BLUMENTHAL: "Words like 'incoherent' come to mind"

[nostamj]

Neocons take complete control
George W. Bush continues to purge his administration of those who advised caution in Iraq, while Dick Cheney wrests power from a wobbly Condoleezza Rice.

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By Sidney Blumenthal


Dec. 30, 2004 | The transition to President Bush's second term, filled with backstage betrayals, plots and pathologies, would make for an excellent chapter of "I, Claudius." To begin with, I have learned from numerous sources, including several people close to Brent Scowcroft, that Bush has unceremoniously and without public acknowledgment dumped Scowcroft, his father's closest associate and friend, as chairman of the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. The elder Bush's national security advisor was the last remnant of traditional Republican realism permitted to exist within the administration. But no longer. At the same time, Vice President Dick Cheney has imposed his authority over Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice, in order to blackball Arnold Kanter, former undersecretary of state to James Baker, and partner in the Scowcroft Group, as a candidate for deputy secretary of state.

"Words like 'incoherent' come to mind," one top State Department official told me about Rice's effort to organize her office. She is unable to assert herself against Cheney, her wobbliness a sign that the State Department will mostly be sidelined as a power center for the next four years. The neoconservatives' attempt to force their favorites on Rice and her failure to accede to their every demand is one motive ascribed to Cheney's veto of Kanter.

Rice may have wanted to appoint as deputy her old friend Robert Blackwill, whom she had put in charge of Iraq at the NSC. But Blackwill, a mercurial personality with a volcanic temper, allegedly physically assaulted a female U.S. Foreign Service officer in Kuwait and was forced to resign in November. Secretary of State Colin Powell and his deputy Richard Armitage assembled the evidence against Blackwill and presented it to Rice. "Condi only dismissed him after Powell and Armitage threatened to go public," a State Department source close to Powell told me.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2004/12/30/neocons/index.html

[xultar]

1. So that is why Cheney backed Rice and Rummy. The Devil---Cheney

knew he could run all over Rice and she bought into that shit.

Cheney was the one who broke the tie over whether it was Rummy or Powell. Cheney and Rummy won.

I didn't know a sistah could be so stupid. OK CONDA-LIES-A you fought with Colin instead of backing a Bruva and in the end you are the one who looks like a total ASS.

Buhwawawawwawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawa
deep breath...wawawawwawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawa
deep breath...awawawwawaawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawa
:evilgrin:

[gratuitous]

2. It will take four years longer than I wanted

But I can hardly wait for all the back-biting books to come out of this dysfunctional and corrupt administration once it's turned out of power.

[RafterMan]

3. That is extremely disturbing

Both Scowcroft and Baker shut out. Rummy is the most sane person left...

Our only hope is that they destroy each other before they destroy us.

[nostamj]

4. "Rummy is the most sane person left..."

scary thought, no? lunatics running the asylum and the asylum is America....

[JHB]

5. And note the family drama at work...

* regards criticism from Poppy's old pals as besmiching his manhood, so he gets all rude & perfunctory with the same people who helped get him where he is...

...meanwhile, back at the ranch (or where ever Poppy & Bar stay these days), loyalty trumps all, so the Old Pals still keep quiet in public out of loyalty to "41"...

...and the rest of us have to have national policy filtered through this cheap soap opera...

:wtf: :cry: :argh: :grr: :spank:

[AngryWhiteLiberal]

6. Demons tend to rip themselves apart and ultimately destroy each other...

Sit back and enjoy the show.

JB

[hatrack]

7. State has been irrelevant since 2001

Powell, though occasionally convenient for performances of the Amazing Bush Carnival of Diversity, couldn't do squat. Condi will continue to do the same, though with even less power and effectiveness.

[RafterMan]

8. But it might go from being irrelevant

to being a further instrument of Cheney's power.

Bush has taught me that no matter how bad things seem, they can always get worse.

[Javaman]

9. And we are surprised by this because?

Condi, I haven't had an original idea in my life, Rice has and always been seen as nothing more than a parrot or a puppet to morons will.
If she ever got a clue she would scare the hell out of herself. She is the equivalent of a gov't stepford wife. "My husband...er, the president".
Another one in the long list of morons that bow down to the jackass.

[Florida_Geek]

10. On this thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1458256

They talk about an Arab astrologer who predicts Bush assassination.

