From the start, O'Neill rowed against the Bush team: "Cheney realized immediately that O'Neill at the Treasury was no team player but a disruptive influence opposing the president's plans while poisoning morale in his own department. O'Neill, as protagonist in The Price of Loyalty by journalist Ron Suskind, repays the vice president by describing him as a sinister force."

"O'Neill choosing as his amanuensis Suskind, who embarked years ago on a deconstruction of the Bush White House, suggests vindictiveness after being sacked late in 2002. The book has attracted the most attention by asserting the Bush team was preparing to attack Iraq even before 9/11, but O'Neill, by his own admission, offered little input to foreign policy. Suskind is inadvertently most valuable in exposing O'Neill's role as the president's hair shirt, not his advocate, on economic policy."

Novak, as usual, nails this issue.

Oh, well. Anybody can be wrong once or twice. Somebody asked Ike once if he had made any mistakes as President. He was supposed to have said, "Yes, and they are all on the Supreme Court."