Free Republic

Richard Holbrooke is a diplomat and a gentleman. Which means you can’t read him the way you’d read Ann Coulter, Bill Safire, Tony Blankley or others who make their livings speaking their mind as plainly as possible. You have to read between Mr. Holbrooke’s lines.Mr. Holbrooke is now taking on former House Speaker Newt Gingrich – attacking his crusade for reform of the U.S. Department of State. That crusade began with a controversial speech at the American Enterprise Institute a couple of months ago, advanced with a “seminar” for senior journalists last month (hosted by Foreign Policy magazine and the Foundation...

<p>Former ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke entered the State Department debate last week, attacking former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and defending Foggy Bottom. But being a product of the Foreign Service himself, Mr. Holbrooke appears unwilling to address the real issue: the State Department's corrosive culture.</p>

Back-stabbing at Foggy Bottom “Many people at State want to embarrass the President,” explains a State Department official—a comment echoed by others at Foggy Bottom alarmed that some of their colleagues are so brazen as to openly plot against the commander-in-chief. Some of those wishing to politically harm President Bush are now in Iraq, where the President’s vision of a free Iraq is being fought by State officials on a regular basis. Of course much of the rhetoric could be nothing more than boastful bravado—particularly since such comments actually help in a building teeming with people who openly despise Bush...

Reemerging from nearly two months of relative silence on the topic, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich held a roundtable with about a dozen journalists Tuesday to discuss his latest criticism of the State Department, a provocative essay in Foreign Policy magazine in which he calls for a "top-to-bottom transformation" of Foggy Bottom. Predictably, State had no substantive critique of his comments, with a top official using familiar invective instead. In a free-wheeling discussion that last more than an hour, Gingrich spelled out a vision that may have seemed bold, but actually was surprisingly realistic in scope. The most...

“Many people at State want to embarrass the president,” explains a State Department official--a comment echoed by others at Foggy Bottom alarmed that some of their colleagues are so brazen as to openly plot against the commander in chief. Some of those wishing to harm President Bush politically are now in Iraq, where the president's vision of a free Iraq is being fought by State officials on a regular basis. Of course much of the rhetoric could be nothing more than boastful bravado--particularly since such comments actually help in a building teeming with people who openly despise Bush and want...

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, June 17 -- Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said today the United States encourages and supports demonstrations against the Iranian government. But he also held open the possibility of restarting secret direct talks with Iranian officials that were canceled after the bombings of Western residential compounds in Saudi Arabia last month. Powell's comments reflected the delicate balance in the Bush administration's posture toward Iran, one of the three members of the "axis of evil" identified by President Bush, along with North Korea and Iraq before the ouster of Saddam Hussein. Indeed, last week Defense Secretary Donald...