7 Kerry won with 38 percent: New Hampshire Secretary of State's office, http://www.sos.nh.gov/presprim2004/dpressum.htm.

8 "Let me begin by saying": David Kay, testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, January 28, 2004, http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/01/28/kay.transcript/.

9 "Why would Saddam do something": David Kay, author interview.

10 "was the right thing to do": Colin Powell, interview with the Washington Post, excerpts printed February 3, 2004.

11 "It was something we all": Barry Schweid, "Powell Says War Decision Was Correct Even If Weapon Stockpiles Did Not Exist," Associated Press, February 3, 2004.

12 "despite some public statements": George Tenet, speech at Georgetown University, February 5, 2004, https://www.cia.gov/news-information/speeches-testimony/2004/tenet_georgetownspeech_02052004.html.

13 declined to embrace: Sheryl Stolberg, "White House Avoids Stand on Gay Marriage Measure," New York Times, July 2, 2003, http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/02/us/white-house-avoids-stand-on-gay-marriage-measure.html.

14 "heard more about marriage": Goeglein, Man in the Middle, 120.

15 Bush invited Cheney and top aides: Halperin and Harris, Way to Win, 25455.

16 "There is a strong sense": Undated campaign memo, provided to author.

17 "That decision influenced everything": Matthew Dowd, interview with PBS's Frontline, January 4, 2005, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/architect/interviews/dowd.html.

18 "We have, I reminded him": Laura Bush, Spoken from the Heart, 3023.

19 "He brought up the fact": Dick Cheney, author interview.

20 "Cheney was pissed off": Cheney friend, author interview.

21 "The union of a man and": George W. Bush, remarks, Roosevelt Room, February 24, 2004, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/02/20040224-2.html.

22 The vice president called Mary: Mary Cheney, Now It's My Turn, 17378.

23 64 percent of Americans: Gallup poll, February 1617, 2004, http://www.gallup.com/poll/147662/First-Time-Majority-Americans-Favor-Legal-Gay-Marriage.aspx. To get historical numbers, click on the trend data at the bottom of the page.

24 Eleven states were poised: All eleven were eventually approved by voters in November, by a collective two-to-one margin. The states were Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Utah. "Voters Pass All 11 Bans on Gay Marriage," Associated Press, November 3, 2004, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6383353/ns/politics/t/voters-pass-all-bans-gay-marriage/#.T2qa-Xgjj-A. Bush won all but two of the states, Michigan and Oregon. http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/politics/2004_ELECTIONRESULTS_GRAPHIC/.

25 "gotten pretty well pummeled": Notes of meeting by participant, provided to author.

26 suffered a series of strokes: "Bushes Mourn Death of Their Dog Spot," New York Times, February 22, 2004, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/22/us/bushes-mourn-death-of-their-dog-spot.html.

27 "encircling her in the chill dusk": Laura Bush, Spoken from the Heart, 299.

28 "We don't negotiate with evil": Glenn Kessler, "Impact from the Shadows: Cheney Wields Power with Few Fingerprints," Washington Post, October 4, 2004.

29 He met with Bush: Chinoy, Meltdown, 2037.

30 "The vice president feels very strongly": Richard Armitage, author interview.

31 "That's what we want": Michael Green, author interview.

32 "Diplomacy in the Bush administration": Chinoy, Meltdown, 136.

33 "Busy last night, huh?": DeYoung, Soldier, 499500.

34 "The diplomats, whether they": Stephen Yates, author interview.

35 reauthorized twenty-two times: Shannen W. Coffin (counsel to Dick Cheney) to Patrick Leahy, August 20, 2007, http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/5999341. The letter listed all the dates of reauthorization up to that point.

36 the "scary memos": Unclassified Report on the President's Surveillance Program, prepared by the inspectors general of the Defense Department, Justice Department, Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, and Office of the Director of National Intelligence, July 10, 2009, 9, http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/psp.pdf.

37 Under this part of the program: Working draft of NSA inspector general report on surveillance activities, March 24, 2009.

38 "If you rule that way": Goldsmith, Terror Presidency, 71.

