Washington Post: Paul H. O’Neill, treasury secretary and critic of George W. Bush administration, dies at 84
“Paul H. O’Neill, a corporate executive who was President George W. Bush’s first treasury secretary, only to become a leading critic of the administration after he was fired from his Cabinet post in 2002, died April 18 at his home in Pittsburgh. He was 84. … O’Neill also became known for his outspoken manner and his sometimes sharp dealings with members of Congress and colleagues within the White House. At his first Cabinet meeting in 2001, he reportedly distributed a speech he had delivered two years before about the dangers of global warming, saying it could be as devastating as a nuclear holocaust. It met with a frosty reception from the administration of a president who hailed from the Texas oil fields. … ‘One of the great things about where I am now: If people don’t like what I’m doing, I don’t give a damn,’ he said in 2002 while touring Africa with rock star Bono. ‘I could be off sailing around on a yacht or driving around the country. I’m here because I think I can make a difference’…” (Schudel, 4/18).

Additional coverage of O’Neill, including his work with Bono, is available from New York Times and Wall Street Journal.