Verb, "To Condi: to go endlessly around in circles, accomplishing nothing."

[babylonsister]

http://time-blog.com/middle_east/2008/06/no_red_carpet_for_condi_in_jer.html?xid=rss-mideast

June 16, 2008 7:28
No Red Carpet for Condi in Jerusalem
Posted by Tim McGirk


I feel sorry for Condoleezza Rice. That’s a sad thing to have to say about the secretary of state for a superpower, but let’s face the facts: she’s made 22 trips to Israel during the Bush Administration’s eight years, and she has little to show for it. Israeli TV announcers coined her name as a verb, meaning to go endlessly around in circles, accomplishing nothing.

On Sunday, Rice just passed through Jerusalem again. Ghosted through might be a better description since this time there was no fanfare, no motorcades snarling up the city’s traffic, and the lady couldn’t even book a room in her usual hotel, the David Citadel. She had to settle for a less grand hotel, though admittedly it wasn’t one of those pilgrim fleapits in the Old City. But for me, that’s a sign of how far how far her superpower status has fallen in the dwindling days of Bushdom.

It’s not for lack of trying. Rice took a stab at it --late, it must be said. But her boss was perennially distracted, the Israelis didn’t want to make compromises and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, anointed by the White House, as a moderate “”we can deal with”, proved woefully ineffectual.

She started this 24 hour visit with a peevish complaint: The Jerusalem municipality was going ahead and building more houses in East Jerusalem, on the Arab side, a move that the Palestinians and the international community says is illegal. Her harsh criticism didn’t exactly make Prime Minister Ehud Olmert tremble.

On the contrary; Olmert told Rice, frostily, that her statements made it harder, if not impossible, for him to secure support for any concessions to the Palestinians from the Israeli religious nationalist propping up his coalition. Olmert is facing a possible indictment for corruption, and he is so weak right now that he knows he can’t persuade his coalition partners –and the Israeli public-- to sign on to a peace deal with the Palestinians.

One source told me: “Condi left feeling very frustrated. There’s no Israeli government to speak of, nobody to make decisions.” And, if she wants her usual swanky hotel suite, she’d better learn to book in advance like everybody else.

[bdamomma]

1. Condi what a piece of nothing she is.

just like her boss.

[ananda]

2. There is no foreign policy.

The Bush admin has no place in foreign policy
negotiations because of its stubborn and
pugnacious refusal to nuance and use diplomacy.

The Bush message is always very simple and
conducive only to more violence and instability
in the ME. Everything the Bush admin touches
turns to shit.

As the ranking member of Bush's foreign policy
team, Condi Rice is tainted by her willingness
to spout the party line and act as a defender
and apologist for the wars and other missteps
in the ME. She has literally made her bed
with the mangy rabid dogs of Bushinc, and now
she is covered with fleas.

Sue

[driver8]

4. The Bush foreign policy is "drop bombs".

If a country doesn't agree with you, they are obviously against you...drop a bomb on them!!

I cannot even describe how much I despise these people.

[madokie]

6. Only place they have in foreign anything is a stint in the graybar hotel in The Hague,

[liberal N proud]

3. She got new shoes

[gratuitous]

5. Truth seeping into Time magazine?

It's slipping in the side door through their "blog," but astonishing nevertheless to see one of Republican house organs evincing skepticism and doubt about the half-assed "diplomatic" efforts of the corrupt Bush administration. Naturally, they spend most of their time twitting Dr. Rice for not getting a nice room, but to call Bush "perennially distracted" is startling.

I'm sure this scribbling will be "noted in the building" at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

[On the Road]

7. As Donald Trump Said in That Interview:

She looks nice waving at the airport but she hasn't done any deals. You have to do deals!