[nate_02]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...h/bush_cabinet

[voodoo]

Now if only Bush would resign...

[lil'babykitten]

There goes the only moderate in the Bush admin...

[Spliffdaddy]

looks more like rumor. Since there's no valid source.

Almost like a BBC article, in that respect.

"...high-ranking State Department officials said Monday."


"...said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity."


"According to one official..."


...a senior administration said."



A 'senior administration'?

[NYCFarmboy]

Condi Rice would make a great Secretary of State! (or President for that matter!)

[xi_hyperon]

No rumor, it's being reported by about every news outlet now.

[chris v]

Let the speculation about his replacement begin...

Perle? Wolfowitz? Rice? Negroponte?

[voodoo]

Kissinger!!

He's got the previous experience too.

[Millennium]

A great shame; he was one of the few people in the administration with any real integrity. However, this wasn't unexpected; he's been known to loathe politics for many years.

[lil'babykitten]

Originally posted by voodoo:
Kissinger!!

He's got the previous experience too.

**** off Kissinger!!!

[zigzag]

I've been called a Bush-basher for having essentially the same views on the Iraq invasion as Powell. Powell is also pro-choice and pro-affirmative action. Yet staunch conservatives fawn over him.

Rice appears to have presided over more serious security ****-ups than anyone other than Bush himself. She is also pro-choice and pro-affirmative action. Yet staunch conservatives fawn over her.

Would a hawkish, pro-life, anti-affirmative action conservative care to explain?

[Troll]

Originally posted by Millennium:
A great shame; he was one of the few people in the administration with any real integrity. However, this wasn't unexpected; he's been known to loathe politics for many years.

He had some integrity before his UN Presentation. The Bush Administration played that card and they were trumped by events. I think foreign leaders appreciated that he was sold down the river, but his credibility if not his integrity was lost from that moment on.

As for Condi Rice. She might make a good leader if she wasn't an habitual liar.

[zigzag]

Originally posted by Troll:
He had some integrity before his UN Presentation. The Bush Administration played that card and they were trumped by events. I think foreign leaders appreciated that he was sold down the river, but his credibility if not his integrity was lost from that moment on.

As for Condi Rice. She might make a good leader if she wasn't an habitual liar.

Yes, Powell has been trying to recover his reputation ever since. He has twice said that he would not have supported the invasion had he known then what he knows now. But everyone knows that he more-or-less knew then what we know now and disagreed with Bush's approach, but acted out of loyalty.

It's difficult to say whether Powell has integrity because he's so loyal, or whether he's the world's most spineless opportunist. Even when he's loyal on the surface, he always manages to get his real views fed to the press, under the table.

Rice is a very accomplished person, and seems very likable, but I fail to see what she has done to earn anyone's confidence in the political arena.

[voodoo]

Originally posted by lil'babykitten:
**** off Kissinger!!!

Henry Kissinger
How I'm missing yer
You're the doctor of my dreams
With your crinkly hair and your glassy stare
And your machiavellian schemes
I know they say that you are very vain
And short and fat and pushy but at least you're not insane
Henry Kissinger
How I'm missing yer
And wishing you were here.

Henry Kissinger
How I'm missing yer
You're so chubby and so neat
With your funny clothes and your squishy nose
You're like a German parakeet
All right so people say that you don't care
But you've got nicer legs than Hitler
And bigger tits than Cher
Henry Kissinger
How I'm missing yer
And wishing you were here.

[chris v]

Originally posted by zigzag:

Rice appears to have presided over more serious security ****-ups than anyone other than Bush himself.

And is thus, probably a shoe-in.

[Troll]

Originally posted by voodoo:
Henry Kissinger
How I'm missing yer
You're the doctor of my dreams
With your crinkly hair and your glassy stare
And your machiavellian schemes
I know they say that you are very vain
And short and fat and pushy but at least you're not insane
Henry Kissinger
How I'm missing yer
And wishing you were here.

