Rating: 
Summary: Price of disloyalty should have been title
Review: Apparently according to Mr. O'Neil the price of Loyalty was whatever he could make on a book. His most recent statements of 'well I'm rich and old so they cant touch me' led him to write a rambling vindictive account of his time with the Bush administration. Apparently Mr. O'Neil realized that now was the time to write a book about 'scandal' regarding the Bush administration. If the administration were more popular this book would probably detail how wonderful a time O'Neil had. Either way this account is weak, flimsy and mostly just conjecture. One the one hand this book explains how O'Neil was frequently ignored during meetings and how his time alone with the President frequently amounted to O'Neil talking and their being no response. The book claims that this shows the president didn't care or wasn't involved. Yet at the same time the account also claims that there was a vast conspiracy to invade Iraq. Wait a sec. If O'Neil was being ignored and no one spoke to him in the meetings then how was he privy to the inner machinations of the cabinet? It can't be both ways. This account claims that although they wouldn't discuss monetary policy with the treasury secretary they did, in fact, discuss secret foreign initiatives with the secretary. It simply doesn't jive, either they shared everything with him or they shared nothing, it can't be both ways. Therefore this book comes off more as the ramblings of a disgruntled employee then of a reasoned account of the treasury department. Probably this book is an 'inside look' at the Bush white house but it is written by someone, who like Stephanopolous, is trying to capitalize on his 15 minutes of disgruntled dissident fame.Seth J. Frantzman
Rating: 
Summary: Lots of questions
Review: Does anyone think any president would lie? Our president is a born again Christian as was President Clinton. I do not think either man would tell a lie. If our president wants to invade a country for any reason the American people should sit back and say nothing. Jerry Falwell will tell us what God wants us to do and we should listen to him. America cannot take over the world by being sisies. Tell them pinkos who hate us to bring it on.
Rating:
Summary: Must be something big
Review: I noticed how the administration attacked O'Neill rather than the accuracy of his statements. That suggests to me that the truth is in here and so I ordered a copy this morning.
Rating: 
Summary: What a disappointment¿
Review: I started reading this book because I hoped to get new insights into recent history. But what a disappointment... Think about it. A prize-winning journalist bases virtually his entire so-called investigation on interviews with a failed cabinet officer who got his titan-of-industry ego bent out of shape because of the manner and timing of his firing (and takes 19,000 government documents with him to boot). And former-Treasury Secretary O'Neill, while still in office, kept sticking his foot in his mouth with inappropriate and mistimed comments that roiled financial markets (e.g., words to the effect that his lack of financial markets experience before become Treasury Secretary didn't matter because he could learn any job on Wall Street "in about two days". Oh yea, no ego to bruise here). As for the assertion O'Neill - unlike former-President Clinton, Prime Minister Blair, the UN and even the Iranian Mullahs - didn't see much evidence of WMDs in Iraq, remember he was the TREASURY secretary not the Director of the CIA. And Inspector O'Neill apparently didn't realize that the goal of regime change in Iraq had already been the official policy of the United States since 1998 when President Clinton made his heaviest missile strikes on Baghdad during Operation Desert Fox. Finally, how informed can the guy be when, after 16 prior years in government service, O'Neill professes shock, shock I tell you!, that politics might influenced decisions in the Bush Administration? My goodness, now the Democrats have learned a new secret weapon for retaining political power!! Finally, the writing style is dense and difficult to follow. Sort of like reading a legal brief. There may be useful critiques of the Bush Administration out there but this is not one of them. Oh yea, and the title. What price has O'Neill paid for his "loyalty"?