39 "We're going to push and push": Ibid., 126.

40 "We're one bomb away from": Ibid., 181.

41 "The president may have to": Unclassified Report on the President's Surveillance Program, 22.

42 "How can you possibly": Gellman, Angler, 29596.

43 "critically important": Unclassified Report on the President's Surveillance Program, 23.

44 "The analysis is flawed": Gellman, Angler, 29596.

45 "We think it is essential": Michael Hayden, author interview.

46 "You ought to get yourself": Ibid.

47 "None of them says": Ibid.

48 According to Card: Andy Card, unpublished interview with Michael Schmidt of the New York Times.

49 Comey did not wait for: James Comey, testimony to Senate Judiciary Committee, May 15, 2007, http://gulcfac.typepad.com/georgetown_university_law/files/comey.transcript.pdf.

50 "Not well": Unclassified Report on the President's Surveillance Program, 25.

51 "But that doesn't matter": Comey testimony.

52 "We said, 'Hope you are doing better' ": Card, unpublished interview.

53 stuck her tongue out at Card: Dan Eggen and Peter Baker, "New Book Details Cheney Lawyer's Efforts to Expand Executive Power," Washington Post, September 5, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/04/AR2007090402292.html. See also Goldsmith, Terror Presidency.

54 "AG in chair; is feeble": Robert Mueller, notes taken at the time and released three years later to Congress.

55 One of the lawyers quietly: Edward Whelan, who was Jack Goldsmith's deputy, sent a message via his BlackBerry to Brett Kavanaugh, a friend working in the White House. Kavanaugh took it to Andy Card. Barton Gellman, Angler, 3027.

56 Addington retyped the order: Ibid., 31113.

57 terrorists set off ten bombs: Elaine Sciolino, "Spain Struggles to Absorb Worst Terrorist Attack in Its History," New York Times, March 11, 2004, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/11/international/europe/11CND-TRAI.html?pagewanted=all. The casualty figures cited in this story were later updated. See "Spain to Mark Eighth Anniversary of Madrid Train Bombings," CNN, March 11, 2012, http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/10/world/europe/madrid-bombing-anniversary/index.html.

58 "forced to withdraw the FBI": Unclassified Report on the President's Surveillance Program, 27.

59 "I was stunned," Bush said: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 17374.

60 "I just don't understand": Ibid.

61 "I was about to witness": Ibid.

62 One Justice Department official: Justice Department official, author interview.

63 "I had little patience": Dick Cheney, In My Time, 34852.

64 Cheney blocked a move to make: Comey testimony.

65 "Listen, I've been involved in": Campaign adviser, author interview.

66 "Cheney would be the attack": McClellan, What Happened, 137.

67 "I actually did vote for": Richard W. Stevenson and Adam Nagourney, "Bush's Campaign Emphasizes Role of Leader in War," New York Times, March 17, 2004. Kerry later compounded the problem with a tortured explanation. "It just was a very inarticulate way of saying something, and I had one of those inarticulate moments late in the evening when I was dead tired in the primaries and I didn't say something very clearly," he told ABC News. See John Kerry, interview with ABC News, transcript, September 29, 2004, http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2004/story?id=123445&page=1#.UZgaQZV4W0t. He may have been dead tired, but it was not "late in the evening." The speech was at 1:20 in the afternoon. See "Kerry Discusses $87 Billion Comment," CNN, September 30, 2004, http://articles.cnn.com/2004-09-30/politics/kerry.comment_1_kerry-campaign-spokesman-inarticulate-moments-bush-campaign?_s=PM:ALLPOLITICS.

68 Game, set, and match: Mark McKinnon, author interview.

69 "When I saw that": Cheney interview.

70 "Those weapons of mass": George W. Bush, address to Radio and Television Correspondents Association dinner, March 24, 2004, http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/TelevisionCorresp.

71 "Dick has not been the asset": DeFrank, Write It When I'm Gone, 19598. DeFrank covered Ford from his days as vice president and had regular conversations in his retirement that, as the title implies, the former president insisted remain off the record until his death.

