"I'm Not Going To Tell Some Gay Kid In The Audience That He Can't Get Married"
In his tell-all book, Bush's speechwriter Matt Latimer admits secrets contained within the well-contained circle that was the Cabinet.
• Bush, it turns out, is like millions of Americans: "I haven't watched the nightly news one night since I've been president," he said.
• Laura Bush, says Latimer, "was secretly a Democrat for all intents and purposes, though it really wasn't much of a secret."
• Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins is fond of sending angry, middle-of-the-night e-mails to staffers because she's frustrated that her colleague and rival Olympia Snowe gets more and better press. As a result, reports Latimer, she rips through press secretaries like 30-packs at a beer-pong tournament. (A Collins press secretary didn't respond to a request for comment.)
• Interviewing for the job, Latimer was told by Chief of Staff Josh Bolten that Bush's White House was "the most ethical administration in history." He added: "Looks like even Scooter Libby might get off."
• Latimer was asked to help with a speech for Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith, who General Tommy Franks famously called "the fucking stupidest guy on the face of the earth." Feith had rejected a draft from another writer. "His own writer had failed miserably at drafting some upcoming testimony to Congress. Feith was so incensed by the speech's first line that he read it aloud to me. 'Mr. Chairman, thank you for inviting me to testify today.' ''Thank you'? Feith snapped, as if he couldn't believe it. ''For inviting me'?'"
• Bush on Jimmy Carter: "If I'm ever eighty-two years old and acting like that have someone put me away."
