22 "totally ridiculous" to blame: Scott McClellan, press briefing, September 16, 2003, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/09/20030916-6.html#27.

23 "was using that as a diversion": Adam Levine, author interview.

24 dealt the next blow: Mike Allen and Dana Priest, "Bush Administration Is Focus of Inquiry," Washington Post, September 28, 2003.

25 generated partly from a conversation: Levine interview. Levine acknowledged talking to Allen but declined to discuss what he said in detail, except to say that he was not the only source. "I don't think it was for revenge," he told the author. "I think it was for-if you discredit one thing about the witness, you have to take everything the witness says and throw it out. So they were grasping at straws to discredit."

26 It was true that Libby, Rove: Libby had talked with Matthew Cooper and Judith Miller. Rove talked with Robert Novak and Matthew Cooper. Ari Fleischer had mentioned it to David Gregory of NBC News and John Dickerson of Time. At this point, Levine did not know that Richard Armitage had also talked with Novak and Bob Woodward.

27 had been inserted by an editor: Isikoff and Corn, Hubris, 31920.

28 "He said he'd heard": McClellan, What Happened, 17882.

29 "Are you the one behind this": Stewart, Tangled Webs, 16465.

30 "Bush sounded a little annoyed": Rove, Courage and Consequence, 347.

31 "Karl didn't do it": McClellan, What Happened, 18284.

32 "I would fire anybody involved": Ibid.

33 "no partisan gunslinger": Robert Novak, "Columnist Wasn't Pawn for Leak," Chicago Sun-Times, October 1, 2003.

34 "People have made too much": Handwritten notes, released as part of the investigation and prosecution of Scooter Libby, http://wid.ap.org/documents/libbytrial/jan30/DX802.pdf.

35 "Has to happen today": Ibid.

36 "The president and vice president": McClellan, What Happened, 21617.

37 Rice confirmed it to him: David E. Sanger, "White House to Overhaul Iraq and Afghan Missions," New York Times, October 6, 2003.

38 "The story indicates Condi": Donald Rumsfeld to George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Andy Card, memo, "Iraq Reporting Relationships," October 6, 2003, http://library.rumsfeld.com/doclib/sp/355/2003-10-06%20to%20President%20George%20W%20Bush%20re%20Iraq%20Reporting%20Relationships.pdf#search="2003-10-06."

39 "You need to make it right": Rice, No Higher Honor, 24344.

40 "You're failing," he told her: Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, 52627.

41 "I did not come here to": Draper, Dead Certain, 222.

42 "It is pretty clear that": Donald Rumsfeld to Richard Myers, Paul Wolfowitz, Peter Pace, and Douglas Feith, memo, "Global War on Terrorism," October 16, 2003, http://library.rumsfeld.com/doclib/sp/426/2003-10-16%20to%20Myers%20et%20al%20re%20Global%20War%20on%20Terrorism.pdf#search="long%20hard%20slog."

43 "I tell members of Congress": Dan Senor, author interview.

44 "What kind of a person": Bremer, My Year in Iraq, 2079.

45 "I thought Bremer reported": Kenneth Adelman, author interview.

46 "I believe every person has": George W. Bush, address marking twentieth anniversary of National Endowment for Democracy, November 6, 2003, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/11/20031106-2.html.

47 an "American nationalist": John Hannah, author interview.

48 "There was a big debate": Frederick Jones, author interview.

49 "in my view we do not have": Bremer interview. See also Hayes, Cheney, 42627.

50 "Why do you call it an insurgency?": Tenet, At the Center of the Storm, 43738.

51 "Bremer is doing a fabulous": Notes of meeting with Lord George Robertson, November 12, 2003. Provided to author.

52 to announce his plan: Rajiv Chandrasekaran, "Plan to End Occupation Could Trim U.S. Force," Washington Post, November 16, 2003.

53 "The administration knew something": Sanchez, Wiser in Battle, 28388.

54 "Don't do it," Addington said: Kevin Kellems, author interview.

55 "This was, I think, a Rove-driven": Judd Gregg, author interview.

56 "I didn't come to Washington": George W. Bush, Decision Points, 28287.

57 down by fifteen votes: David S. Broder, "Time Was GOP's Ally on the Vote," Washington Post, November 23, 2003.

58 "He was just going crazy": Dennis Hastert, author interview.

59 "Congressman, I understand you have": Participant in the room, author interview.

60 "I'm going to make that commitment": Ibid.

61 "I don't have a litmus test": David Hobbs, author interview.

62 Jeff Flake, another congressman: Jeff Flake, e-mail exchange with author through a spokeswoman.

63 "was very careful not to make": Hastert interview.

64 Franks later sent him a list: Trent Franks, letter to George W. Bush, December 6, 2004. Reviewed by author. In addition to Roberts and Alito, the suggested candidates were Michael Luttig, Edith Jones, Janice Rogers Brown, Emilio Garza, Michael McConnell, and Jeffrey Sutton, all appeals court judges, and John Cornyn and Jon Kyl, both Republican senators.

65 the bill passed: U.S. House Clerk's Office, Prescription Drug and Medicare Improvement Act of 2003, 220 to 215, November 22, 2003, http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2003/roll669.xml. Sixteen Democrats broke party lines to vote for it, while twenty-five Republicans voted against it.

66 "I didn't think they were telling": Trent Lott, author interview.

67 "Help us out, Trent": Lott, Herding Cats, 29293. Once Lott and Senator Lindsey Graham, who also opposed the program, switched their votes, Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon switched as well, making the final tally on that crucial procedural vote 61 to 39. Helen Dewar and Amy Goldstein, "Medicare Bill Near Senate Passage," Washington Post, November 25, 2003.