IMHO, the man that would be behind that is Dickie, Dickie is more crazy than *. And he knows he would never get the job on his own. If he could knock * off... He would have 4-8 years in the WH starting Wars as much as he wants.

[Virginian]

12. "He would have 4-8 years in the WH starting Wars as much as he wants."

Cheney could NEVER get elected. He could only have the remainder of the current term of office. How many more times will he serve as VP? There is no term limit on that. He can rule from the second seat for the rest of his life with an electable front man.

These "morans" should be careful what they wish for (or who they vote for) -- They might just get it.

[TheFarseer]

13. Scarry thought: It's Jeb's turn to be president next

and he could easily have Dicky C as his VP. 16 years of this and we will never recover!

[Virginian]

23. Jebby is already starting his campaign.

He's going on this fact finding (photo op) trip with Powell.

Think maybe Senator Liddy Dole, former president of the American Red Cross could have been sent, too? She has a little experience in disasters.

[NJCher]

14. of course he can be reelected

a little electronic vote tampering here, a little there...

voila, President Cheney.

[Virginian]

24. You got me on that one. I was thinking legitimately -- silly me.

I long for the days when we had real elections.

[noamnety]

11. Good lord

How bad do you have to be for Armitage, of all people, to have ethics problems with your appointment?

[Gyre]

15. Good!

All these arrogant, treasonous, pricks lying around, hamstrung, bleeding, with shanks in their backs is exactly what gets me hot. :)

Gyre

[necso]

16. The paleocons have sold themselves out to the neocons,

out of greed, fear, weakness and narrow-mindedness ("Where else is a conservative to go?"), and now they will all get booted onto the dung heap as their just reward. If they expected anything less, then they need to change their medication.... or check into detox.

Welcome to the new conservative movement, the new Republican Party and the new reality, patsies! And you had better do a "gut check" on that "core conviction" before making any future political plans.

It is rather mean-spirited of me, but I am really enjoying this part of the show. Sure it's a slow motion disaster, but that was always a given -- after all, we're talking neocons here. And it's about time these neocon-appeasers got their own fallacies (feces) rubbed into their dumb ass, wishful thinking, self-deluding faces.

But hey, maybe old Neville Chamberlain needs some bridge partners in Hell. I imagine that you won't be lacking in pocket money when the time comes. -- And isn't that all that really matters?

Crash and burn, baby. Crash and burn.

[tabasco]

17. I'm convinced a major crisis is what it will take ...

to open the eyes of working people who support the neocons/republicans.

I'm not enjoying the show because I love my country very much. But I understand history and how monarchs and dictators always have a way of returning. The power of money and propaganda is immense.

It is so sad to see the work of our brilliant founders being destroyed, at the behest of cowards and hatemongers.

[Karenina]

18. It is SO SAD.

:cry: :cry: :cry:

[nostamj]

19. a crisis like 9/11?

or an illegal war? :shrug:

[tabasco]

21. More like the Great Depression or a war requiring conscription.

As terrible as it was, 9-11 directly affected only a small fraction of our people.

The Iraq war only enrages those who see through the propaganda. When Joe Freeper actually sees the prospect of being thrown into combat, he becomes much more of a pacifist, and more carefully considers the reasons why we should wage war.

I think the economic/social collapse is more likely. In true imperial decline, I think the neocons will recruit from 3rd world countries to fill the military ranks before drafting citizens.

[bpilgrim]

25. iraq war, jobs overseas, dollar plummeting, debt soaring, peak oil, climat

we're already there... the draft is comming summer 05, bet.

peace

[necso]

20. Lest there be any mistake,

I am horrified to see what has become of my country and people. -- And I am even more horrified to peer into the chasm that opens up before us.

But I am delighted to see the paleocons come to ruin. The sounds of their weeping and gnashing of teeth, issuing forth from the wilderness to which they have been driven, is simply music to my ears.

Their time has passed -- and their legacy is darkness and ashes.

It is fitting... And I relish it.

Let their only true God, money, serve to dry their tears. (Since clearly their other God, power, has already deserted them.)

[paulk]

22. who would have ever thought

we would see a day when the ouster of Scowcroft and Baker would be seen as a bad thing?

[grasswire]

26. looks to me like...

...anyone who would report to Poppy is being purged by Cheney. Looks like he doesn't want W's old man and his stooges knowing anything about what's going on inside the administration. It's a purge of anyone who could bring moderating influence on George.