Colin Powell vs. Condi Rice: Hand-to-Hand Combat over John Bolton

From Steve Clemons at The Washington Note:

"Sid Blumenthal has written a blistering critique of Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice's position on John Bolton, making the lucid and appropriate point that whereas Colin Powell has frequently put the interests of the nation above loyalty to those on petty power trips, Rice seems to be doing the opposite.'

Blumenthal writes:

In seeking to prevent the bullying and duplicitous ideologue from representing the US before the international organisation, Powell is engaging in hand-to-hand combat with his successor. Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice's first true test has not arrived from abroad. Caught by Powell's flanking movement, she is trapped in a crisis of credibility, which she herself is deepening.
Powell's closest associate, his former deputy Richard Armitage, is orchestrating much of the action. Wavering senators are directed to call Powell, who briefs them on Bolton's demerits. Powell's former chief of staff, Lawrence B Wilkerson, has surfaced to give an interview to the New York Times, declaring that Bolton would be "an abysmal ambassador".

-snip-
Rice's response to the seemingly endless stream of witnesses has been to order state department senior staff to stanch the flow of adverse stories.

"This whole building knows how Bolton dealt with people," a dismayed senior state department official told me. "If she is sending a different signal than Powell sent that will be difficult. The muzzle is being put on, the damage is being done. To the extent it's buttoned up here, it's dangerous for the secretary. Powell and Armitage created an environment of accountability about treatment of the staff. Any kind of allegation that you did things like Bolton did was death in the foreign service. Persons were removed. Now she's trying to be a team player, trying to support someone Powell ostracised."

But he has a lot more on the NSA

"Then focusing on the hugely important matter of Bolton's insubordination against Powell, Blumenthal exposes the probable and vital significance of the NSA intercepts Bolton was using to wage war against Armitage, Powell, and others at the State Department:

The Bolton confirmation hearings have revealed his constant efforts to undermine Powell on Iran and Iraq, Syria and North Korea. They have also exposed a most curious incident that has triggered the administration's stonewall reflex. The foreign relations committee has discovered that Bolton made a highly unusual request and gained access to 10 intercepts by the National Security Agency, which monitors worldwide communications, of conversations involving past and present government officials. Whose conversations did Bolton secretly secure and why?
Staff members on the committee believe that Bolton was probably spying on Powell, his senior advisers and other officials reporting to him on diplomatic initiatives that Bolton opposed. If so, it is also possible that Bolton was sharing this top-secret information with his neoconservative allies within the Pentagon and the vice-president's office, with whom he was in daily contact and who were known to be working in league against Powell.

If the intercepts are released they may disclose whether Bolton was a key figure in a counter-intelligence operation run inside the Bush administration against the secretary of state, who would resemble the hunted character played by Will Smith in Enemy of the State. Both Republican and Democratic senators have demanded that the state department, which holds the NSA intercepts, turn them over to the committee. But Rice so far has refused. What is she hiding by her cover-up?

The White House is toughening-up its support of Bolton, even to the point of anticipating a stalemate or even negative vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Bolton. Lawyers are now considering various mechanisms by which the Senate Foreign Relations Committee might be circumvented to take the nomination directly to the floor of the Senate, this making a mockery of the Committee, its findings, and any vote it might take.

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/

She wants Bolton shoved off to New York , so she does not have to work with him directly..Bush would like to get us out of the UN anyway..If you could read his mind.

is a thorn in *'s side and an inconvcenience to him and his empire building aspirations. Not to mention his cronies; I'm sure they feel the same.

to lay the ground for a military intervention, just like he did before:

"British foreign secretary Jack Straw complained to Powell that Bolton was obstructing negotiations with Iran on the development of nuclear weapons".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1471879,00.html