Powell isn't dumb, he's just a soldier. And he understands
his role as that of being Bush's soldier. I get the
impression that he doesn't much care for Bush, he hates
Rumsfeld and Cheney, and thinks Condi Rice is incompetent.
Still, a soldier owes loyalty to the President. So, he
soldiers on. He diplomatically notes his problems with the
rest of the administration and his frustration with how things
have turned out, but he will continue to support Bush in
public.
In private, though, he's fuming about how badly his reputation
has been tarnished because of the neocons' lies on Iraq. I
think he feels like he was set up at the UN. He was sent
because he has credibility, and he sat down with people from
intel to make sure he got it right. Problem is, the people he
sat down with were more neocon nut-jobs who regurgitated the
same tired old crap that we knew then and now are lies. They
sold him on it because it was "multi-sourced", never
explaining to him that all the different sources were
completely unreliable.
I recall an interview that Drudge posted a few weeks ago with
one of Powell's friends. He was talking about how to read
Powell's diplomatic public statements of disagreement with the
rest of the Bush Administration. He likened it to John
McCain's, saying that when people talk about McCain and Bush
being "cordial" that meant that McCain doesn't tell
Bush to go fuck himself every single time he sees him. I
don't think Powell is to that point yet, but he's definitely
not a happy camper. There's no way he'll be back for four
more years if Bush wins reelection.
That, by the way, was scary to even type. Let's forget I ever
suggested that...