Condoleeza Rice happens upon a “real leader” in the Senate today
Secretary of State Rice is a competent actress, and does quite well when it comes to memorizing and delivering her lines. As a high-profile figure within this administration, she regularly exhibits a quixotic acumen found most often in public relations firms representing the interests of smokestacks, fully-automatic, low tar and the like. On a good day she’s globetrotting and meeting with groups of men who preside over nations where women are known to set themselves on fire on account of shame or false witness or the hope of a better draw next time around. They’ll pretend to believe that this emissary from the United States is making decisions that could effect them in some way, and for the sake of hoopleheads both here and there, duel podiums will be situated between microphones and flags for the sound bite and photograph that says nothing more than “I was there”.
The title she carries brings to mind the concept of a powerbroker making things happen behind the scenes, yet a half hour into testifying before hostile senators of both parties today, it was quite clear that the gap between Rice and Colon Powell is enormous. Both put on their marketing caps when told to do so, but you get the feeling that at least Powell was dying inside while it was going on. Condileezza Rice on the other hand is aware that what she’s saying is hogwash, but is happy to spit-shine the fantasy as long as she can still play piano in exotic parts of the world once in a while. At least until today that was the case, as Senator Hagel introduced this perpetually overmatched woman to life outside of Madison Avenue. It shocked her brain like a tall glass of Ike I’d imagine, or perhaps she walked away with the thought that telling lies for a living was no longer the right thing to do.
I’ve been a fan of his for quite some time now, and today he was real. The opinion he shared isn’t one he’s recently developed, unlike 95% of his colleagues. He hasn’t kept it under wraps up until now either, but instead has shown a largely scared shitless media and DC vortex what a real leader actually looks and sounds like. Back in February I said Hagel in ’08, but to hell with all that for now, as in this moment right here I’ll take a Senator. America needs a Senator or two at this stage of our implosion and wouldn’t you know it, Chuck Hagel is still the one calling this thing what it is. Condoleeza Rice was his foil in flesh today, though the truth he’s been slinging for well over a year now was bound to catch up to the rest of these hacks sooner or later. A certain GOP Senator from Oregon is happy to take credit for ‘getting the ball rolling’ on his side of the aisle, but the truth is, Hagel is a man amongst mostly children in that body, and even though he won’t get the credit he deserves, I honestly don’t think he gives a damn in that regard.
As Ricky Lee Jones sang..Chucky’s in Town..and thats a good thing, isn’t it?
I’d love to see Hagel run for President in 2008. He was awesome yesterday in the Senate hearing and could lead the U.S.
Every instance of spine needs a write-up like this. At least until spine becomes the rule, rather than the notable exception.
I agree! I don’t care what political party the spine exists within at this point…it’s just time for the bullshit to go bye-bye and our President’s delusions to finally be treated appropriately.
I’m pulling the entire Senate hearing w/ Condi right now, and I’ll try to have a manageable sized torrent ready to go by tomorrow. First time trying it, and the software I’m using…didn’t chose to compress it at all, so the thing is upwards to 4GB…I’ll have to do something about that obviously, but if it can get to 600MB give or take, it’ll be well worth the download and something to keep! Network news has me seriously rattled this week, and CSPAN isn’t doing me any favors…especially with all that dead time during quorum calls where they could be running tape on these hearings, but they don’t.
It’s all available on their site, but it should all be on the television for anyone to watch as it happens. Screw the first 100 hours and all the useless debate over bills we know are going to be passed by the House with no problem…the war deserves face time, and it’s not getting that right now.
Hating cable news as much as I do, I hated to be reduced to bounding from MSNBC, CNN and FoxNews yesterday hoping for clips (which never went for more than 15 seconds)…shit, Fox was talking about Rosie-Trump and some other celebrity story all afternoon…truly pathetic.
And surely a sign of why civic responsibility is generally pissed on in our society. Better not show a real leader doing his/her thing on TV, or else the public will start EXPECTING it!
I’ve been a fan of Hagel’s ever since I read a story about him in Time or Newsweek. Yeah, he’s a Republican, and has a lot of conservative views, but he’s honest (underline that last word for emphasis). A tough guy with empathy is a perfect mix for president.
Delete that previous comment please Al.
