I accuse

You're a longtime member of the Foreign Service, and you know lots of Republicans. In fact you come from a Republican family. Have people from previous administrations or this White House expressed any regrets about what has been done to you and your wife?

Certainly a lot of people have reached out and have offered their thoughts, across the political spectrum, and I've been very grateful for that. Most Americans understand what it is we're talking about here.

It doesn't seem like a partisan issue.

It isn't a partisan issue. It's a truth issue.

Have any of those people expressed their feelings to the president or the president's father -- people who know you and your service and think, my God, this isn't right?

Well, I wouldn't know. I am demonstrably the last person that the president speaks to -- hence the mess they've gotten themselves into. It isn't that my report [on the uranium issue] was so enlightening; it was one of three reports in the files of the U.S. government. There was certainly a lot of information that, had the senior advisors been serving the president, would have prevented him from putting that in his State of the Union address.

In this memoir, you give us a broad picture of your life and your upbringing. One of the things that's very clear is that you're not exactly a left-wing pinko. Former Assistant Secretary of State Chester Crocker, who was your boss in the Reagan State Department, apparently was kind of shocked that you were suddenly being portrayed as a left-winger.

As I recall in the book, I once had a little discussion about this with Tony Blankley [editorial page editor of the Washington Times and former press secretary to Newt Gingrich]. He told me that you become a caricature in these sorts of debates -- and that's clearly what they've tried to do.

I grew up in an old California family where politics, and especially state politics, were the staff of life around our table. We had an uncle who was mayor of San Francisco and later governor of California. We had another uncle who had been a congressman.

Republicans all.

We had an aunt whom we still jokingly refer to as "Mrs. John Birch." It's a staunch Republican family, but this [administration] isn't their Republican Party.

What's the difference in the GOP from when you were growing up?

If you're fiscally responsible, this is not your party. If you believe in a moderate foreign policy characterized by alliances, free trade and the ability to operate in an international environment, this is not your party. If you believe in limited federal government, this is not your party. If you believe that the government should stay out of your bedroom, this is very definitely not your party. In fact, I would argue that unless you believe in the American imperium, imposed on the world by force, or unless you believe in the literal interpretation of the Book of Revelations, this is not your party.

In 2000, you at first supported George W. Bush.

I contributed to his campaign, which is different. In the primary season, I supported him as the candidate who best represented those core Republican values. Now that didn't mean I was going to vote for him. In fact, I declined an opportunity to sign a letter supporting him from former ambassadors for Bush. I always sort of thought I would vote for Al Gore, whom I had known since I was a congressional fellow. But I still believe that the campaign and the platform that was being advanced by Bush were more in our interest than what was being advanced by John McCain.

But at a certain point, you became disgusted with the Bush campaign.

After they lost New Hampshire and decided that their tactic would be to move to the hard right. And then they ran this push-poll campaign denigrating McCain's service to the country, [highlighting] his wife's medical problems and mischaracterizing their adoption of a child -- I believe from South Asia. Pushing that racist button was beyond the pale --

When you think about who must have been responsible for that episode with McCain.

Next Page: "Americans don't like to see their women taken out and beaten up"

• View blog reactions