Baker advisory role seen as key on several levels

[Judi Lynn]

April 24, 2006, 1:33AM
THE WAR IN IRAQ
Baker advisory role seen as key on several levels
Having him lead team seeking ideas reminds some of a move by Johnson


By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
New York Times

WASHINGTON - In the late 1960s, an anguished President Lyndon B. Johnson sought advice from a respected elder statesman on the Vietnam quagmire. In part because of the private counsel of former Secretary of State Dean Acheson, a onetime hawk turned skeptic on the war, Johnson shifted course in 1968, halting the bombing of North Vietnam and announcing he would not run for re-election.

Republicans and Democrats see parallels between the designation last month of former Secretary of State James A. Baker III to head up a congressionally mandated effort to generate new ideas on Iraq and the role of Acheson, who had served under President Harry Truman.

Baker, a longtime confidant of the first President Bush who has maintained a close but complicated relationship with the current president, plans to travel to Baghdad and the region to meet with heads of state on a fact-finding mission that officials say was encouraged by both father and son, as well as by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"What the United States needs on Iraq is some fresh ideas from people able to speak out, and no one is more qualified to do that than Jim Baker," said Rep. Frank R. Wolf, an influential Virginia Republican who helped recruit Baker for the job.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3814137.html

http://www.ruckus.org.nyud.net:8090/warprofiteers/img/cardsbig/card0006.jpg

[henslee]

1. Whew. I feel so much better now.

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. Whenever Bush gets in trouble

it seems he runs to Uncle Jimmie the Fixer.

[bklyncowgirl]

3. So Chimpy is talking to the grownups.

But will he listen to what they have to say or will he just call a photo op and then blow them off like he usually do.

I say window dressing.

[Binka]

4. I Love That The Old Queen Is The Queen Of Diamonds!

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. Baker watched the attack on 9-11 on TV

with other members of the group who financed the attack.


On September 11, 2001, like most Americans, Baker watched television coverage of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Unlike most, he watched from the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington DC, where Baker and representatives of Osama bin Laden's family were among those attending the annual conference for the Carlyle Group. Baker is Senior Counselor for the Carlyle Group, and the bin Ladens are among its major investors.


They all sat there and watched it go down on TV. So did Cheney, Rummie, Bush, and Myers. They all saw the first news broadcast when the first tower got hit and ignored the event that was in progress. They all sat there and did nothing while they watched the attack go down.

[Binka]

6. Then They Had A Cocktail Party And Put Everyone On A Plane To Dubai

Along with all the other bin Laden relatives in the US who wanted to get out. I know someone who was at the meeting and on that plane. They said NOT ONE OF THE HIGH RANKING AMERICANS IN ATTENDANCE APPEARED SHOCKED BY THE EVENT.

[leesa]

9. Now be fair...Cheney was busy coordinating the distraction drills and

shooting down the errant flight so no survivors could tell the truth about what really happened. Bush was busy reading and Rummie was busy being unavailable.

[Carni]

7. Did you guys know Baker's son Doug is also a WH appointee?

I don't have a link because it has apparently disappeared from the net but Douglas Baker is also in the *rebuilding Iraq* capacity for bushit!

I actually emailed Craig Unger (The house of Saud author)about this about three years ago and he was going to check it out/not sure if he came up with anything but he was unaware also that Baker III had a son named Doug in the WH.

[gratuitous]

8. Baker qualifies as a "fresh" voice for this corrupt administration?

Yeah, it's real good that Satan, now that Mephistopheles has been cashiered, is able to listen to the fresh voice of Beelzebub.

[Demeter]

10. Too Little, Too Late!

Whether Dubya is turning to Poopy's gang for help, or Poppy is overtly interfering in the Dubya Disaster-a=Day regime, it's simply too late to save the GOP from meltdown.

I did wonder what took them so long, though.