It’s great to see the US Senate show a little backbone, or is it just window dressing for the ’08 Campaign? You have to wonder if these presidential senators mean what they say. Are they just simply looking for fundraising with their personal 30 second spots? The true test is if they can muster enough courage to eliminate this war from future spending bills–that’s the only way out of this Iraqi wilderness…shut off the money spigot.
True. George Bush can’t help themselves. No matter the ideology, people don’t get to be president without persistence and stubbornness. Sometimes, those traits fuck them and the nation.
I think that in most cases, the senators tend to say less when they’re posturing for a Presidential run. OR they say the same thing over and over and over again, leaving the heavy lifting to those who are not running…so if you exclude Biden (who I’ll most likely vote for in the primary), and consider that Hagel has said he wasn’t going to run, then it’s Feingold and Boxer along with those two who did the best on Thursday, and out of them, only one is running for sure.
You’re not going to see Hillary, Obama, Brownback, McCain or Lieberman grilling the administration on the war. So with that in mind, all of those are off of my list of potential candidates I’d vote for. Kerry had his chance and didn’t seize the opportunity, so I’d have to be desperate to back him again.
Biden is my guy on the Dem side…no gimmicks, no fear of saying what’s on his mind…a bit long winded, but I can handle that.
In the eraly run Biden is my choice as well. Though I suspect Hilary will wrap up the nomination (This could be the closest Democratic primary race ever if obama decides to run). Does anyone know how much money each candidate has at this point? One would think Hillary is ahead in that race.
Kerry has the most money, right?–if he is a candidate (turkey sandwiches and pumpkin pie leftovers from ’04)
He wouldn’t pull a William Jennings Bryan, would he?
I’m not sure, but expect Biden to hammer Hillary on her complacent attitude towards the war. Not looking forward to the ’08 Democratic primary at all to be honest…it’s going to be a bloodbath and most likely a stage with 37 podiums on it for some debates.
Right now I’m partial to Edwards. Your list of the “outs” is very similar to mine. In the meantime, that hardly matters in the face of the crap that continues to accumulate. Whomever first champions impeachment is going to get a lot of my electoral sympathy.
PS: I’ve a piece on my site about Iraq informed by T.E. Lawrence that your history bug might be interested in. The Dark at the End of the Street.
Thanks for posting that link. I think the hyperlink you’ve connected to ‘Jim’ isn’t working correctly, as I’ve tried to get to Borrowed Suits by clicking on the name a couple times to no avail.
Edwards I like, but he’s still got the taint of failure on him…I’ll need to hear him saying more things in the thick of it. So far though he’s been great, and opening the campaign in New Orleans impressed me a great deal.
I honestly don’t feel like he’s pandering when he does something like that. Which is something I look for.
Link fixed (I think). Yah, I hear the fear of the taint of failure. But I think it clings more to Kerry than to Edwards. Johnny is a much better speaker. Whether or not this is true, he sounds more sincere than almost everyone else in the race. I contrast him with Obama who, I believe, speaks with forked and silver tongue. He’s a triangulator in the DLC mode. Most assuredly what I do not want. Edwards, OTOH, ran on poverty and then when he lost (or Kerry lost I should say) he went and tried to do something about it.
You could argue he’s thin on international credentials. But based on the track record of the [insert your favorite epithet for this debacle] I’m not sure that’s much of an issue.
Almost any Democrat we elect with immediately enjoy an almost incalcuably greater level of credibility with the international community, along with a tremendous amount of latitude to do something drastically different.
The loss was 100% on Kerry and his chosen campaign people. If he won the nomination and was up against Romney or Brownback in the national election, I’d obviously vote for him, but no way would Kerry get my vote in the primary.
Obama…your analysis is right on, which is why I think he’d make a great senator for a long time, but perhaps not the ideal candidate for President.
In the same way that he’d make a great senator for a long time, he’d also make a great President as I’d imagine, but something I don’t see is him taking the gloves off during the debates…but I could be wrong.
My fear with Edwards is that he’s going to overestimate the level of empathy in America towards others, towards ourselves, our trees and our air…the cynical and hatefull sounds we’re surrounded by in the political arena tend to characterize a guy like Edwards in a way that makes him seem like a pussy compared with someone else…like Gore with Bush, somehow Bush was the “tough guy”…
Although, he did MUCH better than expected the last time around, so you could very well be onto something here.