Rice Fails to Repair Rifts, Officials Say

[Snellius]

Last week, the White House announced that national security adviser Condoleezza Rice had been given the new responsibility of managing the struggling effort to rebuild Iraq. In the words of one official, Rice would "crack the whip, frankly."

The announcement was met by puzzlement throughout the foreign policy community: Isn't that what the national security adviser is supposed to do in the first place?
...
From the start, the administration has been riven by ideological disputes on foreign policy. But both neoconservative hawks and mainstream Republican foreign-policy realists say many of the administration's foreign policy headaches are directly related to the interagency process Rice oversees.

A senior State Department official -- voicing an opinion that few in the government disputed -- said: "If you want a one-word description of the NSC since January 21, 2001: dysfunctional."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13695-2003Oct11.html

[leesa]

1. Everyone agrees she's doing a lousy job, so let's put her in charge

Only Republicans could possibly 'think' like this!

[Flying_Pig]

2. Dysfunctional? Is that why they blew it so bad on 9/11?

Dysfunction? How about hubris? How about arrogance? How about stupidity. These bastards are ruining this nation. As far as I am concerned, they carry the blood of the 3,000 people who died on 9/11 on their hands, every bit as much as those who committed the acts.

:grr:

[Voltaire99]

21. That's my view, too (n/t)

[bahrbearian]

28. How about delusional or delirious!

[Sagan]

3. now here's an interesting quote

"As the administration enters an election year, the situation has become worse, several officials said, because everyone understands that no one will be fired no matter how far they stray from policy."

Well..isn't that nice. So much for accountability.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. hmm more on the bush legacy

not a good one

[TomNickell]

5. Unfair to Condi.

Probably.

With the ideologues running the P'gon, and a dysfunctional fool in the Oval Office, is any coherent policy possible?

[Skittles]

11. I'll say this:

if ANYONE in this piece of shit misadministration is held accountable, it will be the BLACK WOMAN.

[calimary]

6. The woman is a policy train-wreck.

Maybe we should get some perverse pleasure out of bush's continuing to place such big responsibilities on her shoulders. Let's see what other stellar accomplishments this anachronism (her specialty is frickin' OBSOLETE - WHAT THE HELL are we doing with a Sovietologist in the highest National Security post in our government?!?!?!? There IS NO SOVIET UNION ANYMORE!!!!! She has all the expertise in the world on a system that doesn't even exist!!!) has added to her lustrous resume since bush TOOK office.

COMPLETELY blew it on 9/11, all this stuff Sandy Berger and other outgoing Clintonites laid in her lap on a silver platter and she turned her nose up at all of it. ALL THE WARNINGS that she paid no attention to. ALL the intelligence that pointed to NO THREAT FROM IRAQ that she systematically and deliberately IGNORED, the Wilson affair, SHEESH! I didn't know we were paying somebody to fall asleep at the switch AND STAY THAT WAY! Rip Van Winkle could do a better job as National Security Advisor than this loser.

So if we want to make sure bush keeps looking bad, hey, give CONdi everything, george. Let CONdi run the whole world. How soon will she fuck that up, too? She sure gives Stanford a bad name. Hell, she gives CHEVRON a bad name! NEVER have I seen such incompetence. Never have I seen such a complete waste of a PhD.

[lanlady]

22. as a Sovietologist

Condi wasn't all that great. I don't think she ever contributed anything original or memorable to academia.

She's married to the (Bush crime) mob. That's her only distinction.

[Rose Siding]

7. No one is at the wheel!

Condi sabotaged the NK meet? No Iran policy, Bush didn't WANT Chalabi flown in? (I don't know if I believe that one)

And of course most intriguing to my idle mind: "She spends countless hours at his side -- in the White House, at Camp David and on his ranch in Crawford, Tex. -- forging a bond that has transcended the statutory position of national security adviser."

Dubya and Condi sittin' in a tree...ROTFL

[calimary]

10. So what is she doing, diapering him?

How ANYONE could stand to spend "countless hours at his side" unless it's because she has a deadline to teach him how to read, feed and dress himself, and wipe his own butt without help.

[radfringe]

24. Whistleass wants to be in the driver's seat

but doesn't want to steer

[chaumont58]

8. Ain't it great havin' the grownups back in charge?

Andrew Sullivan was sure quick to make the comment that the grownups were back in charge when the Bushies came to power back in January 2001. He's too dumb to change his mind, too.

[2cents]

9. I don't doubt it's true...

...but the timing smells like a Rummy counterpunch.

[diamond14]

12. Bush is personally close to Rice....(this is very bad for the USA)

"Bush is personally close to Rice. She spends countless hours at his side -- in the White House, at Camp David and on his ranch in Crawford, Tex. -- forging a bond that has transcended the statutory position of national security adviser."

