7 "Don, someone's head has to": Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, 54547.

8 "Pretty smooth move": Dan Bartlett, author interview.

9 "I don't accept your": Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, 54547.

10 "I just don't want to put more": Latimer, Speech-Less, 96.

11 "You'd be firing the wrong guy": Myers, Eyes on the Horizon, 262.

12 "We have a predicament here": Bartlett interview.

13 Bartlett called Larry Di Rita: Bartlett and Larry Di Rita, author interviews. See also Graham, By His Own Rules, 46467.

14 "front-page headline": Robin Wright and Bradley Graham, "Bush Privately Chides Rumsfeld," Washington Post, May 6, 2004.

15 This was your work?: Bartlett interview.

16 "Don, it was not Karl": Senior administration official, author interview.

17 "Certainly since this firestorm": Donald Rumsfeld, testimony before Senate Armed Services Committee, May 7, 2003, Federal News Service transcript.

18 "What's he doing?": Di Rita interview.

19 "Rumsfeld has got to be fired": Matthew Dowd, author interview.

20 had other duties to attend to: Stewart, Tangled Webs, 198200.

21 "By this letter I am resigning": Donald Rumsfeld to George W. Bush, handwritten letter, May 9, 2003. Accessed at http://www.rumsfeld.com.

22 "Mr. President, the Department": Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, 55051.

23 "You are courageously": George W. Bush, remarks to reporters, Pentagon, May 10, 2003, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/05/20040510-3.html.

24 "Don, thirty-five years ago": Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, 55051. See also Dick Cheney, In My Time, 42021.

25 "It was like a body blow": Donald Rumsfeld, author interview.

26 "The pictures made me sick": Notes of meeting with President Jose Eduardo dos Santos of Angola, taken by White House official, May 12, 2004, provided to author.

27 "As I said at the beginning": Colin Powell, author interview.

28 "We are heroes in error": Jack Fairweather and Anton La Guardia, "Chalabi Stands By Faulty Intelligence That Toppled Saddam's Regime," Telegraph, February 19, 2004, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1454831/Chalabi-stands-by-faulty-intelligence-that-toppled-Saddams-regime.html.

29 Bush was "really frosted": Bremer, My Year in Iraq, 29091.

30 "That statement finished him": Richard Perle, author interview.

31 "What the hell is this?": Bonin, Arrows of the Night, 23642. See also Tenet, At the Center of the Storm, 44546.

32 "I'd control Baghdad": Bremer, My Year in Iraq, 35658.

33 "What are we going to do": Sanchez, Wiser in Battle, 14.

34 "I was not pleased": Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, 66162.

35 "We never connected it up": Stephen Hadley, author interview.

36 "It's time for me to go": Tenet, At the Center of the Storm, 48384.

37 "He's been a strong leader": George W. Bush, statement to reporters, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/06/20040603-2.html.

38 "For him to quit when": Dick Cheney, In My Time, 41216.

39 "fortitude for the job": Goldsmith, Terror Presidency, 161.

40 McKinnon arranged a peace: Peter Baker, "Alliance and Rivalry Link Bush, McCain," Washington Post, April 29, 2007.

41 "some unspoken bond": Ibid.

42 "You are as big a terrorist": George W. Bush, Decision Points, 35758.

43 "changed his reasons for being": David Henson, "Bush, Sheehans Share Moments," Vacaville (Calif.) Reporter, June 24, 2004.

44 "Fuck yourself": Helen Dewar and Dana Milbank, "Cheney Dismisses Critic with Obscenity," Washington Post, June 25, 2004.

45 "Did you say that": Liz Cheney, author interview.

46 "You're about the only": Steve Schmidt, author interview.

47 "It was probably not language": Dick Cheney, In My Time, 262.

48 "I have no financial interest": Dick Cheney, Meet the Press, NBC, September 14, 2003, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3080244/ns/meet_the_press/t/transcript-sept/#.T2qjLXgjj-A.

49 received $1.6 million: Annenberg Public Policy Center's FactCheck.org, "Kerry Ad Falsely Accuses Cheney on Halliburton," September 30, 2004, http://www.factcheck.org/kerry_ad_falsely_accuses_cheney_on_halliburton.html.

50 "Cheney doesn't gain financially": Ibid.

51 "found no evidence of": Gellman, Angler, 389.

52 "If Rove said he didn't": Stewart, Tangled Webs, 2012.

53 the court overturned a lower: Cheney v. United States District Court for the District of Columbia, June 24, 2004, http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/search/display.html?terms=cheney&url=/supct/html/03-475.ZS.html.

54 "We have long since made": Sandra Day O'Connor, Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, June 28, 2004, http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/03-6696.ZO.html.

55 "Iraq is sovereign": Condoleezza Rice to George W. Bush, note, June 28, 2004, http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Iraq-sovereign.jpg.

56 Bush, worried about: Bremer, My Year in Iraq, 384.

57 had no substantive meeting: George Casey, author interview.

58 Karl Rove had assumed: Thomas and the Staff of Newsweek, Election 2004, 82.

59 "He's being described": George W. Bush, remarks to reporters, July 7, 2004, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/07/20040707-3.html.

