Former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan, the man who could move the markets based solely on how many napkins he used at lunch and, even in retirement, merits news coverage with his market analysis, has penned a harshly-worded memoir, "The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World," that's landing with a thud today on the desks of Washington Republicans.

As the book comes out, Greenspan is hitting the interview circuit, sitting down with CBS's "60 Minutes" last night and with the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Newsweek for articles out today.

Among his points making news today, Greenspan argued that the removal of Saddam Hussein was "essential" to securing world oil supplies, according to WaPo's Bob Woodward. Woodward points out the passage sure to get anti-war activists up in arms: "The Iraq War is largely about oil." The Journal calls him a "behind-the-scenes advocate" of overthrowing Hussein.

The book pulls no punches, and neither does Greenspan in interviews, when it comes to his thoughts on the Bush Administration and fellow members of the GOP. Greenspan, a self-described libertarian Republican, takes after the lack of fiscal discipline from Bush's term and says he was much closer to Clinton Administration economic officials than to officials in the current administration. "It's not an accident that Republicans deserved to lose in 2006," Greenspan told the Journal. "The Republican Party, which ruled the House, the Senate and the presidency, I no longer recognize."

Still, Greenspan has few hopes that Democrats will turn out better than the GOP: "The Clinton Administration was a pretty centrist party," Greenspan told the Journal, "but they're not governing again. The next administration may have the Clinton Administration name but the Democratic Party ... has moved ... very significantly in the wrong direction."

Others, though, are criticizing Greenspan for his handling of some economic issues. Former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich lamented Greenspan's lack of outspokenness on the Bush Administration's tax cuts, which came without spending cuts, while the current White House has fired back at the claim that oil was a cause for the Iraq war. "That sounds like Georgetown cocktail party analysis," White House spokesman Tony Fratto told ABC News. Bush Administration officials also took issue with Greenspan's assertion that the president hadn't used his veto against big spending measures.

While Greenspan has had a long relationship with Vice President Cheney -- a spokeswoman said Cheney looks forward to reading the book -- his relationship with President Bush is less than stellar. "The economy was [Bush's] Achilles heel," he wrote, per ABC, "and as a result we ended up with a terrible relationship."

For many Republicans, the war in Iraq and congressional corruption were less of an issue than out of control spending, though earmarks played into both spending and corruption questions. Greenspan's book puts those frustrations into words, and may help the GOP begin to understand the need to rebuild its tight-fisted reputation.

If they don't, they may find themselves in trouble with economic conservatives like Greenspan. Asked who he supports in 2008, he called Hillary Clinton "unquestionably capable," though he said his "tendency would be to vote Republican." "I doubt if I would vote Democrat," Greenspan said on CBS. "I just may not vote. At the moment it's extremely hard to say."