[T Bone]

15. a bond that has transcended the statutory position

are they insinuating an emotional, romantic, bond here ? As in maybe they are soulmates or something... :pals:

[rocktivity]

13. It's been decided that's she's lousy at a job she's had less than a week?

Oh, wait--that's exactly what I've been saying about Arnold...




rocknation

[Rose Siding]

25. Not at all

The article is the result of several months and dozens of interviews. It spans years of failure!

[cliss]

14. I feel sorry for Bush

all he's managed to recruit are incompetent fools. I'm sure he wished a few times that he could fire them all.

If he did, however, it would become clear to all that HE was the incompetent fool for hiring them all in the first place.

Rummie has made a mess of Iraq. Time for him to exit stage left. Who to pick? Let's see....from the barrel of rotten apples...he picks...Conda-lizard, the one who ordered spying at the UN, who was caught in a lie about the Niger uranium incident, who can't open her mouth without telling a lie....

I guess she hasn't been promoted to her level of incompetence yet.

[ReadTomPaine]

19. Bush didn't pick his cabinet as much as they picked him.

Esp. post Cheney.

[JackSwift]

16. She's a lot worse than I ever believed

possible. I can't decide whether her stupidity exceeds her mendacity or the other way around. I hear she plays piano well.

[Mikimouse]

26. Tap dances well, too, as evidenced by her interviews

n/t

[dd123]

17. All this factionalism really reminds me of a few Pres. campaigns

and that does not bode well.

http://www.deanblog.com/archives/000127.html
I believe that there is a tried and true formula for winning the White House. First, you take a candidate with uncanny political instincts ... not necessarily a political genius or master strategist, but someone who knows good advice when he hears it and has the good sense to find ONE advisor who he can turn to. Bringing us back to baseball, it's like Joe Torre with Don Zimmer. Cubs and Red Sox fans know very well that Zim isn't the best guy in the world to run a team on his own, but if you take his unconventional thoughts and make them available to a leader with an uncanny ability to take good advice and leave the rest, the results can be remarkable. Zimmer has made Joe Torre an excellent manager. The right advisor can make a politician with an ear for good advice President.

snip
To sum up, I think it is a serious matter when a political campaign has too many advisors giving contradictory advice and the candidate doesn't know how to cut through it. Look at what a mess the State Dept. vs. Defense war has had on Bush foreign policy. It's a President's job to create a decision making structure. A political campaign is the first test of this person's ability to filter out the noise of leadership.

Early this week, all the news reports were about the conflict and noise in the Clark campaign. Then all of a sudden a leak appears about how the Kerry campaign is going through the same troubles. This story just happened to be about how a Chris Lehane speech wasn't used by Kerry. Lehane, that same day, is seen looking for an apartment in Little Rock (no doubt because he had a job interview with Tyson's Chicken, I'm sure.) Coincidence? Perhaps, but it sure smells like a leak from a disgruntled former employee.

Regardless of the source, the news this week about both Kerry and Clark is troubling. These guys need to take control of their own campaigns, find someone they can trust, and ride that advisor through thick and thin. Howard Dean was fortunate to find Joe Trippi early, but let's not forget that anyone just looking through resumes would have tossed out Trippi with the lunch time takeout. Past success is irrelevant. Political relationships are critical.

[grasswire]

18. Ha!

The quagmire is Condi's fault!!

"A U.S. official who served in Iraq said the NSC failed to make decisions about Iraq's postwar reconstruction and governance until long after the war ended. Decisions that some agencies thought had been settled were unexpectedly reopened or reinterpreted by the Pentagon, he said."

Whoop, there it is.

[ReadTomPaine]

20. Hard to heal rifts when she's so busy creating them.

That's her specialty. Crusade, anyone?

[radfringe]

23. uhhh-ohhhh the adults aren't in charge

the children are fighting and it is POLITICS as usual

This isn't going to help the whistleass's new PR campaign: Operation Put a :) on Iraq

[Rose Siding]

27. This one's long but important

:kick:

[radfringe]

29. it's not Rice's job to "heal rifts"

this is for the Whistleass to do

he needs to stand up and stop being a poster boy for the GOP

The fact that this "rift" has garnered much media attention shows that being a REAL president is beyond the whistleass's capabilities

the longer this "rift" continues, the less presidential he looks and this will send his credibility down the toilet

If he can't lead/control his own cabinet - then how the hell do we expect him to lead a country???

[twilight]

30. condominium needs a new joba

ASAP!

Repair "rifts" ... When, where, how ... and mostly why?

This woman is a total freakin' idiot ... dump Condo ASAP * because she's doing you no good in case you haven't noticed!