Bush Savaged by Former Treasury Chief
9 January 2004, Alan Beattie, Financial Times

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, 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.