How Do You Like Me Now?

Paul O'Neill is officially off the reservation:

Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, who was fired last month when Bush decided he needed a stronger team to deal with the lackluster economy and sell Congress on the new round of tax cuts, said the plan would have little or no effect on the economy.

"I would not have done it," he said at a Friday taping of a Pittsburgh public affairs show that aired Sunday. O'Neill, speaking out for the first time since being forced from his post, said money from the president's tax-cut plan would be better spent on Social Security.

Revenge, they say, is a dish best served cold. This raises some interesting possibilities, if O'Neill decides to become a more outspoken critic of the administration. He isn't just some Ivy League academician who Rove can bully around.

How do they attack O'Neill's credibility without reminding people of the uncomfortable fact that Shrub (Cheney, actually) hired him in the first place?

I think Tom Daschle and Nancy Pelosi might want to make time for some face time with Mr. Alcoa, just to see if perhaps they cannot reach "common ground" on certain issues.

Posted January 12, 2003 08:26 PM | Comments (6)