By GottaLaff
Here are some excerpts, paraphrased, with some direct quotes.
Rep. Scott up: Plame was "fair game", so if you told the truth, they might expect to have the lives of their families put in jeopardy.
Scott: She became just another talking point to discredit Joe Wilson, but I can't say more than that. It's a serious matter, and wrong... They should have been more careful about it, that's for sure.
Rep. Scott: Cost of the war came up, and we were told it would be negligible. And info that the administration had to the contrary?
Scott: I'm aware of that impression. ... Lindsey made a 2005 projection that it would be 1-200 billion. And that turned out o be low. He left the administration a few months later, resigned, but he was asked to leave as well. ... It's not something we wanted to discuss at the White House.
Rep. Scott: Medicare costs: Admin. knew the number was higher. If someone talked, they'd get fired?
Scott: They had different numbers. Ask my brother about that. We haven't embraced a high level of openness. Clarification, a quote by my editor was actually made by his daughter, saying Bush is a "truly horrible president". But the conclusions in the book were mine, not affected by any editor.
Ric Keller (R): If you had to do it over again, would you change anything in the book?
Scott: No.
Ric: Bush admin, per your book, shaded the truth, used innuendo, propaganda.
Scott: True.
Ric: Did Bush ask you to do that?
Scott: Not in those words.
Ric: Did they w/hold info from you?
Scott: When the VP was authorized to release classified info on Iraq, anonymously. That was disillusioning.... The president didn't mislead me knowingly, deliberately, but it had the same effect. There's a distinction. ... It had the same effect, selling the war to the American people.
Ric: I'm not going to question your opinions, or make money from them.... Bush using illegal drugs. How is that bipartisan?
Scott: It's how he approached the issue... saying, "I can't recall", which later transferred over to issues of policy. The issue wasn't the cocaine, but how he approached it, tells us of his character... That he said "he couldn't recall it".. how could that be? And he used that same response on other issues. How Bush got so polarizing is one of the themes of the book. It's a search for the truth.
Ric: You're concerned about a permanent campaign, and you said the same about the Clinton White House, but isnt' it true that Bush worked with Dems on No Child Left Behind, and with Kennedy on immigration?
Scott: Other decisions overshadowed those aspects.
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