60 "Governor, this is not true": Shenon, Commission, 41112.

61 The Senate report found: Report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, http://web.mit.edu/simsong/www/iraqreport2-textunder.pdf.

62 The 9/11 Commission spread blame: 9/11 Commission Report.

63 "Senator Kerry has also said": Dick Cheney, speech at Dayton, Ohio, convention center, August 12, 2004, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/08/20040812-3.html.

64 "I need to know what do": Dick Cheney, town hall meeting, Davenport, Iowa, August 24, 2004, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/08/20040824-4.html.

65 fell nineteen votes short: Called the Federal Marriage Amendment, the proposed text read, "Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any State, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman." http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:S.J.RES.40:. Sponsored by Senator Wayne Allard, a Colorado Republican, it was defeated 50 to 48 on July 14, 2004, falling nineteen votes short of the two-thirds supermajority required. http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=108&session=2&vote=00155.

66 "My own preference is as I've": Cheney, town hall meeting. Oddly, the official White House transcript abruptly cut off Cheney's sentence at "my own pre-," omitting the part where he disagreed with Bush. The transcript then continued with more questions. The rest of the quotation cited here is from a transcript prepared by the Federal News Service.

67 "We were all proud of him": Neil Patel, author interview.

68 "They were pretty good": Cheney interview.

69 Bush went to Hagin's hotel room: Joe Hagin, author interview.

70 "The situation on the ground": Gordon and Trainor, Endgame, 106.

71 "Senator Kerry's liveliest": Dick Cheney, acceptance address at Republican National Convention, September 1, 2004, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/09/20040901-7.html.

72 Gillespie suggested: Gillespie, Winning Right, 29.

73 "we need to do this": Michael Gerson, author interview.

74 "I am fortunate to have": George W. Bush, acceptance address at Republican National Convention, September 2, 2004, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/09/20040902-2.html.

75 "I didn't look at the audience": Gerson interview.

76 "we can hear you now": Rocco Chierichella, author interview.

77 "Mr. President, my daughter's": Eric Draper, author interview.

78 Half of the twenty-two grants: John Solomon, Alec MacGillis, and Sarah Cohen, "How Rove Directed Federal Assets for GOP Gains," Washington Post, August 19, 2007.

79 grew alienated when his office: Kuo, Tempting Faith, 2067.

80 death toll in Iraq hit one thousand: "U.S. Death Toll in Iraq Tops 1,000," BBC News, September 8, 2004, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3636340.stm.

81 "It's absolutely essential that": Dick Cheney, town hall meeting, Des Moines, September 7, 2004, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/09/20040907-8.html.

82 "Dick Cheney's scare tactics": Amy Lorentzen, "Cheney Says 'Wrong Choice' on Election Day Would Risk Terrorist Attack," Associated Press, September 7, 2004.

83 to ban the New York Times: Rick Lyman of the Times wrote an amusing piece about trying to chase Cheney around the country without access to Air Force Two. See Rick Lyman, "Desperately Seeking Dick Cheney," New York Times, September 19, 2004, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/19/weekinreview/19lyma.html.

84 "That is what I meant": Anne Womack Kolton, author interview.

85 "Bush thought Kerry": Rove, Courage and Consequence, 39293.

86 "You didn't feel the heightened": Judd Gregg, author interview.

87 dubbed this presidentialitis: Bartlett interview.

88 The latest Gallup poll: George W. Bush led with 52 percent of likely voters compared with John Kerry's 44 percent in the Gallup poll taken September 2426, 2004. http://www.gallup.com/poll/18610/trial-heat-bush-vs-kerry-likely-voters.aspx.

89 "If the president does reasonably": Matthew Dowd, author interview.

90 "what do you want me to say": Bartlett interview.

91 "a colossal error of judgment": Bush-Kerry debate transcript, University of Miami, September 30, 2004, http://www.debates.org/index.php?page=september-30-2004-debate-transcript.

92 "They're going to report": Draper, Dead Certain, 25657.

93 "his dislike for": Rove, Courage and Consequence, 39293.

94 "he didn't really want to be": Ronald Kessler, Laura Bush, 189.

95 "I don't know what happened": Thomas and the Staff of Newsweek, Election 2004, 150.

96 "I don't think I was that": Sammon, Strategery, 172.

97 The eight-point advantage: George W. Bush and John Kerry were tied at 49 percent each in the Gallup poll taken October 13, 2004, immediately after the debate. http://www.gallup.com/poll/18610/trial-heat-bush-vs-kerry-likely-voters.aspx.

98 "We came out of that debate": Dowd interview.

99 "Sir, have you ever looked": Patel interview.

100 "This is the situation": Dowd interview.

101 "insane questions": Patel interview.

102 "In the early ones": Tevi Troy, author interview.

103 The day before the debate: Hayes, Cheney, 45758.

104 "Your children and grandchildren": Mary Cheney, Now It's My Turn, 2056.

105 "Senator, frankly, you have": Cheney-Edwards debate, Case Western Reserve University, October 5, 2004, http://www.debates.org/index.php?page=october-5-2004-transcript.

106 "He thinks they love me": Mary Cheney, Now It's My Turn, 2056.