Feeling largely isolated, officials at State have rallied around Powell. At the first senior staff meeting he chaired after his return from the Middle East last week, Powell was given a spontaneous standing ovation, the only one that officials could remember at the regular morning session.
Though Powell returned to Washington looking weary, administration officials said he is a seasoned infighter and eternal optimist. "He's been in this town a long time and slugged it out over a lot of things. He understands it is not a perfect world. He also understands that things typically work out," a senior administration official said.
One of Powell's senior officials counseled department employees to follow the secretary's lead: "You've got to be right and you've got to be patient." ( end of washingtonpost.com )
Oh dear. On the infighting front, Powell may be seasoned, but it's hard to match Cheney and Rumsfeld, who out-infought Kissinger in the Ford administration. I just hope Cheney's trip injected a little reality into that axis. That, and maybe W's father and the uniformed military brass (as opposed to the civilian DoD) might keep a lid on things.
Back to #reply-17387660 , if what you relay about the Arab street is true, the "Democracy in Iraq" line might just end up with a very nasty surprise for us. Plus, if Saudi blows, bin Laden may get what he wanted all along, dead or alive though he may be. Times are getting a little too interesting. |
