New to the Job, Rice Focused on More Traditional Fears

[kskiska]

(snip)

Senior White House aides concede that Mr. Bush has a huge amount riding on how Ms. Rice does. "She's the one who can make our most forceful case," one close colleague of Ms. Rice said this weekend. "They don't call her the Warrior Princess for nothing," a reference to the moniker her staff gave her after the Sept. 11 attacks.

But a review of the record, from testimony and interviews, suggests that Ms. Rice faces a daunting challenge because her own focus until Sept. 11 was usually fixed on matters other than terrorism, for reasons that had to do with her own background, her management style and the unusually close, personal nature of her relationship with Mr. Bush.

Coit Blacker, a longtime friend and colleague of Ms. Rice at Stanford who is now director of that university's Institute for International Studies, said any blind spots she had upon taking office in January 2001 might have been rooted in the fact that she emerged from a generation of scholars trained to focus on great-power politics, with terrorism seen as a troubling but subordinate element.

(snip)

Her background, as she acknowledged, was as "a Europeanist." And when she briefly dropped her self-confident tone, Ms. Rice, then a professor and former provost at Stanford, said in an interview in June 2000 that as a campaign adviser to Mr. Bush, she found herself "pressed to understand parts of the world that have not been part of my scope."

Among those relatively unfamiliar issues was the rise of radical Islamic movements in the Mideast and South Asia. Ms. Rice has said "we did everything we knew how to do" to combat terrorism in the months before the attack.

more…
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/05/politics/05COND.html?hp

[goclark]

1. Where is the birth certificate?

She is the oldest 49 year old that I have ever seen in my life!

[ultramega]

2. Translation:

When briefed by Clinton's advisors about the most serious threats to national security, Rice stuck her fingers in her ears and sang "nah nah nah nah nah nah I can't hear you"

[pinto]

3. Is this the agenda-ridden academist the right has warned us about?

[jobycom]

9. Hehe. You nailed it. That's exactly what she is.

She's had an agenda all along, but unfortunately it was an agenda based on a Soviet-US world. Remember the early days of W? His prime agenda then was selling the missile defense shield? It wasn't just to put money in his daddy's pockets, though that was a big part of it. Bush hired Cold War people who couldn't think beyond that, even though it had ended a decade before.

[BigBigBear]

14. In essence

her education and training were out of date, and serving on an oil company board did not afford her the opportunity to educate herself about the world she was tapped to protect our nqation from.

She was picked for her loyalty to Bush Sr. The Bushes value loyalty above everything else.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[opihimoimoi]

7. She was clearly in over her head. Still is. A rank amateur in terms of

the job, selected because of the 2 fer factor, this lady blew it big time and they now covering their asses with lies and distractions.

[ultramega]

8. Interesting comments made by Richard Clarke:

They had Bush on the phone "when we had to make a decision about whether to shoot down a plane" (flight 93?)

Dick Cheney "was in meetings the vice-president had never been in before".

and I think this one is in the book, Rice and Bush are "unusually close". Read between the lines.

I think this man knows some serious dirt, otherwise George Bush and Cheney et al would be jumping on the bandwagon saying Clarke is gay. But they can't, because he knows to much about, among other things, Shrub and Rice's "unusually close" relationship.

[Florida_Geek]

10. I wonder if he rubs her head while she is Monicaing him

Florida_Geek <- :spank:

[Zeke]

11. I Can't Be Alone In This...

I believe Rice is a lesbian.

She is never seen with a man, and no men are ever discussed as invovlved in her life.

Think about it: when was the first or last time a man's name was ever romantically linked to Rice, that she's dating so-and-so, was seen attending a black tie political dinner function with so-and-so.

No men---never.

I am alone noticing this?

[ultramega]

12. It wouldn't matter.

She's rich. So laws against gay marriage, abortion, affirmative action, workplace harassment...this stuff only applies to or affects the peasantry. This is the only way I can explain how anyone but a white male hetero would support w.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

15. Read between the lines...the only man she's seen with is...

...Junior when they travel together on Air Force One.

Maybe you missed that one.

[arcos]

17. well, there was a rumor she and Wolfowitz were dating...

but I think no one was able to confirm it.

[SquireJons]

22. Never thought about it before

But you're right. I've been following this lady for over ten years now and she has never been seen with a man other than shrub (is he really a man?).

[The Backlash Cometh]

30. Leave this one alone.

The freepers did this to Janet Reno. If Condi fails, it will have nothing to do with her sexual orientation.

[TXDemGal]

25. Rice and Bush "unusually close"

This phrase or ones like it seem to be inserted (no pun intended) in most articles about Rice recently. Seems the press corps and others (such as Clarke) are trying to say they know the two are having an affair, but they can't really come out and say it. They weren't so reticent when it came to Clinton and Lewinsky, of course. But it's different when you're a Rethug.

[InkAddict]

32. I've always thought of her as

as his "cigarette girl," or perhaps as a Madonna "Breathless Mahoney." Their "usually close" relationship probably has nothing to do with sex and everything to do with whatever white powder arrives daily in those "top secret" diplomatic pouches. She probably watches as he washes it down with his morning OJ - that's right - two up, one down - Direct from the global/international fields of Columbia and Afganistan. Mindblowing, no? but it fits the orwellian "180 degree rule." Just IMHO.

[jobycom]

5. Ah, that's their strategy.

Gentlemanly Bush was not covering up for himself, but for his poor, underprepared but very promising underling. The poor female was in over her head and blew it, but loyal Bush covered for her so as to save a promising career from the wolf hunters.

