From FoxNews: Bush Taps Rice to Be Secretary of State.
[Condoleezza] Rice, considered more of a foreign policy hard-liner than [Secretary of State Colin] Powell, whom she calls a "dear friend and mentor," has been Bush's national security adviser for four years. ...Rice has long been Bush's most trusted foreign-policy adviser, leading to concerns that her elevation to secretary of state might not leave room for dissent within the administration.
"When Rice travels as secretary of state to other capitals, everyone will know that what she says represents with great fidelity what the president thinks" and vice versa, former presidential adviser David Gergen told FOX News.
"I think it does ensure closer cooperation within the administration," Gergen added, but if you "essentially purge the administration" of other voices, that would leave little room for alternative perspectives.
"Colin Powell and his group were often dissenters within the administration, but on some issues they turned out to be right," Gergen continued. He envisioned that Rice would bring in a "hard-line team" of lower-level officials to help her run State.
We're all for a State Department that takes a more "hard line" approach to America's interests compared to Powell's tendency toward appeasement. Our foreign policy message to other nations should be harmonious not dissonant.
UPDATE I -- November 19: This cartoon appears in today's (Friday's) Investor's Business Daily.
UPDATE II -- November 23: This cartoon appears in today's (Tuesday's) The Detroit News.
Posted by Forkum at November 17, 2004 08:37 PM
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