The Revolution Has Gone Public...

It does appear as though it might be "Night of the Long Knives" for Sec. of State Condi Rice. Insight Magazine, a neoclown rag published by the Moonie Fishwrap ... err Washington Times has an article that I have been suspecting was coming down the pike.

Looks like the Vice President Big Time is getting ready to have Condi spaced out the airlock. Here are the important bits:

Conservative national security allies of President Bush are in revolt against Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, saying that she is incompetent and has reversed the administration’s national security and foreign policy agenda.
[...]
"We are sending signals today that no matter how much you provoke us, no matter how viciously you describe things in public, no matter how many things you're doing with missiles and nuclear weapons, the most you'll get out of us is talk," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said.
[...]
"Condoleezza Rice has moved from the White House to Foggy Bottom, a mere mile or so away," Mr. [former Chair of the Defense Policy Board Richard] Perle wrote in a June 25 Op-Ed article in the Washington Post that has been distributed throughout conservative and national security circles. "What matters is not that she is further removed from the Oval Office; Rice's influence on the president is undiminished. It is, rather, that she is now in the midst of—and increasingly represents—a diplomatic establishment that is driven to accommodate its allies even when (or, it seems, especially when) such allies counsel the appeasement of our adversaries."

Now, I am not going to be a big Condi supporter. I do think she has been an incompetent Secretary of State, who's primary qualification for the job has been a nominal loyalty to the Preznit. Unfortunately, you all know who the next Secretary of State is going to be if Condi's career ends up being tossed under the merciless treads of the Mighty Wurlitzer...

Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome U.S. Secretary of State John Bolton. I think that would be the final piece of the puzzle for the Neoclowns hegemony over foreign policy. With Bolton in place, they would finally have someone who's loyalty is to the Vice President and to an ideology, and the President can just go play with his plastic army doods in the Oval while the adults get on with blowing shit up and running the world...

Here is another fairly important quote, and this one makes, -- I think -- the most salient point about the palace coup underway:

Miss Rice served as Mr. Bush's national security adviser in his first term. During his second term, Miss Rice replaced Mr. Powell in the wake of a conclusion by the White House that Mr. Bush required a loyalist to head the State Department and ensure that U.S. foreign policy reflected the president's agenda.[emphasis added]

This is a major point. The last thing the neoclowns and Big Time's pals want is the President of the United States actually making foreign policy, for good or ill. The nerve of the uppity little dilletente twit, he actually thinks he should run the country instead of Big Time.

So make no mistake, Condi is being set up to fail with the current Israeli/Lebanese crisis. Her own underlings at this delicate moment are penning turgid criticisms of her ability, the Israelis are making end runs around her to go directly to others in the national security apparatus for military assistance (or so it is reported), she will find herself with very little clout when it counts, because it will be apparent that she will have no real influence with the right people in the adminsitration, who even now are just ignoring her anyway.

And the Israelis don't particularly like Maximum Leader or Rice, and would rather deal with Big Time and his gang, since they speak a similar language in terms of international use of force. It is not much of a secret they would rather see a Bolton as Sec. of State than Rice.

When Bolton becomes Secretary of State, then we can almost guarantee the final plans will be ready for a World War III starring all of South Asia.

mojo sends