Who is minding the store? The vice-president is back from a globe trotting trip that seemed to have been entirely about his own agenda. The Secretary of State will soon go to the Middle East to attend a neighborhood meeting called by Iraq, perhaps not her idea. She may get a new staffer who will cover her back from the Vice-President. OCP has been on his own tour of storm ravaged U.S. areas and supported in his ineffectuality by long-time loyalists. And Congress is back in session today trying to agree on what to do next. Can anyone say who is in charge?
Behind the scenes in the Cheney-Rice "push-pull." Because Vice-President Cheney has played such a pivotal role in the Bush administration, it has been an on-going game to guage whether the Veep is currently up or down in being able to influence Bush's foreign policy. Steve Clemons at The Washington Note posted a very interesting piece about potential personnel changes in the State Department. He discussed another example of the in or out positions of "neocons" and "realists" in the Bush administration. To quote,
Stephen Krasner, Director of Policy Planning at the Department of State and one of Condi Rice's mentors, will be departing his position within a month and returning to his tenured faculty position at Stanford University.Cheney, a year ago, vowed to stay on. It is likely that he felt sure he had more influence with OCP than Secretary of State Rice. The vice-president sounded confident about the administration's chances for success. An article in the Dallas Morning News - about OCP (our current president's) diminishing public approval ratings - minimized the need for change according to the vice-president. To quote,
While Krasner the realist plans to depart, however, a neoconservative -- Eliot Cohen -- is moving into the Secretary's suite as her Counselor.
Krasner, who is one of the leading realist intellectuals in the United States, was brought in by Rice to try and work some of his ideas through the policy process. Those around him and who admire his thinking and work report that Krasner did serve Secretary Rice well as one of her key "ideas guys" but that he had little stomach for constant combat with bureaucratic rivals over the course of policy.
. . . As reported in this piece by Jim Lobe, I believe that Cohen's appointment is in part an effort to get someone past the Cheney foreign policy wing. Rice does not like to do direct battle with the Vice President and views personnel appointments as a way to inoculate herself and her efforts against sabotage from the Cheney team.
In other words, Cohen has joined Condi's team both to create back-channel communications with Cheney's spear-carriers but also to protect Condi from all-out assault from the Vice President.
Cheney: No need for White House shake-upWhat is the current personnel situation in the White House? Who is advising OCP? According to the New York Times, there are still a number of Texans with influence and standing in the administration. Quoting from the (2/21/07) story:
As Bush's approval sags, vice president says he will serve out term
March 20, 2006 WASHINGTON –
Is it time for Extreme Makeover: White House Edition?
Vice President Dick Cheney dismissed suggestions Sunday that the Bush White House, hampered by weak response to Hurricane Katrina and stumbles on policy questions, needs a shake-up.
"I don't think we can pay any attention to that kind of thing," Mr. Cheney said on CBS' Face the Nation. "The president has got a job to do. ... He ignores the background noise that's out there in the polls that are taken on a daily basis."
. . . Mr. Cheney chuckled when asked whether he had ever considered resigning. "It's been a highlight of my career to be a part of this administration," he said. "I've now been elected to a second term, and I'll serve out my term."
Six years into Mr. Bush’s presidency, the corps of loyal Texans who accompanied him to Washington from Austin remains a powerful force inside the administration, a steady source of comfort for an increasingly isolated president. No matter how grim the polls or dire the news in Iraq, they have stood by Mr. Bush — and been rewarded with plum jobs — as their lives have grown increasingly intertwined with one another’s and with his.Rice up/Cheney down? In recent months it appears that Vice-President Cheney's influence may be waning with OCP. It clearly began to change after the Libby indictment, and after a number of prominent neocons left the administration. It culminated with last fall's election and the Democrats' ascendency to congressional power.
The Senate has its hands full trying to oversee an administration that has been so consistently incompetent. Senator Carl Levin's Armed Services Committee held a hearing carried on C-SPAN: "Senate Armed Services Cmte. Hearing on the Situation in Afghanistan - 3/1/2007." The purpose was to ascertain the current situation in Afghanistan. Reuters carried this obscure little story that is illustrative of why the United States has been in such trouble these past few years.
Iran could be interested in cooperating with the United States to combat al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, a leading U.S. expert on Afghanistan said on Thursday.In the amazing exchange covered by this quote, Senators Levin and Warner will actively "help out" Condoleezza Rice prior to any U.S. - Iran conversations about mutual interests in Iraq. That this level of involvement is necessary makes for a very scary picture of the administration's foreign policy.
Barnett Rubin, one-time adviser to former U.N. special representative to Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi, said Iranian officials have told him privately that al Qaeda poses a new threat to Afghanistan that could have implications for Iran's national security.
. . . The committee's top Democratic and Republican senators said they would urge the State Department to consider Rubin's remarks ahead of two conferences with Iran and Syria set to begin next week in Baghdad.
"That's pretty important information," said Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the panel's Democratic chairman. "That directly relates to even the limited purpose that's been stated for meetings with Iran and Syria."
. . . Levin and Republican Sen. John Warner of Virginia said they would order Rubin's testimony sent to the State Department with a request that the issue be considered for upcoming talks.
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My "creative post" today at Southwest Blogger is about seeing well.
4 comments:
the fact that cheney pretty much is the bush admin- is frightening enough as it is. he pretty much runs the show. i did a piece last year that had a link to an article that told that everything goes over cheney's desk first- then bush's.
the fact that cheney has risen to the level of his incompetence is the most frightening level of all. we have to be prepared for and even bigger mess if we try and ride this admin out- or we have to remove them and put competent people in. impeachment is apparently off of the table- so we are in real trouble.
My question on these changes has to be - are we seeing something that indicates someone in the administration is listening to voices beyond those in their head? Or are they merely re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?
any 'change' going on in the admin- in my opinion- is just more of the same. re-arranging those chairs! the neo con movement is like the hydra- you cut one head off and another grows back to take its place. change is barely perceptible- kind of like the borg :) i think they like to put new faces in once in awhile so that they- like gates after rummy- can deny accountability (thus buying time) and so that the masses thinks something good has happened.
Howdy to you both; thanks for your comments. They raised some thoughts: The Veep's thrombosis problem adds to my unease with his ability to perform. I would like to believe that he will be more sidelined. We'll see.
In any event, I think we do have to just ride this bunch out. I know that Congress will not impeach during a time of war. Handy, isn't it?
Perhaps the administration is willing to make a few changes, maybe to actually listen just a bit. I am still optimistic about Robert Gates' capacities to be decisive and independent (see the Walter Reed firing).
Your references to the "peter principle" and to the borg are very appropriate. We'll be adding "neocons" to the lexicon of mortal enemies as history is written. I think they are right up there with Orwell's "1984" in my thinking. As my Granny would say, "Loooord help us!"
Thanks to you both for your reflections.
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