State is a mammoth bureaucracy, inefficient and stilted as any government agency, and worst of all it's still filled with Klintoon cronies and other leftwing, America-hating pi$$ants. Someone's got to clean up that rats' nest....The pronounced leftist tilt of the State Department goes back (at least) to FDR, although the Clinton appointments have certainly laded on the most recent fashions of delusional sentiments.
I had thought Powell's appointment to State surely carried a directive to throw over the worst of the Leftist drivelers when or wherever they revealed themselves. The series of events associated with the war in Iraq has certainly uncovered weaknesses in DOS competence (e.g., irrecoverable snags in the dipomatic negotiations with Turkey, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, et al.). That Powell is now receiving fire from the Right should serve as a reminder of his responsibility in this regard.