Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice , left, hugs 4th District Congressional candidate Mia Love at Thanksgiving Point Friday September 7. Al Hartmann | The Salt Lake Tribune.
If you haven't read the New York Times' crazy new story about how the Bush administration was repeatedly, strenuously warned of a potential terror attack in the months leading up to 9-11, much more than even the "Bin Laden poised to strike the US" memo that we already knew about, then I'm going to sit here for a few minutes until you do. It's short and... sour. Go ahead, I'll wait.
Yes, Kurt Eichenwald's story is a doozy, portraying the Bush folks as totally unwilling to hear about any threats not coming from Iraq. The blame seems to be pointed especially at the neocons running the Pentagon at the time. Fair enough.
What blows my mind, however, is that once again Condi gets off scot-free. She isn't even mentioned in the article. She was national security adviser at the time! If anybody deserves to be named 'n' shamed in this story, it's Dr. Ferragamo.
But no, it is apparently still considered to be churlish and unfair to point out Condi's disastrous failings at her penultimate Bush administration job. It simply doesn't fit into the "rise to the top" Condinarrative people find so appealing. I suppose a story about an unlikely person who rises step-by-step to the top of her field is just a much more heart-warming tale than the sad truth of one of the most dramatic victims of the Peter Principle in modern times, flopping her way ever upwards on a jet stream of incompetence.
And that's why Condoleezza Rice is still the GOP's favorite "foreign policy expert." It is amazing.
11 comments:
Given that Condi's predecessor as the GOP's foreign policy hero was Henry Kissinger, I don't know that ANY revelation about her could change the minds of the party.
To be fair, besides the name Bush, there are no names of the people ignoring the warnings or producing the warnings. For the story in Washington, it's just "the neoconservatives" and "the CIA".
It never made any sense that there was just the one briefing and that was it.
"I believe the title was Bin Laden Determined To Attack Inside the United States. Error. Does Not Compute" --Condibot #X30127
Nobody could imagine planes flying into buildings!
Ha ha! Dr. Brown, you've made some provocative comments, but that's one of your most provocativiest yet!
But you're right: Condi became desirable to the GOP not because of her skills, but because of her biography. And that's really funny, because Republicans are always criticizing Democrats for falling back on "identity politics," while Condi is basically a textbook case of the concept.
Cheers!
Damn Peteykins! I had to give up lurking and loving you in silence. This sentence: "I suppose a story about an unlikely person who rises step-by-step to the top of her field is just a much more heart-warming tale than the sad truth of one of the most dramatic victims of the Peter Principle in modern times, flopping her way ever upwards on a jet stream of incompetence" has done what I thought was impossible. It's made me love you even more.
CIA: "Bin Laden scary! We're not kidding! This isn't like all those other times!"
DOD: "Well, maybe, but we prefer to prepare for a fight with an enemy who's worthy of our weapons systems, not some rag-head sheik in Nowhere-i-stan."
Not to be catty, but I was watching C. on teevee last night from the Bush years and thought...
it really isn't that expensive to get your teeth cosmetically improved so that i don't get sick to my stomach just watching those inverted gravestone teeth working up and down... for someone who pretends to be so elegant
probably like one pair of shoes...
Well, after all is said and done it's nice to see Condi finally found a nice girl to settle down with in a cozy bunker by the sea.
Condi will no doubt make Mia Love ditch the hippie cornrows, but once that's accomplished, she'll be suitable to meet the parents.
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