David Frum makes a lame effort at distinguishing his good book about the White House from Paul O’Neill’s bad book:

ZAHN: All right, but, even in your own book, you describe the president as this: “He is impatient and quick to anger, sometimes glib, even dogmatic, often uncurious, and, as a result, ill-informed.”
FRUM: But here’s a difference. And notice when you listen. The president sometimes didn’t ask every question that you might want him to ask.
But my description of him is a man who is engaged. And he’s complaining the president withdrew from him and didn’t listen to him and didn’t seem to pay attention. Whenever you’ve got a problem with other people, there are always two candidates to blame. One is yourself and one is somebody else. And you always start with somebody else and only reach yourself by a long process of elimination.

Right. It’s the cabinet’s fault that Bush daydreams in lala land.

ZAHN: All right, David, you’ve got to help me with something. I’m listening to you and I’m hearing what you’re saying. You find this criticism of the president very personal. Yet, on the other hand, you’re a guy that made some money off the president’s back. You left the administration. You wrote a book some folks in the administration weren’t crazy about.
Secretary O’Neill is not taking a dime from this book. Everybody knows he’s a multimillionaire. And if what he’s saying, as you just said, is not untrue, then how can you have a problem with him writing this book?
FRUM: I didn’t criticize him for writing this book. I criticized him for saying things that, while true, might lead people to draw false conclusions.
Everybody who goes into the White House has the experience of not being treated as the important person they think they are. And that’s a comment theme,whether they’re as important as Paul O’Neill or whether they’re a speechwriter. That’s your feeling. If you’re going to write about your experience in a way that is interesting to anybody other than your immediate relatives and the people who hate the guy irrationally, you have to get past your own feelings about, gee, why wasn’t I treated like the important guy I think I am, and say, this story was never about me. This story was about the president.

I’m don’t even understand what this means. Apparently, O’Neill’s job as a writer is not to relate a true account of his experience inside the White House, but rather to put forward the president’s point of view, or something. Whatever.

Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill is now under investigation for exposing Bush’s poor leadership showing a document marked “secret” on “60 Minutes.”
So when does the Cheney investigation begin?

Josh Marshall:

Number of days between Novak column outing Valerie Plame and announcement of investigation: 74 days.
Number of days between O’Neill 60 Minutes interview and announcement of investigation: 1 day.
Having the administration reveal itself as a gaggle of hypocritcal goons . . . priceless.

Amazing how much better they’ve gotten in just a few months, isn’t it?

Lloyd Grove in the New York Daily News:

He didn’t free the slaves.
He didn’t rid the world of Hitler.
He didn’t even – like his father – preside over the destruction of the Berlin Wall.
Yet George W. Bush tells New Yorker writer Ken Auletta: “No President has ever done more for human rights than I have.”
With stunners like that, no wonder he spends so little time with journalists.

Unbelievable. Step aside Jefferson, Lincoln, and FDR. A new human rights champion is born.
Word is that Auletta’s column will be available tomorrow.
Per Atrios.

I don’t know about you, but I’d get tired of eating the same thing everyday:

Everyone at the Taco Bell at 2013 NW Topeka Blvd knows her as Ruby, but her full name is Ruby Fountaine. She is a topeka native who has added a little spice to her life everyday for the past 15 years. She has visited this Taco Bell 7 days a week, sometimes twice a day.
Saturday was no ordinary day for Ruby. It was her 80th birthday and what did she wanted the same thing she always wants a fiesta burrito with chicken, rice, and sour cream. It has become a part of life for Ruby, and for the employees at Taco Bell. They can’t imagine a day without her. On her special day, the birthday girl shared her tradition with family and friends. She does have one more special order, many more years of health and trips to her favorite spot, Taco Bell.