WANING INFLUENCE
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice finds that her star is fading
Joel Brinkley
San Francisco Chronicle
I remember the heady days for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
About 2 1/2 years ago, when she was new in office, I accompanied her on her first trip around the world, with stops in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, South Korea, Japan and China. Crowds gathered to see her limousine drive past; people whistled, waved and cheered. Interviewers routinely asked her whether she was planning to run for president. One TV reporter in India told her she was "arguably the most powerful woman in the world." She chuckled but did not exactly agree -- or disagree.
How things change.
A few months ago, she decided to write an opinion piece about Lebanon. She enlisted John Chambers, chief executive officer of Cisco Systems as a co-author, and they wrote about public/private partnerships and how they might be of use in rebuilding Lebanon after last summer's war. No one would publish it.
Think about that. Every one of the major newspapers approached refused to publish an essay by the secretary of state. Price Floyd, who was the State Department's director of media affairs until recently, recalls that it was sent to the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and perhaps other papers before the department finally tried a foreign publication, the Financial Times of London, which also turned it down.
As a last-ditch strategy, the State Department briefly considered translating the article into Arabic and trying a Lebanese paper. But finally they just gave up. "I kept hearing the same thing: 'There's no news in this.' " Floyd said. The piece, he said, was littered with glowing references to President Bush's wise leadership. "It read like a campaign document."
(Continued here.)
Joel Brinkley
San Francisco Chronicle
I remember the heady days for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
About 2 1/2 years ago, when she was new in office, I accompanied her on her first trip around the world, with stops in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, South Korea, Japan and China. Crowds gathered to see her limousine drive past; people whistled, waved and cheered. Interviewers routinely asked her whether she was planning to run for president. One TV reporter in India told her she was "arguably the most powerful woman in the world." She chuckled but did not exactly agree -- or disagree.
How things change.
A few months ago, she decided to write an opinion piece about Lebanon. She enlisted John Chambers, chief executive officer of Cisco Systems as a co-author, and they wrote about public/private partnerships and how they might be of use in rebuilding Lebanon after last summer's war. No one would publish it.
Think about that. Every one of the major newspapers approached refused to publish an essay by the secretary of state. Price Floyd, who was the State Department's director of media affairs until recently, recalls that it was sent to the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and perhaps other papers before the department finally tried a foreign publication, the Financial Times of London, which also turned it down.
As a last-ditch strategy, the State Department briefly considered translating the article into Arabic and trying a Lebanese paper. But finally they just gave up. "I kept hearing the same thing: 'There's no news in this.' " Floyd said. The piece, he said, was littered with glowing references to President Bush's wise leadership. "It read like a campaign document."
(Continued here.)
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2 Comments:
Thanks for posting this article.
In one way, Rice may be in a better position today than she was when she was a “limo drivin’ rock star” … and the only reason that she is in a better position is that Bush is in such a poor position.
Today’s New York Times Op-Ed was on the failure of diplomacy during the Bush years. The NYT is right … it’s been an utter failure in virtually every region. Powell has been criticized that he did not throw down his resignation letter if he felt the Iraq situation was not being handled properly. Rice should learn from that. She should threaten to resign (leaking the threat to the media) if Bush doesn’t accept her advice on Gitmo and further she needs to follow her mentor’s Brent Scowcroft advice more often. She needs to engage Syria directly. They are the key to Iraq. It’s good that the US and Iran are scheduling talks this week about Iraq, but that should not be the only subject on the table. The news that Iran will let U.N. inspectors return to a plutonium-producing reactor it is building has not been given the media attention it should.
In Bush’s weak state, he could not afford a major resignation of such a key player … so she has leverage. Cheney would whine, but he wouldn’t quit over it. And if Bush accepted her resignation, the NYT OpEd piece seems to like the work that Chris Hill has done.
Side note : Glenn Kissler in the Washington Post has an interesting piece on Rice’s handling of foreign aid. Some of the interesting tidbits are :
-- Rice's foreign-aid approach "sadly bears the hallmarks of our failed early assistance efforts in Iraq, where ideology and political connections trumped professionalism," charged Pam Pearson, a foreign-service officer
-- Long-term development aid often directed by Congress was cut by almost $500 million, or 31 percent, in fiscal year 2008, while "economic support" accounts focused on short-term geopolitical aims and subject to greater administration control were boosted $865 million, or 35 percent.
-- Assistance to countries such as Nepal, Congo and the Philippines also was cut, while democracy programs were reduced in Eastern Europe and Russia. Meanwhile, huge sums are devoted to administration priorities in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Iraq's aid was boosted fivefold for 2008, while Afghanistan and Pakistan together will receive more than 85 percent of the $2.2 billion aid budget for 12 countries in South and Central Asia. (House lawmakers later rejected the Iraq aid, however.)
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