Politics: Worst Thought Ever

The Washington Post drops the bomb that SecState Colin Powell and his deputy Richard Armitage would probably step down if Bush won a second term. Of course, sources close to Powell emphasize that this is not a ballot on Bush's policies, but merely a promise Powell made to his wife.

I won't take the time here to write another impassioned digression about how every morning Colin Powell, if he still has a heart in his chest, must spend the first hours of the day scraping up the tiny little fragmented shards of his self-respect and dignity. Nor will I mention how this life-time soldier must cry himself to sleep each night thinking about the hundreds of American lives lost for an unnecessary war he sold to the American people and the world for his greedy, disgusting masters in the White House.

Instead, I will jump right to the most harrowing possibility, outlined by Glenn Kessler in the Post piece, about who could succeed Powell, Armitage, and other gaps in the national security architecture.

First this scary bit:

Rice and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz are the leading candidates to replace Powell, according to sources inside and outside the administration. Rice appears to have an edge because of her closeness to the president, though it is unclear whether she would be interested in running the State Department's vast bureaucracy.

Then this:

Bush recently named Rice as his personal representative on the Middle East conflict, a move that some State Department officials view as an audition for secretary of state. Republican political operatives have also touted Rice as a possible candidate in the 2006 race for California governor.

But Rice's image has been tarnished by the fallout over the administration's use of intelligence about Iraq's weapons, raising questions about her scrutiny of the materials and the veracity of her public statements.

Rice "is an honest, fabulous person, and America is lucky to have her service, period," Bush said at a news conference before departing for his August vacation.

Wolfowitz, the administration's foreign policy intellectual and prime advocate of a confrontation with Iraq, would be a more daring and controversial choice. A senior Senate Democrat said Wolfowitz would have little trouble winning confirmation in a Republican-controlled Senate. But others said that because Wolfowitz is considered more of a strategic thinker than a manager, he could be tapped as Rice's replacement as national security adviser if she became secretary of state or entered politics.

Then these two eye-poppers:

Another dark horse is former House speaker Newt Gingrich. The Georgia Republican appears to be openly campaigning for the job, arguing in speeches and in a recent Foreign Policy magazine article that the State Department under Powell has failed to adequately support Bush's policies.
[snip]
Officials also said another strong candidate is I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's chief of staff and already a principal foreign policy adviser inside the White House.

A dark-horse candidate for national security adviser is Steve Biegun, chief foreign affairs aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), who is said to have impressed Bush when he served as executive secretary of the National Security Council early on in the administration.

Goodbye, awkward tension between the State Department and the White House. Hello, monolithic, rabid-hawk, kill 'em all foreign policy.