WP: D.C. "buzz" re. Bush II Cabinet (Secy. of Defense Condi?)

[DeepModem Mom]

Rice's Testimony May Be Audition
A strong showing before the Sept. 11 panel could land her a Cabinet post in a second Bush term.

By Doyle McManus, Times Staff Writer


WASHINGTON — When Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security advisor, testifies this week before the commission investigating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, much of Washington will be watching raptly — not just to hear what she says, but to see whether she blows her chance of getting a Cabinet post if Bush is reelected....

***

If Bush wins a second term, officials say they expect him to ask Rice to stay — but Rice's friends say she has long expressed a desire to move, either back to California or into a different job. The betting in Washington is that she may be nominated as the next secretary of State or Defense.

That assumes that the current occupants of those jobs, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, move out — two assumptions that, in Washington's mysterious ways, are becoming the conventional wisdom, correct or not.

That's not all. If Rice isn't the next secretary of State, the buzz goes, the most likely candidate may be L. Paul Bremer III, head of the U.S. occupation authority in Iraq. If Rice isn't the next secretary of Defense, Tom Ridge, the secretary of Homeland Security, might like the job. And nobody's sure what happens to the controversial deputy secretary of Defense, Paul D. Wolfowitz....


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bushteam5apr05,1,3098955.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[keopeli]

1. I don't get it. "Buzzz?" Who gives a...

Is an article like this trying to make Condi look like she's really tough before she faces the 9-11 jury (which is what they are), or are they trying to exacerbate any negative effect that a mediocre performance (the most likely) might induce?

The truth is that I don't get anyone's interest in 'buzz,' which is nothing more than manufactured political propoganda for the masses. Least of all do I understand it from the LAT, unless it's a covert effort to make the current administration look bad. If that's the case...it'd better work.


My take: If Bush* gets elected this time, he won't change a single thing. He's not good with change. He likes stability. That 'Stable Leader' crap is trying to capitolize on a real personality trait of his: he likes to keep the things around him exactly the same - that way he can hold everyone accountable for themselves and not have to believe that HE's the one who's accountable.

Argh. You see, these 'buzz' things bug!

Keo

[DeepModem Mom]

2. It's a curious article --

I was just astounded that Condi does not seem to have lost credibility among the D.C. "chattering classes" and that the possibility of her being named as Secy. of Defense apparently does not elicit, or is not reported as eliciting, a collective: "Are you kidding?"

[punpirate]

3. The "buzz" won't matter one whit...

... if Bush loses....

Let's see to it that he does.

[DeepModem Mom]

4. Absolutely right!

[oasis]

5. Homeland Security: a cabinet post created because of Condi's ineptitude as

National Security Adviser. What a mixed up bunch of losers.

[JaySherman]

6. Bremer as Secretary of State???

Or worse, Secretary of Defense (Terror Alert Tommy would be bad enough). :scared: Now there's a verrry scary thought. Will he send troops in to 'pacify' the area the next time there's a protest march in NY? Would he forcibly shut down any media source, website, or organization that critizes him or the adminstration like that paper in Iraq did? (Bye bye DU, Buzzflash, Truthout, and so on...) I don't want to put on my tinfoil hat here, but... As his handling of Iraq clearly demonstrates, this guy would set up the perfect scenario for the nightmare military police state so many of us are fearing if * gets a second term.

All the more reason to work even harder to kick them all the hell out NOW.

:scared: :kick:

Edited for my usual zillion typos.

[DeepModem Mom]

7. Secy of State Bremer vs., say, Secy of State Richard Holbrooke

in a Dem administration.