E.J. Dionne: All-knowing administration should try listening to critics

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

WASHINGTON — It's not clear anymore that there is a plausible way to turn the Bush administration's disastrous policy in Iraq into anything that would look remotely like success.

That's why the conventional wisdom among policy-makers reached a tipping point over the last month. Until very recently, the widely accepted view was that the United States would have to "see through" the commitment President Bush made. Now, very thoughtful people — including moderates, conservatives and foreign-policy realists — are discussing how to get the United States out of Iraq sooner rather than later, at the lowest possible cost to our own standing in the world and to Iraqis.

This view is being taken seriously because of the incoherence of the administration's approach and its arrogance in dealing with its critics. If you think that word "arrogance" is too strong, consider the statement Vice President Cheney issued through a spokesman over the weekend: that "Don Rumsfeld is the best secretary of defense the United States has ever had," and that "people ought to get off his case and let him do his job."

Let's see. A couple of congressional committees get roughly a half day each to ask Rumsfeld about one the most appalling moral disasters in our military's history at the Abu Ghraib prison, and now they should shut up. Cheney knows Rumsfeld is the best. That should be enough.

This was too much for South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a conservative Republican. Last week's Senate hearing, Graham said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," was not about "being on Secretary Rumsfeld's back. ... The Congress has an independent duty to find out what happened in that prison. It affects us all."

-more-

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2001925994_dionne12.html

[NMDemDist2]

1. great article

esp the last paragraph-- the Bush admin in imploding hehehe

<snip> "Robert Kagan and William Kristol, two of the war's strongest supporters, write in the current issue of the conservative Weekly Standard that "if the administration does not take dramatic action now, it may be unable to avoid failure." If Kagan and Kristol are that worried, the rest of us should be petrified. Most likely, Cheney will just tell Kagan and Kristol to get off Bush's case.

[sundancekid]

2. the current misadministration takes "can't handle the truth" to ...

a whole new place, and it is mighty ugly ...:puke: