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chatterbox: Gossip, speculation, and scuttlebutt about politics.

Bush Abandonment Watch, Part 3Sununu sinks the shiv.

By Timothy Noah
Posted Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2005, at 6:16 PM ET

I don't want to shortchange Brent Scowcroft, former national security adviser to George H.W. Bush, who all but calls the current president an arrogant little putz in the Oct. 31 New Yorker. But Scowcroft has been off the reservation since before the Iraq war began. To me, the surprising apostasy in Jeffrey Goldberg's piece on Scowcroft is expressed by John Sununu:

"We always made sure the President was hearing all the possibilities," John Sununu, who served as chief of staff to George H.W. Bush, said. "That's one of the differences between the first Bush Administration and this Bush Administration."

Ouch, babe!

Now, it's true that Sununu has a good reason to hold a long-standing grudge against Dubya. It was Dubya who reportedly told Sununu that he'd become a political liability back in 1991, more or less forcing Sununu's resignation after a minor scandal surfaced concerning Sununu's use of government planes. (The proximate cause, however, was probably a decline in Bush père's approval rating.) But until now, as best I can tell, Sununu has kept his mouth shut about his former boss' son, if only to protect the interests of his son, Sen. John E. Sununu, R., N.H. (It's all very dynastic and biblical.) Now, though, all bets appear to be off. I bet it gave Sununu père a scrumptious feeling to sink the dagger in.