RAT, MEET SINKING SHIP….Now that Colin Powell’s former chief of staff has spoken his mind about the folks running the White House these days, who’s next? Steve Clemons says that the New Yorker will be running an article on Monday by Jeffrey Goldberg in which Powell’s longtime mentor, Brent Scowcroft, levels a “powerful new attack” on the Bush administration.
That should be interesting. Scowcraft, an old school Bush Sr. wise man, opposed the Iraq war, but after last year’s election said the decision was “behind us” and it was time to move on. By “move on,” though, he meant that the Bush administration needed to revitalize the Middle East peace process and start engaging seriously with Iran, two things that pretty clearly haven’t happened. Apparently he’s now had enough.
Steve also says that Goldberg’s article will contain some “incredibly juicy commentary from President George H.W. Bush on the performance of his son’s national security team.” We’ll see. I suspect it will actually be fairly restrained.
For genuinely juicy commentary, though, there’s always Chris Nelson, who makes the following observation about Colin Powell and his deputy, Richard Armitage:
There is no question from private remarks and public grimaces, some reaching back to early 2001, neither Powell nor Armitage had or has much trust or respect for Rice, and they share with other senior Republican wisemen the conviction that Rumsfeld is quite literally mad, and Cheney a dangerous, vindictive monomaniac.
It’s too bad these guys couldn’t have spoken up, say, last year, when it might have mattered, but better late than never, I guess. At any rate, I eagerly await the revelation of just what it was that caused Scowcroft to finally flip his lid. Maybe it will help Powell will grow some balls and speak out too. That would be fun.
