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Okay, okay, we definitely had mixed feelings about offering this book. Woodward became a jackass when his first two books in his "Bush at War" series turned out to be official Royal Court records glorifying King George.

But clearly for his legacy or out of professional shame -- two highly uncommon concerns among the prostituted D.C. press corps -- Woodward decided to come in from the cold and actually reveal some truths about the fiasco that is the Bush Administration.

Since it has been under tight wraps (and we wonder how a New York Times reporter claimed to have bought it "retail" before it was officially released), we haven't read "State of Denial" yet. But, given the advance leaks, it's quite clear that Woodward, this time around, is not just covering up the truth; he's actually revealing it.

Here's some of what the New York Times had to say:

In Bob Woodward’s highly anticipated new book, “State of Denial,” President Bush emerges as a passive, impatient, sophomoric and intellectually incurious leader, presiding over a grossly dysfunctional war cabinet and given to an almost religious certainty that makes him disinclined to rethink or re-evaluate decisions he has made about the war. It’s a portrait that stands in stark contrast to the laudatory one Mr. Woodward drew in “Bush at War,” his 2002 book, which depicted the president — in terms that the White House press office itself has purveyed — as a judicious, resolute leader, blessed with the “vision thing” his father was accused of lacking and firmly in control of the ship of state.

As this new book’s title indicates, Mr. Woodward now sees Mr. Bush as a president who lives in a state of willful denial about the worsening situation in Iraq.

Many of the people in this book seem not only dismayed but also flummoxed by some of President Bush’s decisions. Mr. Woodward quotes Laura Bush as telling Andrew Card that she doesn’t understand why her husband isn’t upset about Mr. Rumsfeld and the uproar over his handling of the war . And he quotes Mr. Armitage as telling former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell that he’s baffled by President Bush’s reluctance to make adjustments in his conduct of the war.

“Has he thought this through?” Mr. Armitage asks. “What the president says in effect is, We’ve got to press on in honor of the memory of those who have fallen. Another way to say that is we’ve got to have more men fall to honor the memories of those who have already fallen.” (End of excerpt from the NYT.)

We don't expect the book to be a complete turn around for the Watergate wunderkind who turned into a Bush hagiographer, but the title iself indicates that he is making some serious amends: "State of Denial."

So, buy the book and make your own judgment. Coming at this time, just a few weeks before elections, it clearly is not going to help the Republican cause. As anyone who reads BuzzFlash knows, we are naturally cynical. But too much has been leaked about "State of Denial" thus far for it to be a Trojan Horse. The White House has already trashed it, so it would be hard for them to turn around and champion any sections that make Bush look good.

Here's just one tidbit, according to one news story: "The book also reported that then-CIA Director George Tenet and his counterterrorism chief, Cofer Black, grew so concerned about a possible al-Qaida attack in summer 2001 that they abruptly decided to drive straight to the White House to get high-level attention.

Tenet called Rice, then the national-security adviser, from his car to ask to see her in hopes that the surprise appearance would make an impression.

But the meeting on July 10, 2001, left Tenet and Black frustrated and feeling brushed off, Woodward reported. Rice, they believed, did not feel the same sense of urgency about the threat and was content to wait for a policy review.

The report of such a meeting takes on heightened importance after former President Clinton this week complained that the Bush team did not do enough to try to kill Osama bin Laden before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., said her husband would have paid more attention to warnings of a possible attack than did Bush.

Rice fired back on behalf of the current president, saying the Bush administration "was at least as aggressive" in eight months as Clinton had been in eight years.

The July 10 meeting among Rice, Tenet and Black wasn't mentioned in various investigations into the Sept. 11 attacks and Woodward wrote that Black "felt there were things the commissions wanted to know about and things they didn't want to know about." (End of news story excerpt.)

There is apparently plenty more to implicate the White House, whatever mitigating praise Woodward might have in the book.

According to an article about his "60 Minutes" appearance: "Veteran Washington reporter Bob Woodward tells Mike Wallace that the Bush administration has not told the truth regarding the level of violence, especially against U.S. troops, in Iraq. He also reveals key intelligence that predicts the insurgency will grow worse next year.

In Wallace’s interview with Woodward, to be broadcast on 60 Minutes this Sunday, Oct. 1, at 7 p.m. ET/PT, the reporter also claims that Henry Kissinger is among those advising Mr. Bush.

According to Woodward, insurgent attacks against coalition troops occur, on average, every 15 minutes, a shocking fact the administration has kept secret. "It’s getting to the point now where there are eight-, nine-hundred attacks a week. That's more than 100 a day. That is four an hour attacking our forces," says Woodward." (End of news story excerpt.)

Maybe it is as one progressive news publication editor observed in the Washington Post: "Said Bob Kuttner, co-executive editor of the liberal American Prospect: "Either Bob was shamed into using his tremendous reporting talent to explain what was really going on, or he felt foolish in light of what was written before and what was subsequently unearthed.""

Whatever Woodward's turnaround -- even if not 100% -- it couldn't come at a better time.






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