking the question in an e-mail exchange with the author.

31 "champion aspirations for": National Security Strategy, September 20, 2002, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/nsc/nss/2002/.

32 "I'm gonna make a prediction": Notes taken by person in room, September 20, 2002. Reviewed by author. See also McClellan, What Happened, 13940.

33 "The Senate is more interested": George W. Bush, speech to Army National Guard Aviation Support Facility, Trenton, N.J., September 23, 2002, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/09/20020923-2.html.

34 "outrageous, outrageous": Tom Daschle, floor speech, September 25, 2002, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/transcripts/daschle.html.

35 The ad showed pictures: Contrary to enduring misperceptions, the ad did not juxtapose the pictures of Cleland and bin Laden as if to equate the two. It showed the pictures of bin Laden and Hussein to illustrate the threat seen to America and then showed Cleland's picture while criticizing him for his voting record. But Cleland actually co-sponsored legislation creating a department of homeland security in May 2002 while Bush still opposed it; the ad presented Cleland's opposition to Republican proposals to strip collective bargaining rights for employees at the new department as a national security threat. http://www.youtube.com/watch?vKFYpd0q9nE. Cleland was devastated by the campaign and afterward sought psychiatric help and returned to Walter Reed, where he was surrounded by wounded veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. "I cried uncontrollably for 2 years," he later said. See Melinda Henneberger, Politics Daily, October 6, 2009, http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/10/06/max-cleland-i-cried-uncontrollably-for-2-1-2-years/.

36 "Now Dick, when I lay all this out": Dick Armey, author interview. See also Isikoff and Corn, Hubris, 12425; and Draper, Dead Certain, 178.

37 "I deserved better than to have been": Armey interview.