68 it passed 54 to 44: U.S. Senate roll call record, Drug and Medicare Improvement Act of 2003, 54 to 44, November 25, 2003, http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=108&session=1&vote=00459. Nine Republicans broke ranks and voted against the measure, including Trent Lott and Judd Gregg, while eleven Democrats and the independent James Jeffords voted for it.

69 other presidents had slipped: Franklin D. Roosevelt left the United States secretly several times during World War II, including to Casablanca, just two months after Allied troops stormed onto shore there. Dwight D. Eisenhower traveled secretly to Korea during the war there after he was elected president but before he was inaugurated. Both Lyndon B. Johnson, in 1966 and 1967, and Richard M. Nixon, in 1969, traveled to Vietnam.

70 "We said we thought it was": Ronald Kessler, Matter of Character, 25657.

71 "I'm scared, Dad": George W. Bush, Decision Points, 26466.

72 "We looked like a normal": Sammon, Misunderestimated, 291313.

73 "What is this?": Rice, No Higher Honor, 247.

74 "No calls, got it?": Mike Allen, White House press pool report, November 27, 2003, http://www.editorandpublisher.com/Article/Pool-Report-on-Bush-s-Baghdad-Trip.

75 "London, is that Air Force One?": Mark Tillman, "My First Time ... Flying Air Force One into a War Zone," Washingtonian, November 2011, as told to Shane Harris, http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/people/21259.html.

76 "Do you think we should": Condoleezza Rice, author interview.

77 "The city seemed so serene": George W. Bush, Decision Points, 26466.

78 heard explosions in the distance: Sanchez, Wiser in Battle, 29597.

79 "Welcome to Free Iraq": Bremer, My Year in Iraq, 238.

80 "a sort of overgrown Quonset hut": Ibid.

81 "Now, General Sanchez": Bremer and Sanchez remarks, November 27, 2003, C-Span video, http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/179325-1.

82 "The building actually shook": E-mail from soldier in attendance, posted on Blackfive, a military blog, December 4, 2003, http://www.blackfive.net/main/2003/12/email_from_part.html.

83 "I was swept up by the emotion": George W. Bush, Decision Points, 26466.

84 "I was just looking for a warm": George W. Bush, remarks to troops, Baghdad, November 27, 2003, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/11/20031127.html.

85 "Where's the president?": Laura Bush, Spoken from the Heart, 297.

86 "I'm bowing out of the political": Bremer, My Year in Iraq, 245. Rumsfeld describes the moment similarly. "As far as I was concerned," he wrote, "any lingering pretense that I oversaw his activities came to an end." See Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, 528.

87 "He doesn't work for me": Richard Armitage, author interview.

88 "Rumsfeld was so disengaged": Senor interview.

89 "Rumsfeld kind of tuned out": Richard Perle, author interview.

90 "first reports are not always": Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, 350.

91 "Well, that is good news": Ronald Kessler, Matter of Character, 27475.

92 "I am Saddam Hussein": Phil Zabriskie, "Inside Saddam's Hideout," Time, December 15, 2003, http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,562302,00.html.

93 "Don just called": Rice, No Higher Honor, 25152.

94 "it looks like we've captured": Dick Cheney, In My Time, 411.

95 "high-value target": Mary Cheney, Now It's My Turn, 14648.

96 "I'm sorry to wake you": Ronald Kessler, Matter of Character, 27475.

97 "It's a great day for the country": Sammon, Misunderestimated, 31718.

98 "Ladies and gentlemen, we got him": Jerry Bremer, announcement in Baghdad, December 14, 2003, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S02BHmWPZNs.

99 Rumsfeld was annoyed: Graham, By His Own Rules, 447.

100 Rice had a different reaction: Rice, No Higher Honor, 25152.

101 "really first-rate" news: Bremer, My Year in Iraq, 256.

102 "We really believed it was a key": Condoleezza Rice, author interview.

103 "I have a message for the Iraqi": George W. Bush, address to nation, December 14, 2003, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/12/20031214-3.html.

104 "The president was the principal": Joseph interview.

105 "to manage the anxiety": Rice, No Higher Honor, 250.

106 "leaders who abandon the pursuit": George W. Bush, remarks, White House briefing room, December 19, 2003, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/12/20031219-9.html.

107 the nuclear schemes of A. Q. Khan: For more on Khan and his network, see Sanger, Inheritance. Khan, who was released from house arrest in 2009, insisted he was not a rogue actor and acted "upon instructions from authorities." See the interview he gave to Simon Henderson, Foreign Policy, September 5, 2012, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/09/05/aq_khan_interview.

108 "Just simply the fact that": Donald Rumsfeld, author interview.

109 They concluded he had: Elisabeth Bumiller and Donald G. McNeil Jr., "Doctors Say Bush Has Typical Runner's Knee," New York Times, December 19, 2003, http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/19/us/doctors-say-bush-has-typical-runner-s-knee.html.

110 "Which one of you": Ridge, Test of Our Times, 2045.

111 announced that Patrick Fitzgerald: James B. Comey to Patrick Fitzgerald, December 30, 2003, http://www.justice.gov/usao/iln/osc/documents/ag_letter_december_30_2003.pdf.

CHAPTER 17: "WE WERE ALMOST ALL WRONG".

1 "I sure wasn't going to": Mary Cheney, Now It's My Turn, 17378.

2 "If you feel like you have to": Ibid.

3 Five picked Gephardt: Gillespie, Winning Right, 51.

4 Jenna dreamed that her father: Thomas and the Staff of Newsweek, Election 2004, xix.

5 "Dean ran an ad with me": Dick Gephardt, author interview.

6 "He's done, it's over": Matt Schlapp and Dan Bartlett, author interviews.