The end of diplomacy

Bush to Name Rice Secretary of State (washingtonpost.com)

Oh no. This is not a positive change for the US. Yes, she will be the first black female Secretary of State, and yes, she is to be 4th in line for presidency should the president, vice president, speaker of the house and minority leaders all be .... removed ... which is a huge accomplishment for women everywhere.

However, I was much more comfortable knowing that after Tom DeLay and Nancy Pelosi that Collin Powell would take over ...

Ok, the truth of the matter is Dr. Rice is a very intelligent and successful person. She may be one of the smartest people in the cabinet. She is also amazingly competent, and dedicated to action.

My major complaint with her is her background. She is a Sovietologist. No matter how much things have changed, it is very hard to unravel the core of your belief system. Sovietologists truly saw the world in black and white, us versus them, with us or against us. The world today, contrary to the comments of the president is not that way.

Unfortunately, Dr. Rice still sees the world this way, perhaps one could say, pigeon-holes issues to conform to this worldview. At the Pentagon, that type of view would be very useful, very strong. As national security advisor, she was effective, but it was not the proper position for her. Unfortunately, in our diplomatic core, it is not a trait which lends itself easily to success. You cannot be a successful statesman while rigid and forcing everything into one view or the other.

Also disconcerting is the departure of Richard Armitage. He was a great moderate undersecretary. Also disconcerting was the comment that she was going to remove many of the more moderate statesman in favor of strongly conservative ones. I should also mention Stephen Hadley looks way too much like John Malkovich in "In the Line of Fire"