Barton Gellman Quotes
White House officials acknowledge in broad terms that a president's time and public rhetoric are among his most valuable policy tools.
Gellman, Barton. Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency. Penguin Press, 2008.
Referring to President Bush's winning a roll-call vote in the House on lowering the capital gains tax:
Much obviously is but every President and his White House deals with issues and problems where there is no time or opportunity to take the effect on electoral politics into consideration. Many actions are taken without any such consideration, sometimes to the regret of the President’s political staff. Even then, the press tends to believe that it was a blunder, that the White House misjudged public opinion or the like when in reality, the President and staff never even considered it.
His reason for this statment (with which few others agreed) was that at best, the Special Prosecutor's investiation would distract the politicians, the media and the public from focussing on the great achievements of Trump and his administration, and at worst woud uncover some quasi scandal of Trump's years ago that would mortally damage is image and curtail or make innefective what Bannon thought was the most significant and important President in years. There were others who agreed about the consequense of the investigation but becasue Trump was probably guilty of dealing with the Russians improperly before he assumned the presidency and was mired in a hopeless tangle of business conflict of interest. To them, them curtailment of the Trump administration would be very good thing for the country so it could not have been a mistake for the nation, but for a sitting President the investigation and its aftermath mzy well prove to be a personal blunder although one that harmed Trump but benefitted the nation.
_0_PostageStamp_47x47.jpg "Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Navy Adm. Mike Mullen gives an interview to John Dickerson during the CBS news program Face the Nation in Washington, D.C., July 5, 2009. During the interview, Mullen discussed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, North Korea's recent missile tests and his recent visit to Russia. (DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley, U.S. Navy/Released)"){kind=small}
Roosevelt was then the Vice President.
John Foster Dulles was the Secretary of State and brother Allen Dulles was head of the CIA.
Reagan, Ford, Nixon, Clinton
Barton David Gellman (born 1960) is an American journalist and bestselling author known for his reports on the September 11 attacks, on Dick Cheney's vice presidency and on the global surveillance disclosure.
