State Department Undermining President Bush

TownHall.com ^ | 5/21/03 | Joel Mowbray

[kattracks]

Speaking to a group of Palestinians and left-wing Israelis in Israel recently, a high-ranking State Department official took the time to disparage the “conservative” and “Christian” supporters of President Bush, his ultimate superior.  The incident is revealing not just in showing the contempt members of the Foreign Service have for Bush, but how urgent the need is for the White House to push for reform at Foggy Bottom.

  At a May 4 meeting attended by several Labor Party officials, activists from left-wing Peace Now, and several officials from the Palestinian Authority, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs William Burns candidly discussed the U.S. political dynamic with respect to the “roadmap” for peace in the Middle East.  The U.S. diplomat pointed the finger at supporters of President Bush, indicating that “conservative and Christian viewpoints” were the main obstacles to peace.

  One of the participants remarked to Burns that supporters of Bush “are lobbying to torpedo the ‘roadmap’ and suggested that the Americans should help us [the Peace coalition] to express our views to the American public.”  Burns’ response?  “The common sense of all peoples will override the conservative and Christian viewpoints once they see the roadmap’s potential.”  Burns seized the opportunity to take a potshot at the “viewpoints” of the President’s strongest supporters, claiming that they will be “overridden” by “common sense.”  Hard to misread it.

  Which might explain why the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem’s original defense was not that Burns didn’t make the comment, but rather that the meeting was supposed to be held in secret.  That’s likely true—it was closed to the media, but Peace Now activists were so excited that a senior U.S. official agreed with them that they publicly distributed the minutes of the gathering—but it doesn’t change what Burns actually said.

  Many inside the administration are outraged.  Sensing that it needs to defuse the matter, State’s official response when asked for comment last week was: “It is simply untrue that Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs William Burns made disparaging statements about any groups at his meeting with the Israeli-Palestinian peace coalition last week.”  But a State Department spokesman pointedly refused to dispute the accuracy of the minutes of the meeting provided by Peace Now, meaning State’s beef is with the interpretation of the comments.  State even echoed Burns’ comments when, later in the same prepared statement read over the phone, the spokesman noted that “common sense” would be the key to peace in the Middle East.

  Foggy Bottom is filled with a festering contempt for President Bush, so it should come as little surprise that one of its top officials would—on foreign soil—take a swipe at Bush’s political base.  State Department officials are willing to criticize the President in the domestic press as well, albeit anonymously.  One “young diplomat,” as the Los Angeles Times described the official, whined to the paper recently, “I, like many others, am carrying a great deal of anger and at times even shame over the way we as a nation are conducting ourselves.”  That same article quoted a “mid-level State Department official” as blaming Bush personally for a “massive failure of diplomacy.”

  For a variety of reasons, the White House has paid little mind so far to personnel decisions at State.  There are but a handful of true political appointments in important positions at Foggy Bottom, as Colin Powell has made good on his original promise to promote and enhance the role of careerists.  This must change.  Now.  Reform cannot be engineered by the same people who have populated State for decades.

  To be sure, change will be, at best, plodding and partial.   In the meantime, State has other work on its plate, namely the latest rash of murderous bombings in Israel.  With Palestinian terrorists murdering innocent Israelis, not even “common sense” will bring peace to the region.  But in a hopeful sign, the State Department for the first time used the term “homicide bomber” to describe this weekend’s attack—more than a year after the White House first embraced the word choice.  It may only be a word, but with the State Department, you take what little change you can get.

©2003 Joel Mowbray

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[Joe Boucher]

Don't reform state, disband and eliminate it and fire each and every one of its employees.
Dept of state is unAmerican and worthless. It works against our interests and for the interests of one world socialism.

[Elkiejg]

Totally agree - get rid of State Dept. This proves Newt was correct - where are those who wanted his head now?

[Enduring Freedom]

Ad nauseum I have stated:

President Bush, the State Department is radioactive.

Everything they touch, do or say undermines your administration.

Do all things Rummy tells you, and none of what Powell says.

NEVER, EVER LISTEN TO POWELL.

[Dark Wing]

ping

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

The State Department is anti-American, anti-Christian and does not represent the majority view of the people of the United States. They are our enemies. Get rid of them.

