Why it’s important: Woodward, 83 – who followed his youth’s bestselling reporting on Watergate with a series of tell-all books about US presidents – gives a searingly honest account of the collapse of his friendship with Darman after a Post series that was damaging to Bush. Woodward describes a disappointment in his career at the Washington Post and, in the case of a story he edited, a “moral failure.”
- The New Yorker calls Darman’s excerpt a “dangerous friendship,” revealing the danger of “getting too close to a source.” Woodward and Darman never reconciled, although “Secrets” describes their deathbed meeting.
Woodward writes in his New Yorker debut, he and Darman, who controlled the paper flow for Reagan as Bush 41’s staff secretary and budget director, “had countless long lunches together – Saturday or Sunday – at the Madison Hotel, across the street.” Jobdiscussing government, journalism and ourselves”:
“I felt like I was getting a lecture on how government really works. And lots of scoops. Later, Darman would drive on weekends to our country home near Annapolis, Maryland, to spend much of the day with me and my wife, journalist Elsa Walsh, who was particularly fond of him. Some people found him arrogant, but I loved his comfortable confidence as a friend and source. That was part of what made him so extraordinary and so precious. He knew how to activate the charm, and he did it for both Elsa and me.”
Behind the scenes: “From critical national security information to the colorful office stories he shared, Darman provided me with a goldmine of information,” Woodward recalled. “I interviewed him in at least fifty-eight meetings or telephone conversations. I have boxes filled with hundreds of pages of notes about our discussions. After our most important conversations, as is my practice, I typed up a memo of one to six pages, setting out in detail what he had said.”
- Detailing Darman’s “axeman” role, Woodward reveals that Darman’s “hardest target to dislodge was First Lady Nancy Reagan. While Darman privately despised her, describing her to me as a ‘bad bitch,’ he couldn’t find a way to drive a stake through her heart.”
After a hard-won legislative victory, Darman told Woodward, Reagan said, “Phew! Have you ever felt like you shit a pineapple?
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