Max -- You misquoted Craven: "I fear that if Bush is re-elected there will eb a significant policy shirt to the right."
That's "**** to the right."
Hmmmmmmmmm, that's way I always ****
this bit of news isn't being verified by the administration.
Swamp Fever and Colin Powell
In addition to the following clues, you might consider the difference in the language and tone Bush used to defend Condi Rice at his recent news conference and the tepid language used to defend Powell.
---BumbleBeeBoogie
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Swamp Fever and Colin Powell
Chicago Tribune
Published August 6, 2003
Swamp fever strikes every summer in Washington, D.C., the pathology connected to a confluence of geography, weather and politics. It gets very hot and unbearably close, like living in a recently used fishing boot, so the blessed, the wealthy and the powerful rush away to the ocean resorts in Maryland and Delaware, or follow the president to broiling Texas for a "vacation." Those embittered victims who remain--journalists, bureaucrats, hopeless partisans, functionaries and the like--then fall prey to a virus that leads them to stir up trouble.
The fever currently swirls around Secretary of State Colin Powell. A key underling to Powell has informed White House National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice they aren't going to stick around for a second Bush administration, it has been reported by the Washington Post, which rigorously pursues such news in the steamy Potomac calm.
Well, doesn't that strike you as strange, to announce 17 months before the end of the first administration that you don't intend to stay for the second one? And who gains advantage from this kind of a rumor, anyhow?
There are some delicious clues in those questions.
The answer to the first is that no one announces they are going to leave office 17 months before the moving van arrives. "I'm leaving in a week. I'm leaving in a month. Two months, I'm history!" Those time frames are believable. But 17 months? No. The party invitations would positively dry up, first, and it would be hard to get even a benign despot to answer the phone of a secretary of state who is clearly Hollywood Squares-bound and so no longer a player.
Powell is too smart for that.
Someone else must have helped with this, which is where the other clue falls into place.
Here are some possibilities:
A. Someone who is intent on crafting a second Bush administration is trying to get rid of the single moderating force in the current Cabinet and set up the leak, knowing the fever opens everyone to all kinds of nonsense in August.
B. Someone who is worried that Powell has lost influence is trying to force President Bush to deliver the political equivalent of a wet kiss, "Oh, No, Colin, please don't go!" just to show everyone how happy they are with one another.
C. Someone who wants Powell's job is gabbing to the Washington Post, perhaps over fruity summer drinks and shrimp the size of bananas at a party, just to test ambient political conditions.
D. A mean-spirited ideologue has decided to use the presidential vacation and the knowledge that fevered Washington, like a bass on the nest, will take any bait in the summer just to give the secretary of state a whomping.
For the record, Powell has officially said, "Did not!" and so has the deputy mentioned in the rumor. A White House spokesman says the president thinks Powell is doing a great job and is quite welcome to stay on board. Both Powell and the deputy, Richard Armitage, zipped off to Texas Tuesday for dinner with President Bush, an event, the White House quickly noted, that has been planned for weeks.
But as sure as Howard Dean is headed for the presidency (Yes, there is swamp fever in New England, too, in the year before presidential elections) there will be more to say about Powell.
Until the fall or something else comes along.
Ol' Maureen's got it right this time!!
Say, how about Wolfowitz? Perle? Why wait? Why can't Powell have a family emergency or something?
I think that this one is the real McCoy, no dowd. What a devious web they weave -
Maureen Dowd...the Liberals Anne Coulter?
God I long for the good old days when Presidents tape recorded their office conversations! Wouldn't you love to hear this crowd when no one is watching?!
Dowd like Coulter? No, Dowd is kind of normal looking, doesn't fling herself about in a kind of tortured, self-conscious fashion, doesn't seem to have to shout and talk over others. I saw Coulter once on the Bill Maher show and she seemed to be constantly twisting herself into tight, poise-challenged knots, interrupting, yelling, pointing.
Maureen Dowd isn't even liberal, much less comparable (in any way except they both write words) to that Fascist shrew Coulter.
They do both wear skirts.
Dowd isn't liberal?!? Whatever she, is I love her columns!
If Dowd's not liberal, someone should inform her immediately.
Now, if she'll just fire her liberal ghostwriter...
Anybody who's been reading Dowd for more than a little while knows that her barbs go in all directions. She was a reporter before she became a columnist (and she gets read religiously, while Coulter has begun dying on the vine - mindful of the fact that she has to constantly promote herself).
But her speculation about Powell is interesting. When Powell goes, who's Bush got? The known names are not exactly well received, and so far all his unknown names have proven ineffective. I think Powell knows this, and right now it's kind of stalemate. And the way Afghanistan and iraq are developing - not good. BTW, has David Kay come up with any further revelations yet?
Mamaj is right about Dowd. She's an equal opportunity insulter and has disgusted us a number of times recently (and many of us have said so). But she's comfortable with herself and respects herself and has some depth of conviction. Coulter -- like Limbaugh -- screeches but never sounds convinced, just cornered. It's as though either could just as easily jump on another bandwagon.
I think you have been tainted by her politics and just don't like her because she doesn't agree with your image of the way things should be.
McG
Truly, that is not the complaint regarding Coulter. I could sit down with someone like Bill Buckley and have a very engaging and illuminating discussion on any number of subjects. That would not be so with Coulter. The differences between how these two engage in discourse, and the difference in WHY they might engage in it, are critical differences.
