President
George W. Bush's performance at cabinet meetings resembled that of "a
blind man in a room full of deaf people", according to Paul
O'Neill (pictured), who was fired as Treasury secretary in 2002.
The
remarkable personal attack is made by Mr O'Neill in a forthcoming book,
according to excerpts from a television interview to be broadcast on
Sunday.
In the CBS Sixty Minutes interview Mr
O'Neill, the
former chief executive of the aluminium company Alcoa, says there was
little constructive dialogue between officials and the president.
Speaking
about his first meeting with Mr Bush, which lasted about an hour, Mr
O'Neill says: "I went in with a long list of things to talk about and,
I thought, to engage [him] on.
"I was surprised it turned out me talking and the
president just listening . . . It was mostly a monologue."
The interview, one of the first with Mr O'Neill
about his time in the administration, prefigures the publication on
Tuesday of The Price of Loyalty, a book about the Bu sh White
House by the journalist Ron Suskind.
The book is based on interviews with Mr O'Neill
and other White House officials as well as documents provided by Mr
O'Neill.
Scott
McClellan, the White House spokesman, on Friday declined to comment on
the book or the interview, telling reporters "I don't do book reviews".
Mr
O'Neill was forced to resign as Treasury secretary in December 2002
after he declined to give full-hearted support for a new round of tax
cuts, in a clear-out that also saw the dismissal of Larry Lindsey, the
president's chief economic adviser.
Unlike Mr Lindsey, who took
his dismissal with public good grace, Mr O'Neill immediately stormed
out of the Treasury to return to his home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
During
his tenure as Treasury secretary, Mr O'Neill became well-known for
speaking out frequently and frankly on a range of subjects including
the dollar, the limited value of International Monetary Fund crisis
lending and the problems with development aid.
His comments
frequently had an impact on financial markets, with one remark about
the low likelihood of an IMF rescue package for Brazil causing a rapid
fall in the Brazilian currency.
The IMF subsequently announced a $30bn bail-out
that succeeded in stabilising the Brazilian economy.
In
the television interview, Mr O'Neill also reportedly sheds light on key
policy discussions within the Bush administration, including the scale
of tax cuts and what action to take against the Iraqi regime of Saddam
Hussein.
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