Here's a bit more "balanced" analysis (Frank Gaffney is a Perle type) of just why Gingrich would attack Powell this way and at this time. From today's WSJ.
Best guess of the two journalists is it's the ol' Gingrich desire for center stage. And, the not so small monetary incentive. This ups his earnings from his speeches considerably.
Gingrich Accuses Diplomats
Of Undercutting Bush Policies
By JEANNE CUMMINGS and GREG JAFFE
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
online.wsj.com
WASHINGTON – Newt Gingrich has taken it upon himself to save President Bush from his own State Department.
In a speech here Tuesday, the controversial former House speaker blistered the department -- and by implication Secretary of State Colin Powell -- for its handling of Iraq, the Middle East peace process and Syria. In each case he accused the department of undercutting the president's policies through ineptitude and a willingness to coddle dictators and feckless allies. "America cannot lead the world with a broken instrument of diplomacy," Mr. Gingrich told an audience at the American Enterprise Institute, the think tank where he is a resident scholar.
His language was extraordinarily blunt in the mannered world of foreign policy. What made it all the more unusual is that he was attacking a pivotal part of a Republican administration, and one in which he serves as a member of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board.
Some Republicans Tuesday were quietly worrying that Mr. Gingrich's remarks would end up hurting Mr. Bush, who plans to make national security a centerpiece of his re-election campaign.
Why Mr. Gingrich decided to take on the hugely popular Mr. Powell was also the subject of considerable speculation.
There is no question that his remarks represent the views of the increasingly powerful neoconservative wing of the Republican Party, which long pushed for going to war in Iraq and views the swift victory there as a vindication of its arguments against multilateralism and traditional diplomacy. Mr. Gingrich also is a longtime friend of both Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney, raising suspicions that he was publicly voicing their private frustrations.
There were also questions about what else Mr. Gingrich might be looking for personally. A higher profile undoubtedly would put him more in demand for speaking engagements, television appearances and consulting jobs, all of which are part of his lucrative post-House career. Some here also wondered if he was angling for a job in the next Bush administration, an idea Mr. Gingrich scoffs at. "If I wanted a job in the administration, I wouldn't have made this speech," he said in an interview.
The simplest explanation, though, may be that Mr. Gingrich has always loved the spotlight and any chance to churn the debate.
Following a protracted ethics scandal and midterm Republican losses in November 1998, Mr. Gingrich resigned as speaker and adopted a relatively low profile. The return of a Republican administration has created an opportunity to elevate it, although his access to this White House and the president is still limited. There is lingering bitterness from the Bush clan, which believes President George H.W. Bush lost his 1992 re-election bid in part because of the debilitating battle with the then-Georgia congressman over tax policy. When the current president was assembling a foreign-policy and defense team for his campaign, Mr. Gingrich wasn't included, despite his long interest in revamping the Pentagon.
While Mr. Gingrich insists his State Department comments weren't meant as a criticism of the president, the blowback could still be considerable, since Mr. Bush has embraced most, if not all, of the policies cited in Tuesday's speech.
In particular, Mr. Gingrich criticized the decision to have the U.S. work with Europe, Russia and the United Nations -- the so-called Quartet -- to seek an Israeli-Palestinian peace, something Mr. Bush has said he is committed to. Mr. Gingrich also criticized State Department officials for agreeing to a weapons-inspection program for Iraq -- an effort Mr. Bush endorsed, for a while at least, when he decided to bring the Iraq issue to the U.N. His most aggressive attack was reserved for the timing of Mr. Powell's decision to travel to Syria and meet with President Bashar al-Assad. He said the decision to meet with "a terrorist-supporting, secret-police-wielding dictator," without first seeing improved cooperation, is ludicrous. Mr. Bush appeared to embrace Mr. Powell's visit, too, when he spoke last weekend of recent progress with the Syrians.
Mr. Gingrich also said that he counts Mr. Powell as "a friend" but not a close one. "I suspect we'll be less friends after the speech," he quipped. But he asserted the stakes are too high "to allow the personal popularity of the secretary to protect the failures of the department from an agonizing review."
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher responded Tuesday that the department is carrying out Mr. Bush's policies "loyally, effectively and diligently. … The president's policy is the only thing that matters."
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, responding to Mr. Gingrich's speech, said, "Secretary Powell is an able, able diplomat."
The critique by Mr. Gingrich, whose ties to Messrs. Rumsfeld and Cheney go back decades, reflects what is being said privately at the Pentagon and in parts of the White House.
He and Mr. Cheney both were elected to the House of Representatives in 1978. When Mr. Cheney became defense secretary in the first Bush administration, Mr. Gingrich succeeded him as minority whip. And when the Democrats took over the White House, Mr. Cheney became a regular speaker at meetings of Gopac, the group of wealthy donors Mr. Gingrich assembled to finance the Republican ascension to the House majority.
He first met Mr. Rumsfeld when he was a college senior in 1965 and Mr. Rumsfeld was serving as an Illinois congressman. A decade later, when Mr. Gingrich was a college professor, he toyed with the idea of writing a book about Mr. Rumsfeld, who had just completed a tour as defense secretary in the Ford administration. After Mr. Rumsfeld returned to the Pentagon, he appointed Mr. Gingrich to the Defense Policy Board, an influential advisory group.
From that perch, Mr. Gingrich also has made considerable waves, e-mailing the defense secretary regularly on issues from military procurement to world strategy. Mr. Rumsfeld frequently forwards those messages on to senior military leaders, much to their frustration, several have quietly admitted.
Mr. Gingrich's most notable fight was with the Army over its Stryker Brigades. The units, equipped with medium-weight fighting vehicles, are supposed to be able to deploy anywhere in the world within 96 hours, to engage in fighting or peacekeeping missions.
The key to the success of the brigades is their ability to airlift 20-ton Stryker vehicles on C-130 cargo planes. In a series of e-mails to Mr. Rumsfeld and his staff, Mr. Gingrich insisted the Strykers didn't fit on C-130s. "He was so persistent that eventually the Army concluded the only way to prove him wrong was to show him," says Loren Thompson, of the Lexington Institute.
Senior Army generals arranged to have an Air Force C-130 carrying a Stryker vehicle land at Andrews Air Force base outside Washington. On a cold, rainy day last October, the transport plane pulled up in front of a large hangar, dropped its ramp and off-loaded a Stryker and all its gear, plus two crew members and nine infantrymen. Mr. Gingrich and Stephen Cambone, one of Mr. Rumsfeld's top advisers, stood beside the tarmac and watched the eight-minute demonstration.
Then Mr. Gingrich clambered aboard the vehicle, even donning a combat helmet. Although the future of Stryker is still up in the air, Mr. Gingrich has said little about the vehicle since the demonstration.
-- David S. Cloud contributed to this article |