That's how the producers of the drama will stage it. Should be enough to save Bush. And if Rice performs well enough, maybe it will save her, too. If not, she's left on the gallows for the crows to eat her eyes.

Keep in mind that when the powers behind Bush were trying to make him look like a serious candidate, they hired Rice to tutor him. He crammed for three hours a day for a year so he could sound like he knew what he was talking about. Rice is the mentor, Bush is the underling. Rice was covering for Bush. Now he's going to throw her to the sharks. Hired help, no matter how well they do, is only hired help, to these folk.

[The_Casual_Observer]

6. They don't call her the Warrior Princess for nothing,"

Yes they do, if that's what they call her.

[daleo]

13. First it was 'the Vulcans', now 'the Warrior Princess'

They talk like a bunch of junior high school kids, and not the cool ones either.

Not to mention Bush's stupid nickname habit.

[kitkatrose]

33. To put Xena and Condi in the same catagory is wrong.

There is no comparison to Xena. :)

[DoctorMyEyes]

16. She was "provost" of "event scheduling"

or some such lame thing.

I keep reading the "provost" thing like it lends her some kind of authority or special insight. She was the provost who got to decide which hall or venue visiting lecturers would speak at. Whooptie Doo!

[mhr]

18. Basically, Bush Asked The Wrong Person To Be The NSC Chief

This will be his excuse as Condi rides out of town!

[truebrit71]

19. In other words..this is what happens when you hire someone who's an expert

..about a country THAT DOESN'T EXIST ANYMORE...!!! :grr:

She obviously had no clue about terrorism, and was schooled in the cold-war mentality...But go ahead and ignore Sandy Berger's advice, and keep putting Richard Clarke off cuz they're full of shit..what we need is a good old fashioned missile-defense shield right Condi??? Riiiiiiiiiight...

3000 dead citizens and two collapsed towers later they figure that maybe they should have listened just a little bit harder...

Her testimony is going to be very interesting to watch this week...of course it all depends upon what the questions are......

[Toucano]

20. If she didn't wear

a name badge that said "TRAINEE", she's not off the hook.

Nice try though. Seems like the administration is bracing for the worst. It must be pretty bad.

[demgrrrll]

21. I thought I read she was dating a football player. There was something

written about some football player escorting her somewhere.
Can't remember the details. That being said unusually close
isn't a term used between a married man and an unmarried women without some kind of assumed inference.

[Democat]

23. Once she lies under oath, can Bush be impeached?

Or will we have to wait for Cheney to lie under oath for that? :)

[imax2268]

26. doubt it...

the repubs control the house and the committee to bring articles of impeachment...so I seriously doubt that he will be impeached...unless she drops a huge bomb on thursday than it probably will never happen...

now if there was a democrat in office...forget it...impeachment would have been brought up already...

[truthisfreedom]

24. "we did everything we knew how to do" translates to "we didn't know what

to do."

she's so transparent. it will be a gas watching her dissemble on network television.

[xxqqqzme]

27. "pressed to understand parts of the world

that have not been part of my scope."

All the more reason the clueless one should have listened 2 Clinton people briefing her. Guess she figured her learning curve was superior to theirs.

[DeepModem Mom]

28. D.C. "buzz" is that Condi would be Secy. of Defense...

in a second GWB administration. I posted in GD:


Rice's Testimony May Be Audition
A strong showing before the Sept. 11 panel could land her a Cabinet post in a second Bush term.

By Doyle McManus, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — When Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security advisor, testifies this week before the commission investigating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, much of Washington will be watching raptly — not just to hear what she says, but to see whether she blows her chance of getting a Cabinet post if Bush is reelected....

***

If Bush wins a second term, officials say they expect him to ask Rice to stay — but Rice's friends say she has long expressed a desire to move, either back to California or into a different job. The betting in Washington is that she may be nominated as the next secretary of State or Defense.

That assumes that the current occupants of those jobs, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, move out — two assumptions that, in Washington's mysterious ways, are becoming the conventional wisdom, correct or not.

That's not all. If Rice isn't the next secretary of State, the buzz goes, the most likely candidate may be L. Paul Bremer III, head of the U.S. occupation authority in Iraq. If Rice isn't the next secretary of Defense, Tom Ridge, the secretary of Homeland Security, might like the job. And nobody's sure what happens to the controversial deputy secretary of Defense, Paul D. Wolfowitz....

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bushteam5apr05,1,3098955.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[leftchick]

29. oh gawd, I can't even go there....

A second shrub* term? AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

:scared: :scared: :scared:

[The Backlash Cometh]

31. Best two paragraphs at the end of the long article:

To what extent any failures in the Bush White House's response to terrorism should be laid at Ms. Rice's feet is a matter of some debate. Her insistence that the National Security Council play less of an operational role than in the past was one reason for the prickly relationship between her and Mr. Clarke, who as the senior director for counterterrorism had less access to high-level officials under Mr. Bush than he did under President Clinton.

and...

She told her staff in the opening days of the administration that she had an open door and asked for memorandums describing the most urgent problems facing them. Mr. Clarke responded with a lengthy e-mail message on Jan. 25 that he describes as presenting a full plan to combat Al Qaeda. Ms. Rice viewed it differently. "It was a hodgepodge of ideas about how to make life miserable for Osama bin Laden," said an official who has reviewed the still-classified memorandum.

[Galley_Queen]

34. Is Energy a Part of National Security?

I'd like someone to ask Condi that question during the hearings. The answer should be YES. If she then says Yes, I would then ask: "Name everyone on Cheney's energy task force."

Whoever was on his task force damned well had a say on invading Iraq, IMHO.

[teryang]

35. This woman had one agenda from day one

Taking over southwest and central Asia for the oil industry.