Henry Kissinger
How I'm missing yer
You're so chubby and so neat
With your funny clothes and your squishy nose
You're like a German parakeet
All right so people say that you don't care
But you've got nicer legs than Hitler
And bigger tits than Cher
Henry Kissinger
How I'm missing yer
And wishing you were here.

Monty Python?

[Shaddim]

Originally posted by voodoo:
Kissinger!!

He's got the previous experience too.

Hush, don't get me all excited like that!

[tie]

Originally posted by Millennium:
A great shame; he was one of the few people in the administration with any real integrity.

Nonsense, he lied through his teeth at his UN presentation.

Just one example: the aluminum missile tubes that he claimed were for centrifuges, citing for example that they were manufactured to a tolerance "that far exceeds U.S. requirements for comparable rockets."

• Yet in a memo written two days earlier, Mr. Powell's intelligence experts had specifically cautioned him about those very same words. "In fact," they explained, "the most comparable U.S. system is a tactical rocket - the U.S. Mark 66 air-launched 70-millimeter rocket - that uses the same, high-grade (7075-T6) aluminum, and that has specifications with similar tolerances."
  [Similar tubes were also used in the Italian Medusa rocket, which the Iraqis had copied. The Energy Department had make a remark to the effect that "many common industrial items, even aluminum cans, were made to specifications as good or better than the tubes sought by Iraq."]

(quotes from NY Times) You have an odd definition of "integrity." He tried to get away with lying to the world, and I'm glad he's going to be out of power.

[voodoo]

Originally posted by Troll:
Monty Python?

eso es

[nath]

Originally posted by Spliffdaddy:
looks more like rumor. Since there's no valid source.

Almost like a BBC article, in that respect.

Arf. Anonymous sources in the Bush/Blair administrations were the main means of disseminating most of the more outrageous WMD BS before the war. All leaders want to silence anonymous briefers, although they tend to get most upset with the ones that tell the truth, for some reason.

Shame about Powell, although to be honest he's been a busted flush since de Villepin owned him at the UN.

[chris v]

According to CNN it looks like Rice. Figures.

[ironknee]

we're dooooomed

[zigzag]

Originally posted by chris v:
According to CNN it looks like Rice. Figures.

Might be a good thing. She might be more competent in that role than as NSA, and might not have to lie as much.

I still wonder if she has the gravitas that the SoS position calls for, but I would support anything that gets her out of the NSA position. Since Bush doesn't seem to know what he's doing, we need someone as NSA who does.

[SimeyTheLimey]

Originally posted by zigzag:
Might be a good thing. She might be more competent in that role than as NSA, and might not have to lie as much.

I still wonder if she has the gravitas that the SoS position calls for, but I would support anything that gets her out of the NSA position. Since Bush doesn't seem to know what he's doing, we need someone as NSA who does.

At least I don't see her tangoing with Kim Jong Il.

[nath]

Originally posted by SimeyTheLimey:
At least I don't see her tangoing with Kim Jong Il.

just for balance:



(WMD bulk-buy and support for genocide not pictured)

[TETENAL]

Originally posted by nate_02:
Powell Resigning

[zigzag]

Originally posted by SimeyTheLimey:
At least I don't see her tangoing with Kim Jong Il.

Like I said, it might be a good thing. When Rice first appeared in the spotlight, she struck me as unseasoned and lacking in composure. I was rather alarmed that she was serving as NSA to a President who himself was so unseasoned. Events seem to have validated my concerns. However, she has probably gained confidence with time, and she showed a good deal of composure at the Senate hearings, even if she wasn't altogether forthright. So, Albright's idiocies aside, I think it might be a good move.

Besides, when you're in North Korea, and Kim Jong Il asks you to tango, you might not have much choice.

[itai195]

Originally posted by zigzag:
Besides, when you're in North Korea, and Kim Jong Il asks you to tango, you might not have much choice.

How can anyone resist his dashing good looks?

[SimeyTheLimey]

Originally posted by zigzag:
Besides, when you're in North Korea, and Kim Jong Il asks you to tango, you might not have much choice.

