"the wheels are now officially off this car"

[ozymandius]

from Josh Marshall -

Okay, I think the wheels are now officially off this car. The Baltimore Sun quotes Colin Powell as saying that "we kept the president informed of the concerns that were raised by the ICRC and other international organizations as part of my regular briefings of the president, and advised him that we had to follow these issues, and when we got notes sent to us or reports sent to us ... we had to respond to them, and the president certainly made it clear that that’s what he expected us to do."

Powell further said that he, Rice and Rumsfeld kept Bush “fully informed of the concerns that were being expressed, not in specific details, but in general terms.”

Not only does that contradict what the White House and the president have said. It contradicts the testimony of one of Don Rumsfeld's principal deputies from only yesterday.

more...

[molly]

1. Are we surprised? Nope....

this is the same problem he had with the memo - he was either very drunk or very high when he was "informed".

[mr_hat]

2. Wiggle room between "general" and "specific"? Scotty >

will drive a truck through that space.

[northzax]

3. we gots us a bureaocrat battle royale here

between two of the best infighters in the biz, Powell and Rummy, this could be fun!

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. I think that Rummy is about to be checkmeated by Powell

and Powell is about to bring down the full house of cards.

They gave him the opening, he took it.

:nopity: :nopity:

[northzax]

13. it's an interesting conundrum

Powell is a loyal soldier, and it must torment him to be betrayed by his superiors, but he knows his legacy was ruined by the UN speech, would he try a takedown to regain some legitimacy in the post-Bush world?

I dunno.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. I have a theory about Powell

and yuo hit part of it, he is a loyal soldier, but as a loyal
soldier he took an oath many a times to protect the Constitution
against enemies foreign and domestic.

The domestic part got tricky when he realized that his boss is
the Presient. So he had to bide his time and slow them down
as much as he could, even if falling on the hand grenade was
required....

Now they finally gave him the opening, and I suspected a virtual civil
war ongoing at that level for over three long years...

Now they finally gave him the change, the opening if yuo will, to
apply the Powell Doctrine agianst them.

Raelity is, we will never truly know... most of this shit will be
classified so deeply that our children may know whether I am
right or not... unless there is an actual honest to goodness
shooting civil war.

But Powell now has the offensive.

[FighttheFuture]

19. It's not just his speecjh, it's that inept goof of a son ...

he has to make up for!

[rkc3]

4. Will anyone..

point out the discrepancies in the comments from these upstanding gentlemen?

Also, did Rove really make the statement you have written at the bottom of your entry? If so, I'd like to know when it was said and where you got it. It's priceless.

[ozymandius]

6. More info can be found at the link.

As for the Rove quote - I found it at famousquotes.com. There's an alphabetical listing of speakers, some including the quote's context.

[RoyGBiv]

7. It's from the New Yorker, Feb 19, 2001

The Rove quote, that is.

It's also been reprinted in various publications since then.

[mike1963]

18. I tried to find it a famousquotes but there's no entry for "Rove"

???

[MallRat]

5. Is Powell FINALLY trying to take down Bush?

Stay away from small planes, Colin. :tinfoilhat:

[RobertSeattle]

9. Picture of Computer used by White House

To track all it's lies, distortions, flip flops, contradictions, exaggerations, stonewalls:

:evilgrin:



(The Earth Simulator in Yokohama, Japan, performs 35.86 trillion calculations per second...)

[Bonhomme Richard]

10. I suspect Powell is getting an earfull................

from the Officer Corp right now.

[fishnfla]

11. Sh&t Oz, you scared the crap out of me!

I thought the stock market was tanking!

Whew, just more admin. lies. Hey wait a minute, what am I saying?

[Fleshdancer]

12. so do you think they'll go after Powell's family or....

will they spread sex themed rumors about him (gay, pedophile, etc)? The Bush gang only uses these two tactics when someone does something stupid like, you know, tell the TRUTH. So I think we should just take bets.

If they make up rumors about him I think he'll just take the hits and resign. If they go after his family, I think they'll regret it. I don't know the guy, but I have a sneaking suspicion that he would open a big can of whoop ass (do people still say that?) if they dare to screw with his family.

[Bandit]

14. Put Powell under oath as well. ~ One of the two are lying

Any guesses which one it is. Frankly I think they both are LIARS and don't have a clue which one is lying in this particular case.

[Malva Zebrina]

16. Powell obviously had an epiphany

but I do not fully understand the dynamic behind this .

He willingly made a fool of himself before the UN. He has willingly assumed the role of a groveling helpmate. HE has seemed willing to be ignored by the administration never uttering a word against his master.

so now, we see this . :shrug:

Has he been having a hard time being admitted to the inner chambers of the leaders of other countries, such as when he humiliated by having to wait a half hour in order to visit with Zapatero?

[Fleshdancer]

17. HA! Al Franken is reading Powell's quote on Air America right now n/t