Powell May Be Next to Join the DisgruntledTM

My initial list of The DisgruntledTM (people who work or worked in and around the Bush White House who have been critical of the administration’s policy-making) is in this post; commenters ably filled out the list. We know they are disgruntled for there can be no other reason why they would criticize this administration; certainly such criticisms are not valid.

At the time, Colin Powell wasn’t in the Disgruntled column, nor even the Possibly Disgruntled column. But now the NYT is reporting that he and his staff were major sources for Woodward’s new book.

But Mr. Powell’s apparent decision to lay out his misgivings even more explicitly to the journalist Bob Woodward for a book has jolted the White House and aggravated long-festering tensions in the Bush cabinet. Moreover, some officials said, the book has created problems for the secretary inside the administration just as the situation in Iraq is deteriorating and President Bush is plunging into his re-election drive.

Mr. Powell has not acknowledged that he cooperated with Mr. Woodward, but the book presents the secretary’s reservations in such detail that it leaves little doubt. A spokesman for Mr. Powell said again Sunday that he would not comment on the book, “Plan of Attack.”

Critics of Mr. Powell in the hawkish wing of the administration said they were startled by what they saw as his self-serving decision to help fill out a portrait that enhances his reputation as a farsighted analyst, perhaps at the expense of Mr. Bush.

AB