He had just taken over the transition team and almost immediately there was a highly publicized dispute with Hamilton Jordan over control. As [JACK WATSON] was flying down to Plains to see [Jimmy Carter], Walter Mondale handed him The Washington Post, asking if he had seen it. There, on the op-ed page, was an Evans and Novak column in which Watson was described as a "walking dead man."

"Bush almost reverted back to the Carter days," says [O'Neill]. "I was amazed at Bush. Nobody ever went to the Congress as prepared as he was. But he did not want to work with the opposition. I couldn't believe it. He had no warmth. Bush showed no leadership. It's unbelievable the arrogance of George Bush. It was, `I'm going to grind you down. I'll have my way or there'll be no way.' Whittle it down. Whittle it down. Funny thing about Bush. He's so affable. He and Barbara are beautiful people."

O'Neill reminds you that Congress is a two-way street, and what frustrated him about Carter was his unwillingness to play the game - "Carter had the worst staff you ever saw." O'Neill says a congressman would call Frank Moore with a problem and Carter's liaison would put him in touch with an assistant secretary of state. "You'd call [Michael Deaver]," says O'Neill, "and he'd call back and say it was done. Carter tried to stop it. He had an anti-Washington group." Furthermore, O'Neill said, "Carter used to think it should go on merit! . . . He never looked at the political consequences."