72 "Where is Bush? Let him come": Jeffrey Gettleman, "Enraged Mob in Falluja Kills 4 American Contractors," New York Times, March 31, 2004, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/31/international/worldspecial/31CND-IRAQ.html?pagewanted=all.

73 "We ought to probably let": Rajiv Chandrasekaran, "Key General Criticizes April Attack in Fallujah," Washington Post, September 13, 2004.

74 Bremer also favored a strong: Jerry Bremer, author interview. See also Bremer, Year in Iraq, 317. Bremer wrote that he told Rick Sanchez the morning after the contractors were killed: "We've got to react to this outrage or the enemy will conclude we're irresolute."

75 "No, we've got to attack": Sanchez, Wiser in Battle, 33233.

76 "Military commanders decide": Donald Rumsfeld, author interview. In his book, Rumsfeld made no mention of opposition by the marines to opening the assault on Fallujah or to any role by Washington in making the decision. Bush in his memoir made no mention of the April offensive in Fallujah.

77 "At the end of this campaign": Sanchez, Wiser in Battle, 34950.

78 "Kick ass!" Sanchez recalled: Ibid. Jerry Bremer's description of the scene was more sedate. According to his notes, Bush said, "We need to be tougher than hell now. The American people want to know we're going after the bad guys. We need to get on the offensive and stay on the offensive." Bremer interview. See also Bremer, My Year in Iraq, 33132.

79 "The vice president was pretty adamant": Official participant, author interview.

80 "If you are going to take Vienna": Cloud and Jaffe, Fourth Star, 15253. Mattis was referring to the famous quotation from Napoleon Bonaparte: "When you set out to take Vienna, take Vienna." A spokeswoman for Mattis confirmed the quotation in an e-mail exchange with the author.

81 "Let me say again": John Abizaid, author interview.

82 "We certainly increased the level": Chandrasekaran, "Key General Criticizes April Attack in Fallujah."

83 "a strategic disaster for America's": Sanchez, Wiser in Battle, 36971.

84 "I wish you would have given": George W. Bush, news conference, April 13, 2004, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/04/20040413-20.html.

85 Come on, sir, this one is: McClellan, What Happened, 205.

86 "I kept thinking about what": Ibid., 207.

87 "How would you answer": Adam Levine, author interview.

88 "the guy being burned": Tenet, At the Center of the Storm, 47981.

89 "Andy, I'm calling to tell you": Ibid., 47981.

90 "My immediate suspicion": Philip Zelikow, author interview.

91 "a way of diluting": Timothy Roemer, author interview.

92 "This is the Oval Office": There is a conflict about which commissioner was at risk of going over his time. In their book, Without Precedent, Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton identify him as Richard Ben-Veniste (pp. 20710). But in his own book, The Emperor's New Clothes, Ben-Veniste says it was Timothy Roemer (p. 299), as does Philip Shenon in his account in The Commission (pp. 34245). In an interview with the author, Roemer said he believed it was him.

93 "Every time we asked": Roemer interview.

94 "I just think it was the fog of war": Cheney interview.

95 "The vice president isn't interested": Ben-Veniste, Emperor's New Clothes, 304.

96 "The commissioners go in": Zelikow interview.

CHAPTER 18: "WHEN ARE WE GOING TO FIRE SOMEBODY?".

1 "This is going to kill us": Goldsmith, Terror Presidency, 141.

2 60 Minutes II aired photographs: "Army Probes POW Abuse," 60 Minutes II, CBS, April 28, 2004, http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=614704n.

3 "I had no idea how graphic": George W. Bush, Decision Points, 8889.

4 Investigators found a broad pattern: Article 15-6 Investigation of the 800th Military Police Brigade, led by Major General Antonio M. Taguba, http://news.findlaw.com/wsj/docs/iraq/tagubarpt.html.

5 "Read this," the secretary: Sammon, Strategery, 4445.

6 "Mr. President, I want you to know": Donald Rumsfeld to George W. Bush, handwritten letter, May 5, 2003. Accessed at http://www.rumsfeld.com.