[Elkiejg]

The State Department is anti-American, anti-Christian and does not represent the majority view of the people of the United States. They are our enemies. Get rid of them.

AMEN!! It's evey worse than we know - a retired Spec. Ops. tells me "we don't know the half of it" where State is concerned!! Which begs the question - if we're fighting terrorism - why not start right at home at State?

[Quix]

STRONGLY AGREE.

HOARDS IN THE STATE DEPT HAVE NEEDED IMPRISONED FOR TREASON FOR DECADES.

THROW MOST OF THEM OUT AND START OVER. PERHAPS ONLY WITH PEOPLE WHO'VE MEMORIZED THE CONSTITUTION AS A HOBBY.

[Brian Allen]

<< Foggy Bottom is filled with a festering contempt for President Bush, so it should come as little surprise that one of its top officials would?on foreign soil?take a swipe at Bush's political base. >>

In saying "Foggy Bottom is filled with a festering contempt for President Bush," Joel Mowbray is full of shit.

Foggy Bottom's self-annointed and self-perpetuating, Brahmanas -- the primary component part of the terrorist network comprising all of the bastard-offspring of the Communist Party of America, is exclusively comprised of those filled with such a festering contempt for the every Principle manifest in these very UNITED STATES OF AMERICA -- that it has for decades been the conduit into America of every one of the Evils of which its foreign masters are but the Manifestation.

When the terminally-ill mobbed-up traitor, Roosevelt, at Yalta, casually signed more than two million Soviet POW's Immediate-Death Warrants and as casually signed all of Eastern Europe and the Baltic States into fifty years of slavery, it was Foggy Bottom's Branmanas, in the person of Alger Hiss [Who in every picture of that event is standing over Roosevelt's shoulder] -- who guided his hand.

Foggy-Bottom Brahmanas' Hiss later helped shape the un-and-anti-American cave full of mass-murdering enemy thugs we know of as the "United Nations," for and in the image of the Soviet Union he and it so loyally served. The same Hiss and the same State Department steered and guided Soviet agent Harry Dexter White as he fathered the International Monetary Fund that has overseen the theft and squandering of so much of America's Wealth on the advancement of so much international Evil.

The same Foggy Bottom Brahmanas guided the hand of the hapless haberdasher as, in Korea, it reversed General MacArthur's sweeping victories and turned the already won War in Korea into an effective victory for State's sinister Sino/Soviet masters. This despite that by so doing he also effectively signed the death warrant of every one of the tyrant Mao's ninety millions of mass-murdered [And condemmed that monster's hundreds of child rape victims to their bloody awful fates] -- and gave American-government legitimacy to the awful fate of every inhabitant of the invaded, conquered, colonized and enslaved states, lands and territories now owned operated by the psychopathologically-hesperophobic Peking-based pack of lying, looting, mass-murdering, Mandarin-wannabe, gangster bastards that calls itself "china."

The criminal gang, that is, that was opportunistically elevated to the status of "government" as the desperate President Nixon, his administration destroyed by LBJ's Bill Moyers Dirty Tricks Department -- and by others of State's allies -- and floudering futiley for favor, facilitated Foggy Bottom's Brahmanas push for his presidency's death-throes Peking parade!

On any day of any year Foggy Bottom's Brahmanas [Into which the Bush Family's Blind-spot occupying and Peter Principle's Powell has so effortlessly morphed!] has more friends and allies in any of: Outer Mongolia, Khartoum, Peking and Paris, France; than it has in any administration's White House.

Let alone in that of any Republican Administration.

Foggy Bottom's worst twentieth century enemy was the American Man of Faith and American President, Ronald Reagan who defied it and told its masters "... this Evil Empire shall not stand! Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

And its worst twentieth century nightmare is that American Man of Faith and American President, George Walker Bush, is intent on finishing the job only hinted at in President Reagan's time at America's Helm.

[Brian Allen]

In saying "Foggy Bottom is filled with a festering contempt for President Bush," Joel Mowbray is full of shit.


Foggy Bottom's self-annointed and self-perpetuating, Brahmanas -- the primary component part of the terrorist network comprising all of the bastard-offspring of the Communist Party of America, is exclusively comprised of those filled with such a festering contempt for the every Principle manifest in these very UNITED STATES OF AMERICA -- that it has for decades been the conduit into America of every one of the Evils of which its foreign masters are but the Manifestation -- and is filled with a festering contempt for President Bush!

