[On a personal level, the indictment was hard on Cheney's office.] People were very upset, ... They all felt close to Scooter personally, but I think by [Monday] afternoon, they were going about their jobs, doing what they had to do. |
A large-scale tax cheat is not a viable chief magistrate. |
Andy did a very good job, and he did the job exactly the way the president wanted. Both he and Josh are capable. Probably the difference between them is that Josh has more experience on Capitol Hill and stronger relationships with the Congress. |
As a general matter, it helps to have him out of the race and presumably out of the news. |
Having more money than the other candidates has always been important, but there is a bigger premium on it this time. There will be multimillion dollar advertising budgets needed for those large states. |
He is 100 percent loyal to the president, and if the president or Andy Card asks him to do anything, he does it. They value him and his wisdom and what he adds to the team, so they let him do things his way. |
He was an intensely interesting and fascinating man to me, ... I fell in love with him at first sight. It sounds corny, but that's what happened. But I don't think he did with me. |
He's the president's alter ego on political and domestic policy, |
I don't think anybody's leaving. |
I haven't noticed, for the most part, anything unusual going on. |
If people get an understanding of what happened and how he feels about it, then in the long term, this isn't going to be a problem for him. |
It's too early to say what the political environment will be in October. You always have to pick your spots. There are always some states and districts where it's better not to go late in the game. But there will be plenty of places [Bush] can go and do a lot of good. |
No one's accusing [Cheney] of doing anything wrong. Who knows how long it will be before a trial takes place. Meantime, people will be fair-minded. |
People don't see the war going well. And the president's got to keep going out virtually every day, talking about it and putting it in context. Personnel changes won't affect that. He's got to do that himself. |
People were very upset. They all felt close to Scooter personally, but I think by [Monday] afternoon, they were going about their jobs, doing what they had to do. |