A Little Panic at Foggy-bottom

Oh Shit, she's even more inept than we thought!

Condi reminds me of that old joke about folks who hang out in Academia-land (not that there's anything wrong with that):

BS = Bull shit

MS = More shit

PhD = Piled high and deep.

But it does bring up an interesting question, which remains much speculated about and not answered. Why does Bush just keep moving the deck chairs on the Titanic, when what we need is a whole new ship or, atleast, more life boats?

It must be the loyalty thing, as with the hiring of Rethug Loyalists to run the CPA.

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Robert Novak :: Latest State choice has whiff of panic:

Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Republicans and Democrats alike, were alarmed last week that John Negroponte was leaving as director of national intelligence after less than two years to become deputy secretary of state. By way of explanation, he informed one Republican senator that he did not want to make the switch but that the White House prevailed on him.

Just what career diplomat Negroponte was doing as the new intelligence czar in the first place was puzzling. But to pull him out just as his on-the-job training as director had been completed reflects a panicky desire to fill the deputy secretary's post that had been unfilled for an unprecedented six months. Five other key State Department positions are either vacant or soon to be vacant.

Republicans in Congress, who do not want to be quoted, tell me the State Department under Secretary Condoleezza Rice is a mess. That comes at a time when the U.S. global position is precarious. While attention focuses on Iraq, American diplomacy is being tested worldwide -- in Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, Korea and Sudan. The judgment by thoughtful Republicans is that Rice has failed to manage that endeavor.