State Department staffers compare Rice to Wicked Witch of the West.

[G_j]

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/22/rice-wicked-witch/

State Department staffers compare Rice to Wicked Witch of the West

Reporting on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s introductory speech at the State Department this morning, Harper’s Scott Horton notes that last week several career State Department staffers compared former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz:

I met last week with a number of career State Department employees and was surprised when one said she was looking forward to the “Glinda Party” next week. I asked her: if Hillary was Glinda, the Good Witch of the South from the Wizard of Oz, did that make Condoleezza Rice the Wicked Witch of the West?

“You’re on to it,” she said. Another person pointed out to me that after Rice’s arrival in 2005 the tone of official State Department publications changed; they began to praise and glorify Rice. “No prior secretary,” said the twenty-year veteran, “did anything like this.”

Clinton was given what the LA Times dubbed a “celebrity welcome” this morning at the State Department.

[patrice]

1. State publications praising Rice rather than inform employees about anything about their jobs. wow.

[KharmaTrain]

2. Worst. Secretary of State. Ever.

When the going got tough...Condi went shopping.

Yesterday was liberation day at Foggy Bottom, and I hear Eric Holder is going to get just as big a welcome over at Justice. The politication of the past 8 years was like a muzzle on the entire career government staff. Many are now free...and I'm sure we're going to hear a lot more about how poorly things were run in the weeks and months ahead.

Rice was undoubtably the worst diplomat this country has ever produced. She excelerated this nation's fall in the eyes of the world and became both irrelevant and a laughing stock. The tread marks over her head rival those on ice road truckers.

What a relief it is to know that we once again have a functioning State Department headed by the extremely competant Hillary Clinton. It struck me when she said that "we're all working for the United States"...I could only imagine how it felt for many career diplomats in that building who spent the last 8 years doing nothing but damage control.

[yellowcanine]

10. Did you forget that Al Haig was SOS under Reagan?

[KharmaTrain]

11. He's In "Control"

I've seen my share of bad repugnicans SOS's...Haig, Schultz, Dulles...at least they had some gravitas...Rice had none.

[MorningGlow]

3. I see the resemblance n/t

[Patsy Stone]

4. That's funny because I thought it looked like the scene from The Wiz

where Mabel King, as the Wicked Witch, gets flushed down the toilet. Suddenly, the chains and cumbersome costumes fade away, the sewing machines in the sweatshop disappear into the floor and the whole thing becomes a beautiful, light scene where everyone is dancing and singing. Can you feel a brand new day?

[peacetalksforall]

5. She's been getting a free ride from the world and now she is going to make money

giving speeches to Republicans and corporations. Lotzaboots. I think that is my new name for her - IF I choose to mention her name again.

[JaneQPublic]

6. Does that make Obama/Biden Dorothy and Toto?

Okay, maybe I'm taking the analogy a step too far.

[gratuitous]

7. CP trumped PC in the Bush administration

That is, the Cult of Personality was always superior to Political Competence.

[ThomWV]

8. I asked my wife last night, just what the fuck has that woman been doing for the last 2 years?

Flying all around the world and what did she accomplish? Not one god damned thing. Two fucking years of utter incompetence.

[yellowcanine]

9. I have a friend who works for the State Dept. He said most are happy to see Rice go but not all are

excited about Clinton and many are taking a wait and see attitude. Powell was liked and respected. Rice was neither liked nor respected. Clinton will have to prove herself. The biggest question will be whether she is willing to take counsel from career employees who have more knowledge than she does.

[Peace Patriot]

14. I can understand a "wait and see" attitude, after what they've all been through,

but Hillary did announce, in BIG LETTERS, at her welcoming party, that she WANTS RIGOROUS DEBATE and HONEST IN-PUT.

This whole thing rather surprised me. I didn't realize, a) how stifled, oppressed and angry the professionals at State were, under Rice (--some of it, yeah, but not the extent of it--"Wicked Witch of the West"--geez), and b) what a refreshing breeze Hillary would be. I'm not a fan of Hillary's. Voted for the war and everything else. Thorough-going corporatist. Had Mark Penn--a paid agent of the Colombian government--as her chief campaign adviser (until he was caught out, and backbenched). Colombia has the worst government on earth, outside of maybe Saudi Arabia. (Thousands of union leaders, peasant farmers, human rights workers, journalists and others slaughtered by the Colombian military and attendant rightwing death squads with close ties to the government. $6 BILLION in U.S. military aid, for what? Not a dent in the cocaine traffic--all being used to oppress the poor.) So I have actually felt shudders regarding Clinton policy at State, and the prospects for real reform, and a turn toward peace and justice, in foreign policy. However, I guess I underestimated the impact of sheer lack of competence in the top spot, and how that affects policy, as well as the fate of competent, knowledgeable people, all the way down the line.

Is it better to have a highly competent corporatist/'free trader' in charge, than someone who can't even engineer a coup in Venezuela--and hasn't a clue, and has no curiosity, about what is really going on there? Hillary's competence may not be better for the people of South America, but I can see how it would be much better for the professionals at State, and, with a peace-minded President in the White House, might eventually result in policy that is both better for us and for the South Americans. Why/how? Because competence--REAL information, language skills, cultural understanding, etc.--will be permitted to RISE. And as that happens, when State talks to someone like Lula da Silva, president of Brazil--a friend and ally of Hugo Chavez--it will get an earful of REAL information about Chavez and Venezuela (for instance, that Chavez is NOT a "dictator"), which will gravitate UP, and not be blockaded. Obama/Clinton may still make mistakes--even disastrous ones--about South America, but at least they will have the chance not to, if they have REAL information (not ideology-driven bullshit), on their desks.

I was very unhappy and worried when Gov. Richardson (New Mexico) was driven out of the Obama team (probably by NSA spying/dirty tricks--some minor and probably false corruption thing in NM). I think he would have been a good envoy to Latin America. (He bummed me out when he stopped the recount in NM in '04, but I still think he would have been great as SoS, or as Ass't SoS for Latin America.) This story about the "Glinda party" makes me feel better about Clinton--that she really will elicit sound information from State professionals, and will welcome debate. She may be driven by very out-of-date "free trade" ideology, but she is into competence, and that is a good start toward better policy.

[rvablue]

15. Well, maybe we should take her at her word, until she proves otherwise, being that she told staff

yesterday that she likes nothing more than a good debate... or something to that effect, meaning she wanted to hear and and all voices and opinions.

[shrike]

12. Hillary was greeted like a rock star at State

That was my first clue as to what they thought of Condi.

[Renew Deal]

13. I thought this was going to be an anti-Hillary post at first.

Someone here suggested that the Staters were happy partly because Condi was terrible and a couple people threw a fit. Turns out there's some truth to it.