Cabinet Meetings Quotes
Mary Lincoln, grieving for her dead son, organized many seances in a desperate attempt to be reunited with her dead son. The President to comfort her attended a few. :Later he made this quip to friends.
Bush assumes that this meant that all the people agreed with his decision to invade Iraq. While that might have been the case, there are other possibilities that many historians, journalists and other analysts have suggested. The Vice President, and his personal staff, were known to have visited them all and lobbied for the invasion. They pressured several of them who may have not wanted to run afoul of what seemed to be the most powerful vice president in American History. Or they may have thought that the decision had already been made, and it was time to join together and loyally support the policy decision that had been made. There were few strong independent thinkers in the top tier as Bush was not intellectually or emotionally inclined to have open staff arguments to work out a policy or very strong advisors with different points of view. The strongest of the advisors like Secretary of State Colin Powell had been lied to and persuaded there was “clear evidence” that Iraq was about to deploy a nuclear weapon. This made Powell an advocate. The intelligence given to Powell and the others was wrong and much was fabricated or obtained from an unreliable source who had been pushed as trustworthy by the Vice President. The CIA Director, had told those all that the evidence and case for the fact that Iraq was developing and close to deploying a nuclear weapon was a “slam dunk”.
Attlee, then a young minister, was at a Cabinet meeting where the Prime Minister who could be very long-winded, called the meeting to reach a decision on something. He then began to frame the issue and went on and on. After a long time, young Attlee interrupted.
Mrs. Carter attended cabinet meetings sitting in the rear and taking copious notes. This at the time was very controversial in that no First Lady before had ever attended a cabinet meeting—not even Eleanor Roosevelt.
Mary Lincoln went to many séances in an attempt to resolve her feelings about her dead son. The President attended at least one.
