Paul O’Neill is one disgruntled former employee, to be sure!

“Former Treasury Secretary Paul H. O’Neill charged in remarks released Saturday that President Bush began planning to oust Saddam Hussein within days of taking office and before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Providing firsthand testimony bolstering a longtime contention of White House critics, O’Neill told Lesley Stahl of CBS News for a segment to be broadcast on ’60 Minutes’ Sunday night that preparations to oust Hussein long predated Bush’s articulation of his preemption doctrine in June 2002, when he said the United States must strike looming enemies before the worst threats emerge.” —Washington Post

It is not his contentions that are surprising — I have long believed that the dysadministration was looking for a pretext to go into Iraq from the time they took power — but his gutsiness in spilling the beans. I will be curious to see what is unleashed upon him, in the way of character assassination or worse, in response.