"It never got off on the right foot, and this one will"

Condi gets to work after the recent unpleasantness amongst the sore losers

"America will stand with those who want their aspirations for freedom realized," says a triumphant Condoleeza Rice this morning, addressing the State Department staff she will lead (rough transcript off the tube):

I need your ideas. My door will be open.  History is calling. We are one America made up of people of all backgrounds and all ethnicities. We are going to be a diplomatic core that embodies that diversity. This is a great time for America, for the international system. I want to close with a personal recollection. The last time I was in government I was a Soviet Specialist. But I was just harvesting good decisions that had been made [earlier] by the good work of the men and women of the State Department. They created a policy and a set of insitutions that gave us a lasting peace. When President Bush sits across from [his German and Japanese counterparts], they are not just friends but democratic friends. There are those who say that some peoples are not capable of democracy, but I believe that we as Americans, who know how hard the path to democracy is, we have to make it so that we work with those who want democracy. And now I'll go try to find my office, if you don't mind.

"The coordination between the White House and the State Department will go more smoothly now [vs. under Colin Powell]," Henry Kissinger is telling FOXNews' E.D. Hill:

It would permit a very coordinated foreign policy. At the end of the day it [having a Secretary of State in philosophical sync with the President's vision] is what the foreign leaders want. [With Powell, for whom Kissinger says he has the utmost respect] it never got off on the right foot, and this one will.

We never trusted Colin Powell.  Too slick.

Comments

[Van Helsing]

Kissinger makes a good point. Powell may be better adapted to hit it off with the other diplomats, but he probably always left them wondering how big a gap there was between what Powell said and what Bush was going to do. They won't get that kind of disconnect with Rice. For foreign leaders, talking to her will be almost the same as talking to Bush. Once certain parties get it through their heads that it's Bush's party, they will probably be grateful for the chance to communicate with someone who truly represents Bush.