Posted on 11/17/2004 11:00:05 AM PST by squirt-gun
Wednesday 17 November 2004 02:02pm
THE WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL WOMAN Nov 17 2004
THE HARDLINE RIGHT-WINGER PRESIDENT BUSH IS MAKING THE WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL WOMAN
By Anthony Harwood In New York
IF THERE were a monkey in the White House - and many reckon there is - then his trainer would be the world's most powerful person.
In the case of George W Bush, almost everything he knows about foreign policy has been learnt from Condoleezza Rice.
His choice of Rice to replace Colin Powell as Secretary of State means that, if Congress approves the decision, she will be the world's most powerful woman.
Not only is she just as right-wing as Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the others, she is also an expert in world affairs - which is just as well as Bush is a man who, prior to his first stint as president, had only left America's shores three times.
When he wanted advice, he turned to Rice - his trusted friend.
The President even named a rise on his Texas ranch Balkan Hill, because Rice gave him a quick history lesson on central Europe during a four-mile hike around his property
Her predecessor, Colin Powell, possessed formidable diplo hamstrung by opposition to his policies in Washington - a situation that drove him out.
So the good news is that the Bush Administration will now speak with one voice. The bad news is that the voice will be more aggressive and the sentiments more hardline.
The days of common sense diplomacy, as personified by Powell, are now over.
FORMER National Security Adviser Sandy Berger lifted the lid on Powell's ability to appease world leaders when Bush refused to listen to them.
"Colin was the side door they could get into when they couldn't get in through the front door'," he said.
"But the president set the course - and Colin had a hard hand to play selling policies which weren't popular with allies."
Well, if those policies remain disliked, it will be like-it-or-lump-it time for the next four years.
With Rice in charge at the State Department, not only will everyone be singing from the same page, they'll also be marching to the same strident beat.
So expect fewer calls for co-operation with European allies over North Korea and Iran's nuclear situation. Instead there will be a drive towards sanctions against the rogue states. In the Middle East, it will all be down to the Palestinians, who'll be blamed if it all ends in tears.
Powell's decision to step down after Bush's re-election was not a surprise.
But it is telling that his request to stay on longer, to capitalise on the opportunities for peace in the wake of Yasser Arafat's death, was turned down. There's a new team in town now and it wants to get down to business.
It's no secret that, since the first Gulf War, Dick Cheney never got on with Powell, while after the September 11 attacks Powell thought the vice-president had a bee in his bonnet about the link between al-Qaeda and Iraq.
Unlike other VPs, Cheney demanded to be involved in key foreign policy decisions.
So with Donald Rumsfeld at Defense also whispering in the president's ear, Powell was outnumbered.
Rice was part of the cabal around Bush which masterminded the war on terror. While she was with Cheney and Rumsfeld during war summits at Bush's ranch, Powell was conspicuous by his absence.
But despite being the "baby" of the group - she turned 50 at the weekend - Rice has wielded huge influence through her closeness to the president.
She was Dubya's tutor on foreign policy during the 2000 campaign and bonded with her boss due to their common love of baseball. A single woman, she was not tied down by family and would often be at Camp David to assist during visits by world leaders such as Tony Blair.
Rice was an Alabama cotton farmer's daughter who became an accomplished pianist and ice-skater before graduating from college at 19.
She went on to become an expert in international studies, speaks fluent Russian and was was the National Security Council's Soviet expert during the reign of George Bush Snr.
MORE recently, critics believe she has allowed policies to drift and she has come under fire for not acting on repeated warnings that al-Qaeda was planning a major attack on the US.
Former White House terrorism adviser Richard Clarke said a memo he wrote to her requesting high-level meetings nine months before the 9/11 attacks wasn't acted on until a week before the atrocities.
On at least six other occasions in 2001, Clarke said he issued detailed warnings backed up by intelligence reports. All were ignored.
Clarke even claimed that in one conversation Rice appeared not to have heard of al-Qaeda.
She later testified before the 9/11 commission, set up to investigate the attacks, and her alleged lapses are also likely to be scrutinised when Congress comes to approve her as Secretary of State.
But there is little doubt that the president's appointment will be rubber-stamped and that Rice will, indeed, become the world's most powerful woman.
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Must be bad news that shes black and conservative.
BTW, Can't wait for Rice to kick ass ><
Maybe they would like for Condi to recommend another war on them?
How many things can one journalist get wrong? Rice wasn't the daughter of a cotton farmer. He was the president of Spellman College.
More hateful racism from the "tolerant" left.
For some reason the author of this sentence expects people to take him seriously in the rest of the article.
heard Rush on this today. I'm sick of OM and others doing this kind of crap! DR. Rice is a fine example for others. Maybe Rush and Cosby should team up and go on the road.
Do I detect a subtle slur here?
Someone please tell this jackass WHO RESIGNED.....
This sounds like it came from the NYTimes.
What a bunch of racists.
Hmmm...I remember reading something about her growing up poor in a sharecropper family.
Thank God. She replaces Hitlery who was the ALLEGED world's most powerful woman.
Like her better in 2008. Anyone forming the exploratory committee yet? I'll sign on in a mere instant of a heartbeat
Very few things enrage the left as much as a black conservative does. Blacks are supposed to be compliant, mind-numbed robots who go to the polls every to years and vote a straight, "Yes, Massa", Democrat ticket as if they're hypnotized. Remember when the "calypso man" Harry Belefonte referred to Powell as Bush's "house slave"? Powell and Bush should have both told him to "shut up and sing" but they were both too gentlemanly to do that. Too bad.
These girlie pukes can't handle a strong, black woman. It brings out all their racist bigotry. Remember, socialists are all for minorities as long as they know their place and don't speak up too much.
Condi for president in 2008!
You've apparently been reading the same crap the nitwit reporter has. Her parents were highly educated and her father was a college administrator in Alabama at Spellman and later at the University of Denver.
Being a minority or even two minorities at once doesn't matter to the left unless you're liberal. Because if a minority reaches great heights without the help of the Libbies it hurts their platform.
Years ago Howard Cosell had to apologize for an excited comment he made on Monday Night Football when a player (who happened to be black) ran for a long touch down, breaking many tackles, en route - "Look at that litle monkey run!!!!!"
The player was not upset - but the F- MSM was "outraged" (adding F to MSM is my addition. Guess what it means?!).
Agreed! I said the same thing on another thread. These weenies can't handle a real woman!!! LOL!
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