Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Bye bye Pragmatism, bye bye.

On Newsnight, Sir Christopher Meyer, who was the UK amabassador to Washington, mentioned that, between Colin Powell and Dick Cheney, 'you could cut the atmosphere with a knife.' This is not really news. Bob Woodward's Plan of Attack very diplomatically intimates that the two are not overwhelmed by love for each other. Anyhow, as Fred Kaplan wrote last February in Slate,
Powell's best option, after January, may be to abandon his ambitions for further public office, nab a lucrative job in the private sector, and write the most outrageous kiss-and-tell political memoir that the world has ever seen.
I wonder, given that Powell has been loyal enough to lend his huge political capital to the Bush re-election campaign, would he actually anything really really scandalous up on the administration?

And as for the possible successor: Rice? I dread to think...

2 comments:

Greg Weidman said...

Rice -- You dread to think?
I think you dread!

As an American, I'm not surprised that Rice is more worrisome to an Irishman than Powell, but I'd like to hear more about why!

Ciarán said...

Esperu, very Kierkegaardian! My objection to Rice is
a. that I have fears for the State Department under her leadership - considering that, from what I know, she's far more hawkish than State tends to be. And this has spin-offs for American diplomacy abroad.
b. Powell was a somewhat dissenting voice in the administration - this appointment strikes me as the White House circling the wagons. Ideological common faces don't just look outwards. They speak inwards as well. Not that Powell's predicting the difficulties the administration now finds itself in made any difference.

But maybe I should take another look at her. Do you think my worries are unjustified?