Shop Talk

From Reuters:

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill likened President Bush at Cabinet meetings to “a blind man in a room full of deaf people,” according to excerpts on Friday from a CBS interview.

O’Neill, who was fired by Bush in December 2002, also said the president did not ask him a single question during their first one-on-one meeting, which lasted an hour.

“As I recall it was just a monologue,” he told CBS’ “60 Minutes,” which will broadcast the entire interview on Sunday.

One thing you can expect whenever a sitting President is running for reelection is, former insiders writing books damning their former boss.

The election makes for good sales, juicy gossip, and high-profile profile timing to get back at the boss. It’s clean, wholesome, election-year fun.

What suprises me here, though, is that O’Neill is the only former Bush staffer publishing a tell-all for 2004. At least he’s the only one I’ve heard of so far. The other surprising item is. . . is that the best O’Neill can do?

Damnit, I want some really good water cooler talk — but all I get is there’s this politician who likes to hear himself talk? Lame.