Powell, Armitage To Visit With Bush

[Nambe]

Crawford (AP)

Secretary of State Colin Powell and his deputy Richard Armitage are to visit with President Bush at his ranch in Texas this week.

The White House spokesman says the two will discuss foreign policy issues such as the Middle East, Iraq, Liberia and North Korea.

Scott McClellan insists this trip was in the works before Monday's story that the two want to leave office in 2005. He told reporters in Crawford, Texas, that "there's no basis" for Monday's report in The Washington Post. ---

[Kolesar]

1. With dear little Condi in the room as is traditional, doubtlessly

...because *bush cannot think for himself. Powell could not even get a private meeting with Resident Bush before they attacked Iraq last spring. Maybe Powell had to threaten to quit to get attention.

[TahitiNut]

2. More Kabuki

It's not Howdy Doodoo who'll decide ... it's Powell. It may depend on how well Powell and Armitage are able to deal with the de facto Presidency of Cheney and the de facto Fuhrer of Foreign Enforcement Rumsfeld. Powell is window dressing - a lawn jockey, as Belafonte so aptly noted. The State Department is merely a decorative anachronism in the Busholini Regime.

[ewagner]

3. Kabuki

:toast:.....most apt description

btw...what is the genisis of this story...is it possible that the Armitage/Powell meeting is a woodshed session?

[TahitiNut]

7. Any 'meeting' with Howdy Doodoo

... has one or more of three purposes: (1) training him, (2) providing his narcissistic supply, or (3) stagecraft (don't look behind that curtain!). I find it more interesting to see names of the players in such "meetings's" (the puppet is just furniture) and to look at what Cheney and Rumsfeld are doing at the same time. In the 'stagecraft' category, think misdirection. Cheney operates in near complete secrecy.

[realFedUp]

4. Armitage will suffer two extra hours of clearing brush...

for WH leak to WP.

[PurityOfEssence]

5. Tom and Pugsley out at the woodshed

Maybe even they can't stomach the conquest frenzy.

[kainah]

6. This meeting was supposed to be in secret

Is it possible that Armitage leaked this so they couldn't be fired?? If he and Powell were scheduled for this quiet meeting, did they fear they were about to get dumped? And so, by leaking this, they made it pretty near impossible for * to fire them????? hmmmmm........

[rocktivity]

9. You could be on to something, Kainah

I woke up the morning to news that Powell and his wife had decided he'd step down after 2005. I get to the office to read that the White House is denying it. And now this meeting? Too much of a coincidence!


rocknation

[LauraK]

11. Seems as though they survived.

No smoke from Texas yet.

[legin]

8. My worry

I can remember seeing Clinton on the TV talking about elections and complaining that when they came around he had to spend his time dealing with election business and did not have time to do his real job of being President.

This one month holiday of bush*'s strikes me as an oppotunity to throw off the grind of day to day Presidential decisions, to give him the oppotunity to 'think' strategically. I've seen it reported that the decision to invade Iraq was made last year on his 'holiday'.

My worry is that he is going to cook something nasty again this year.

I good guide to working out what he is cooking would be to monitor who are the people that go down to visit him on his ranch.

I would be a lot happier if it was campaign staff visiting him as opposed to foreign affaires specialists.

[karlschneider]

10. But who's the chaperone?

I can't believe KKKarl would let Dumbunnypants alone in the same room with those 2......
:eyes:

[belab13]

12. powell

needs to cut bait and run for president. and be true to his principles. it will never happen.