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Dan Bartlett: "there's a difference between lying and being wrong. We were wrong. As were a lot of people and a lot of countries. We were wrong about the intelligence on weapons of mass destruction. That's far different from saying that we purposely manipulated or intentionally lied to the American people.".

Article Excerpt
You leave the Bush White House and you come back to Austin? You couldn't find someplace a little more different?

After being in Austin for a few days, it quickly reminded [my wife and me] of everything we loved about the city. I will say, though, that my experience personally in Washington was better than I anticipated.

How's that?

We were able to carve out a private life there and develop strong friendships in a climate for raising children that I thought didn't exist. We gravitated toward people who were generally from the South--some Texans, some from Louisiana, others from Arkansas--and the Midwest. People who were like-minded, raised similarly, and were in Washington for the same reason we were. We were all somewhat involved in politics but had a lot better time talking about hunting or the football game that weekend. I was a bit surprised that we were able to do that. But at the end of the day, in the broad scope of things, it was an easy decision to return home.

How hard was it to leave professionally? Someone who's been in your position presumably has many opportunities there,

The immediate detox was difficult. When you've been operating at that speed for so long, going from 100 miles per hour to nothing is a bit of a transition. The first Sunday I was off--this was after the Fourth of July--I had my wife send me a test e-mail because I didn't think my e-mail was working. I hadn't received an e-mail when I'd have typically had about a hundred. But I'm not regretting it, and I'm not missing it, which tells me, first, that I left it all on the playing field. I don't feel like there was anything that I didn't accomplish. And second, there's a reason why most West Wing staffers only last about two and a half years.

They run you through the mill pretty quickly, don't they?

It's a grind. I've been blessed in my experience in government, because a lot of people chip away for many, many years before they get that shot. Look at James Carville, who went through a lot of failed campaigns. You can say that Karl [Rove] went through a lot of campaigns. I had a unique circumstance in which my career was associated with George W. Bush, who went straight to the top. I went to work for him in October of 1993. So my whole identity in national politics is associated with this president, and you know, I kind of want to leave it that way. It's not...

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