[the_Watchman]

My point is that the problem is worse than just having a Democrat as the Secretary of State. Much of the apparatus that coached Warren Christopher to make an extremely poor decision is STILL IN PLACE. The Republicans simply ignore them on policy, but these bureaucrats still wield quite a bit of power in the day-to-day decisions of diplomacy. The State Department is rotten, and has been for decades.

[CyberAnt]

Hmmmm? While I agree the State dept is rotten .. Bush has treated it differently. I remember several times how Powell overstepped his bounds and made decisions not to Bush's liking. Within a few weeks, Powell had reversed his decisions. After this event occurred several times in the first year and a half .. I noticed a big change. Suddenly, Powell was not saying so much, and he was not going off the reservation and not making statements which were against the admin. This has been a very good thing.

I believe the holdovers from the Clinton admin attempted to drive Powell to their way of thinking .. he tried .. he failed .. Bush won!!