Rice fails to repair rifts, officials say

Cabinet rivalries complicate national security adviser’s role
National security adviser Condoleezza Rice has been criticized for her management skills.

By Glenn Kessler and Peter Slevin
THE WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 — Last week, the White House announced that national security adviser Condoleezza Rice had been given the new responsibility of managing the struggling effort to rebuild Iraq. In the words of one official, Rice would “crack the whip, frankly.”

THE ANNOUNCEMENT was met by puzzlement throughout the foreign policy community: Isn’t that what the national security adviser is supposed to do in the first place?

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Rumsfeld: A hawk with ruffled feathers

U.S. defense chief suffers a huge come-down

By Peter Spiegel
FINANCIAL TIMES

Oct. 10 — During the war in Afghanistan, Donald Rumsfeld’s regular Pentagon briefings became such cultural staples that his boss, President George W. Bush, only half-jokingly referred to the defense secretary as a matinee idol. Times have changed.

ON THURSDAY, Mr. Rumsfeld decided to cancel his end-of-summit press conference at a gathering of NATO defense ministers in Colorado Springs after his session the day before was dominated by questions as to whether he was being shunted aside by the White House in the Iraqi rebuilding effort. Asked why Mr. Rumsfeld had cancelled, one NATO official said the Pentagon chief was afraid he had become a “party pooper” whose public appearances had become distractions from the alliance’s good work.

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This great nation is being run by a gaggle of idiots. God help us until 2004.