Half bake-d
An excerpt from Bob Woodward’s “State of Denial” has then Chief of Staff, Andrew Card repeatedly pressing President Bush to fire Donald Rumsfeld and replace him with former Secretary of State, James Baker
Card was also hearing from members of the old foreign policy establishment connected to the president’s father — the Gray Beards, he called them — who were complaining more and more. “Who’s going to do the job?” the president asked Card. Card again mentioned Baker. “How do we get Roger Clemens back into the game?” Card asked, comparing Baker to one of the all-time great pitchers, who had retired from baseball only to come back for another year with his hometown team. “He can still pitch,” Card said about Baker.
Baker’s mention in the book could hardly have been more positive if he’d written it himself. And it appears that he’s parlayed that publicity into more for himself, as the NY Times more recently reported
According to White House officials and commission members, Mr. Baker has been talking to President Bush and his national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, on a regular basis. Those colleagues say he is unlikely to issue suggestions that the president has not tacitly approved in advance. “He’s a very loyal Republican, and you won’t see him go against Bush,” said a colleague of Mr. Baker, who asked not to be identified because the study group is keeping a low profile before it formally issues recommendations. “But he feels that the yearning for some responsible way out which would not damage American interests is palpable, and the frustration level is exceedingly high.” At 76, Mr. Baker still enjoys a reputation as one of Washington’s craftiest bureaucratic operators and as a trusted adviser of the Bush family, which has enlisted his help for some of its deepest crises, including the second President Bush’s effort to win the vote recount in Florida after the 2000 presidential election. Mr. Baker served as White House chief of staff, as well as secretary of state under the first President Bush.
I don’t know exactly what it is about James Baker that makes the pulses of Washington types quicken and their hearts go all aflutter. No doubt part of it is that he is a crafty operator. He knew how to flatter reporters with juicy bits of information (or disinformation) in order to get them to do his bidding. (He was particularly good in stoking Thomas Friedman’s extensive ego, especially when it was necessary to bring Israel down a notch or two.) I don’t know if Baker’s idea for Iraq are good or bad. I do have my suspicions. His conventional wisdom is not much different from the conventional wisdom espoused by the inside the beltway savants who believe that war in Iraq was bad from the start. I am confident though that if Baker’s return to the limelight is for real does not bode well for Israel. Baker’s extensive record regarding Israel is discussed here. It’s clear that he believes that the central cause of instability in the Middle East are Jewish settlements. How getting Jews out of French will reverse Sunni-Shia enmity is one of those conundrums that foreign policy types never bother to explain.
Crossposted on Israpundit and Soccer Dad. Technorati tags: James A. Baker, Israel.