Rating:
Summary: sour grapes
Review: This is an unsual book, so allow me to explain my rating before launching into my critique of Paul O'Neill. I find Paul O'Neill a vapid man bent on revenge, and, were he the author of the book, would give it one star. However, given that it was not he who exposed his own stupidity, but rather Ron Suskind (the man to whom Paul O'Neill gave a lot of his records), I feel that Mr. Suskind deserves credit for exposing O'Neill's angry thirst for revenge. Mr. Suskind has created, in my mind, an image of King Lear thrashing about recklessly in the tempest. I don't know if such was Mr. Suskind's intention or not, but the image he creates of Paul O'Neill is nevetheless illuminating, sad, and ultimately incisive. Thus, to continue: Given the extraordinary amount of press coverage and controversy this book has received, and will receive, over the coming weeks, it is tempting to believe that the book contains earth-shattering revelations. But, O'Neill is not writing about Watergate, or even Monica Lewinsky. He's writing about his disatisfaction of, and alienation from, an anti-intellectual, politically motivated, focused, and principled man with whom he unilaterally disagrees on economic issues. This is surprising? It is surprising to me that the American press seems so naive as to believe it unbelievable that one could disagree with a President whose Administration normally is so tightly sealed. But, people are people, and O'Neill, playing the role of relic, feels out of touch with the current Administration and its modus operandi. And thus. He gets even. Or, at least he thinks he gets even, by spilling the beans: Bush did not want debate on Iraq; rather, he told people to 'find a way to do it.' It hardly seems damning to me for a President to state explicitly that he did not want debate on the subject of removing a dictator from power; it's a pity that no previous president stated such a goal. Sure, we may have our disagreements with the man on his bluntness, and his anti-intellectual refusal to engage in Clintonian or theological discussions of public policy minutiae, but there is a reason he was elected president, and not Al Gore. The point is, Paul O'Neill offers less than an incisive critique of President Bush's Administration, and more of an angry outlashing at the Administration whose methods and political concerns were oblivious to him. It is a testament, perhaps to O'Neill's stunning naivete and ignorance that he did not 'get' the Administration. Here is a man who ran a large company--Alcoa--and yet...he shows himself utterly deaf to the realities of the organization for which he worked. Such a thought makes the mind reel at the fact that he actually managed Alcoa pretty well. There is a strain of thinking among management gurus which states that upper management--powerful CEOs, especially--are so used to getting their way simply by uttering words, that they are flummoxed when put in a situation in which their words account for nil. This seems to be the psychological issue here: O'Neill, accustomed to power, intellectual rigor, and analytical discourse, is simply too blind to account for the more controlled atmosphere of Bush's Administration. One can say all one wants about the inherent, willful, and venal stupidity of President Bush; still, such criticisms are irrelevant to this book. This book is not a criticism of Bush's presidency or his methodology, but, rather, it is an unintentional case study into the bruised ego of Paul O'Neill, and the historical events that washed over him like so much seawater over a sunken boat.
Rating:
Summary: O'Neill goes Postal
Review: Why would anyone believe this guy? The lefties were bad-mouthing him up until the day he was fired, and now his word is gospel? You get a left-wing writer together with a spurned old man who thinks Nixon was a honest broker, and what else do you expect? The liberal media loves this guy, but every working American lives in fear of the fired employee who comes back with bitterness. Let us just be grateful that O'Neill didn't head the Postal Service, or we would have bodies lying around.
Rating:
Summary: A BUNCH OF SOUR GRAPES
Review: I felt is was not worth reading let alone buying and frankly it did not live up to the hype whatsoever. Why? This is a disgruntled, failed cabinet member who wants to get his moment in the sun to score some payback points. Aren't we all tired of this?
Rating:
Summary: An Honest BOOK about an evil administration
Review: I got this book from Walmart on Sunday, two days before it supposedly came out. Could not put it down. It is written very clearly and it exudes a very obvious honesty. George W Bush is a joke of a President. I was particularly appalled about the way he treated Christie Todd Whitman and how he continues to treat our envirornmental laws. The American people are the stupidest people on earth for supporting this disgraceful president who has sold the AMerican people and the American envirornment to his highest corporate bidders.
Rating:
Summary: Thorough and revealing exposé
Review: Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill exposes the dictator like tendencies of President Bush. Everyone should read this to understand how Bush's policies and methods are employed to push an ultra-conservative agenda, benefiting only the upper few percent of the American population, and alienating us from the rest of the world. Bush removed O'Neill, because he refused to endorse his ridiculous tax policies. Our pushy President also warned Secretary of State Colin Powell to quit expressing views inconsistent with those of the President. Our country has thrived for over two centuries, because of democracy, and our President just fires, or threatens anyone who refuses to agree with him. What we have here is one giant case of group think, and a President who acts more like a dictator than the leader of what should be a model for democracy. Living in Europe I have gotten the opportunity to gain some insight into how the rest of the world views our President, and I have yet to meet a single European who likes our President. Some agree with what he is doing in Iraq, but everyone I have met feels that his methods are unacceptable. They find him to be arrogant and patronizing, and don't appreciate his "if you're not 100% with us you're against us attitude." Some Europeans won't have anything to do with any Americans, because they see Bush as a model for all Americans. Frankly, I'm tired of having to assure Europeans that not all Americans condone Bush's policies, or how he behaves.
Rating:
Summary: Grand Illusion
Review: This book leaves me with one question.
What did Bono get Paul to smoke when they were touring Africa together? For that matter, what was the Secretary of the Treasury doing touring Africa with Bono, anyway?
This should be a wildly popular book, as it will be snapped up by those with looking to fuel their hatred of the evil right
wing. Also popular with this crowd will be the Bush as Hitler
paint by numbers kit that somebody will think of next.
No, really, more fun than the Roswell incident. I highly recommend it.
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