Michael Powell says Negroponte is 'not ruthless enough'

[quaoar]

This is from a blogger who overheard Powell shooting off his mouth at a Washington restaurant

http://unconventionalwisdom.typepad.com/unconventional_wisdom/2005/02/michael_powell_.html

So tonight I was eating at Tosca, one of Washington's finest Italian restaurants, and there sitting at the very next table was Michael Powell, the outgoing FCC chairman and son of the former secretary of state.

Powell was eating with a mid-thirties white guy, decent looking. I don't know who he was; I do know that he has written a book.

Anyway, what Powell wanted to talk about, far too loudly, was John Negroponte, the ambassador to Iraq who President Bush has nominated to become National Intelligence Director. In Powell's opinion, Negroponte was a bad choice because he's "not ruthless enough." The White House will not listen to him. Also, intelligence is not his field; he's a diplomat. Powell believes President Bush picked Negroponte because no one the White House wanted to do the job would do it, including Tommy Franks, who said, "Hell no!" The job of National Intelligence Director cannot be done successfully. All Negroponte will do is "sit around waiting for the bomb to go off" and then take the blame when it does.

Powell came off as a self-inflated ass. But at least he gave me something to report. And the pasta was delicious.

[sendero]

1. Yes..

.... and nepo-boy is not stupid enough. What a tool.

[saltpoint]

2. I've always felt the same thing. That John Negroponte --

-- is just a powder puff.

A REAL Patriot would have disappeared all those people in Central America IN PERSON.

[koopie57]

3. they are not going to be happy

until they can hire the devil.

[ElectroPrincess]

5. They have his spokesman in the threats "Go * yourself" of Dick Cheney ...

Why do you think Judith Miller is paying the price? Why do you thin Dan Rather was totally humiliated? Who do you think is truly responsible for the positions held by Rumsfeld and Negroponte? Who puts the sparkle and believability behind the AEI warmongering but suave mouthpieces of the Executive Branch?

IMO "the devil" is figuratively behind the curtain - calling the shots for all the corrupt politicians within this country. :scared:

[amber dog democrat]

4. Some diplomat

But when the next attack happens I can think of no one better to take the blame as an incompetant fall guy - unless it be Eliot Abrahms.
Maybe it will put paid to this neoCON's public service career.

As it stands our government can't - won't protect us.

[harrison]

6. Too bad Bull Connor isn't still around. He would have been

perfect for the job. Of course, Bull ruled over Birmingham in the 60's. Indeed, I believe that Powell's maternal grandparents lived under Connor's rule. Powell makes me sick. Riding coattails. Like the idiot in the whitehouse, never did anything on his own.

God these people are disturbed.

[quaoar]

7. Bull Connor

would have been Bush's choice for attorney general.

Interesting historical note: The whole dogs-and-fire-hoses strategy of Connor against civil rights demonstrators in 1963 might not have occurred if not for a challenge to the legitimacy of his election as police commissioner.