And its worst twenty-first century nightmare .....

[RockBassCreek]

Does anyone know the number of employees and the budget of the State Department? Why do we always cut troops to "save money" in the budget, but I cannot ever recall anyone cutting State Department employees.

We should begin "enlisting" them in the same way as we do troops.

[hchutch]

Powell is not the problem.

The problem is the "lifers" in State, who probably have connections to so-called "progressives" in Congress. Dealing with them won't be as easy as reforming the Pentagon.

But this proves Newt was right about the underlying situation. Some of his specifics were off, but there are clearly serious problems at Foggy Bottom. Of course, one need only to have seen their treatment of Carlos Castano to figure that out...

[Consort]

Yes, and the people who do the hiring throughout the vast bureaucracy only hire Leftists to fill all vacancies. It gets much worse during Democrat Administrations (and still there are people right here on this site who say they may not support the GOP, claiming it's a matter of "princilples" or "morals" or "conscience").

[Grampa Dave]

The card carrying Rats in the State Department and every federal branch or service are the problem. It is not the cabinet members appointed by President Bush. It is the federal tenure that these clymers have. They can say and basically do anything to embarass the president or his cabinet members without any recourse. Their jobs are secure.

Before GW was sworn in, these career Rats in Justice, the FBI, EPA, the Pentagon, State and other departments and services were issuing statements backing very liberal agendas.

Immediately the professional hate GW writers on the far right were blaming GW or his cabinet for these terrible actions that just had to be the fault of GW and his proposed cabinet members. When GW was sworn in and his cabinet members were finally approved and sworn in, this process continued.

These professional hate GW writers never addressed the real problem.

The real problem was/is the thousands and thousands of top level rats inherited by the administration. These are high level civil service employees, who are protected from being fired by Federal Civil Service laws. That problem was ignored as the various new cabinet members were electronically lynched for being so liberal.

This is another reason why we need to increase our members in the house and to have 60 senators in 2005. Then, they can address this massive problem across all Federal Departments/services. They need to pass a law that requires every civil service employe from GS 7 and above to submit a letter of resignation that is effective for 4 years, (each presidental term).

That letter of resignation would then allow the cabinet member or the president to enact the letters of resignation when a civil service employee's behavior is inappropriate like this clymer's from the state department.

Until this is done, this problem of inherited bad actors, who are protected by civil service laws will continue. These bad actors are a clear and present danger to our safety and future of this country.

[JonH]

Someone has to take charge. It is up to Powell and also the President to see that each person making such statements is fired and publically embarrased. There is no other way to stop this insubordinate BS.

[BOBTHENAILER]

The real problem was/is the thousands and thousands of top level rats inherited by the administration. These are high level civil service employees, who are protected from being fired by Federal Civil Service laws.

That sums it up very nicely. These jerks are the source of "anonymous administration officials" quotes from leftist journalists.

[yonif]

The 2004 Budget of the State Dept.

http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/17243.pdf

[hchutch]

Precisely.

Gingrich might be a bull in a china shop, but sometimes that is the only approach to wake a lot of people up and recognize the problem.

I'd have still done that speech differently, but it looks like he's on target about a problem.

[Grampa Dave]

If Newt had just been a bull in the state china dept. shop, that would have been fine.

Newt of all people knew that these trouble makers from state are career civil service employees. He knew that there is basically no power that Powell had/has to stop this behavior/actions of the career state clymers. So Newt crossed over the line to the professional hate Powell group, which works 24/7 to electronically lynch him.

[Brian Allen]

<< We should begin "enlisting" them in the same way as we do troops. >>

Except that it is Our Nation's confiscated Wealth that Foggy Bottom's Brahmanas squanders, there is no "We" in that enemy agency's game and its pathologically-elitist self-annointed and self-perpetuating Brahmanas serves no American master.

[Although, because its exclusively-totalitarian-enemy-serving component parts profess membership of the "DemocRATS" party -- and are skilled at verbalizing what "DemocRATS" and other psychotics say they "feel" -- such mobbed-up "DemocRATS" as those who peopled the criminal gangs otherwise know as the Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter and KKKli'toon "administrations" have been permitted to occasionally feel otherwise.