. . . because he's so ronery.

Albright's problem was that she was unbelievably gullible, and that she hung on to the illusion that she had achived something magnificent in North Korea long after is was apparent that the deal had been broken. Hopefully, Condi (or whoever) will not be such a pushover, and won't become so personally invested in touting process rather than successful results.

[Mithras]

How is Rice at, you know, diplomacy? Assuming we still do that from time to time?

[Zimphire]

Don't get me wrong. I liked Powell..

But..

Monday that national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) was most likely to succeed Powell.

[Zimphire]

Originally posted by zigzag:
Would a hawkish, pro-life, anti-affirmative action conservative care to explain?

I am pro-life, anti-death penalty.

This is the reason I want to get rid of the two party system.

[Zimphire]

Originally posted by Troll:
if she wasn't an habitual liar.

[chris v]

Originally posted by Zimphire:
I am pro-life, anti-death penalty.

This is the reason I want to get rid of the two party system.

Ah, what?


And replace the two-party system with good ol' tried and true theocracy?

(I know you never said that. but seriously.)

[Zimphire]

Originally posted by chris v:
Ah, what?


And replace the two-party system with good ol' tried and true theocracy?

(I know you never said that. but seriously.)

I would be all for voting for the person. Not the party.

No parties. Just ideas.

[Joshua]

Looks like Condi will be the new Secretary of State.

[nath]

Originally posted by Joshua:
Looks like Condi will be the new Secretary of State.

She'll never hide her secret identity in such a high profile position.

[Millennium]

It wouldn't surprise me one bit if it's Rice. I don't claim to know whether or not she's qualified, but this is entirely political. They're setting her up to run against Hillary in 2008, because they know that she's the only person they have who can counter the sheer political correctness that is Hillary Clinton.

That said, I'm not so sure I mind so much if this ends up how it plays out. It would mean that either way, we will elect our first female President in 2008, something long overdue. We may simultaneously elect our first black President, also long overdue. And I have to admit, I'd love to see the look on the Democrats' faces if the first female and first black President is a Republican. Call it schadenfreude, I guess.

[Mithras]

Nice piece in todays NYTimes:

One of Colin Powell's heroes is his predecessor at the Pentagon and the State Department, Gen. George C. Marshall. He occasionally recounts the tale of the day in 1948 when Truman was considering whether the United States should recognize the newly declared state of Israel. Marshall advised against it, but Truman decided to go ahead. More than once, Mr. Powell has described how some of Marshall's aides gathered around "this desk" to say that he had no choice but to resign. Marshall responded by asking them who had made him the president? Truman was president, Marshall pointed out, and he got to make the decisions. The secretary of state's role was to give his best advice and then offer support.

When Colin Powell tells the tale, in the wake of the Iraq invasion, it's clear that he's discussing himself as well as Marshall. But it's worth noting that the main difference between the two men in these instances is that Mr. Powell turned out to be right about most of the advice he gave on Iraq, while Marshall was wrong on Israel.
....

Mr. Powell is an honorable man and we should take him at his word that, like most Americans of both parties, he favored the removal of Saddam Hussein, thought that there was evidence that the dictator was acquiring weapons of mass destruction, and supported the invasion of Iraq. On these grounds, Mr. Powell was not being disingenuous nor lending legitimacy to policies he opposed.

He did, however, offer cautions and reservations. The doctrine that has long been associated with his name is that any military intervention should have a well-defined mission, use enough force that it can be accomplished cleanly and successfully and include a clear exit strategy. Mr. Powell argued, before the invasion, for more time to line up a broader coalition of allies and for more extensive planning for postwar security and occupation.

To varying degrees, he lost out to the Pentagon civilians on each and every one of these points. And in almost every case, he turned out to be more wise and prescient. The lesson we should remember about him is not that he failed to prevail but that he should have prevailed.

[jolivierld]

Hmmm.. I think the newspapers could have this on their front page today

"WTF?!"