"I feel better for having done it." ~Vic Gold

There's ten other links that I was going to blog about but I got distracted by this facsinating profile of Vic Gold, the author who penned the inaugural biographies for the Cheneys and worked with Lynne on a novel and co-wrote George the elder's autobiography. Gold has now written a scathing rebuke of a book, trashing Dick and young George.

I recommend you read the whole profile for yourself. There's a priceless bit about Lynne's phone exchange with him, but this graf really struck me. It refers to Gold's friendship with Bush 41 and how he had written to tell him about the book ahead of publication.

"As a father, he's got to feel torn up because he sees this going on and obviously, obviously he has not been able to influence [the president]," says Gold. "George W. had one of the greatest resources in foreign relations and political experience in the world -- his old man! What if he didn't have this hubris of 'I am going to do it on my own'? If he had listened to his old man in terms of what to do after 9/11 and everything, he wouldn't have been in the mess he is in right now, and the country would not be in the mess it is right now."

Just in reading the interview, Gold strikes me as a man who wouldn't jeopardize his life long friendship with the father lightly, certainly not for money. His disgust and his despair strike me as genuine. I have a feeling that if he was willing to come forward so publicly, we should all be very concerned about the next two years.