Fearing Chaos, U.S. Officials Review Stance on Pakistan
By DAVID E. SANGER and DAVID ROHDE
Published: October 21, 2007
WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 — The scenes of carnage in Pakistan this week conjured what one senior administration official on Friday called “the nightmare scenario” for President Bush’s last 15 months in office: Political meltdown in the one country where Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and nuclear weapons are all in play.
Franky, Pakistan will rise to the fore with this Administration only when it can be framed as a direct threat to Realm. Contra the claim of a future, ill-defined rogue Iranian missile threat to Europe, the collapse of political order/Al-Qaeda’s access to an existing, tangible, here today nuclear weapon via Pakistan has always been a more substantial clear and present danger to U.S. and European interests.
An emerging Pakistani/Al-Qaeda threat makes the reports coming out of NATO and Europe of the latest Administration bid to gain at least Russian non-opposition to our BMD boondoggle in the Czech Republic and Poland all the more interesting.
U.S. officials said the offer to Russia contained three main elements:
First, the antimissile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic would be deployed on the basis of threat. The United States and Russia would jointly decide the nature of the threat.
“Our missile defense program is threat-based,” said [assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, Daniel] Fried. “If that threat went away, or more realistically was greatly attenuated then obviously we would be much freer to make programmatic adjustments. Our program with the Poles and Czechs is threat-based.
“Russia is interested in this idea,” said Fried. “It has concerns about Iran, too. This could be a beginning in defining together the threats.”
The second element would involve Russian plans to build its own shield in Gabala, Azerbaijan, which Putin announced in July at a G-8 summit meeting in Germany in response to the U.S plan. Obering said “this could be linked up to the U.S. plan through sharing data.”
“By being able to share data across those networks, even at the very preliminary level, to be able to cut radars and that type of thing, you get increased capability,” Obering said. “Then, if you actually tie it to where you could get a radar data all the way through from one U.S radar, for example, or a European radar into the Russian system and vice versa, that’s when you start getting this expansion of capability.”
Third, Russia would also be able to monitor what the U.S. was doing in Poland and the Czech Republic, provided both countries agreed. The plan is that Russia could send liaison officers to these countries. “We said we would be in a position to offer things with respect to our own facilities and command and control elements,” Fried said.
The linkage of the shield debate to other issues represents a big change by the Bush administration which, until now, has had a splintered policy toward Russia over Iran, Kosovo and arms negotiations.
Even with State Department public face, the unusual coherence of this proposal clearly reflects Gates’ experience within the American policy making elite from the old arms control days. Gates understands the Russian/Soviet preference for intellectual coherence and discipline. He alluded to that in his recent speech at a Soviet/Russian military academy. Despite her putative expertise on things Soviet, one can only imagine the Russian bafflement at Condi’s outpouring of ineffectual, shatter shot chirpings.
The American offer we suspect still will in the end likley fail. Why? The entire effort is all about something else — installing an American tripwire further East and finding an outlet for billions of expenditures. We’ve written about the American motivations and regional reactions here. Sure, it’s nice to see an American diplomatic proposal featuring unexpected finesse; should the Russians reject the proposal, European qualms about proceeding notwithstanding are reduced.
The whole thing remains surreal given Pakistani instability with actual nuclear warheads versus some future hypothetical fear mongering over Iran. Sensible analysis of the situation might well conclude that the best response would be base the interceptors and radars in Turkey and Japan, supplemented by boost-phase tracking and possible intercept by AEGIS naval assets. And none of these will mean squat should Al-Qaeda merely put a Pakistani warhead in a truck.
An instructive lesson for us all on how modern day defense industrial economics intertwine with rigid policy fascinations and the spill-over into the real world. Rummy created the new Missle Defense Agency to give the whole BMD effort (and budget) some heft — despite the dubious technical underpinnings. But wasn’t just Rummy.
When we casually asked Cambone what he felt was the single most important transformational program then underway — this was during the war — of course without blinking he said “ballistic missile defense”. He met Rummy running the BMD Commission. He owed his position (and later Fall) to that BMD connection. But on September 11th, remember Cher Condi was slated to give a speech at SAIS. Her topic? BMD. Hadley et al. remain fixated. They all have it on the brain to an extent.
Billions continue to flow; jobs and lobbying are locked in. The technical viability still murky.
To show for it all, we now have holes in the ground in Alaska. These may be the most expensive working/non-working holes ever dug. And we want to dig more holes in Poland (the Czechs only will take the radars and turned down the interceptors). The money has to go somewhere.
The Poles? They really don’t care if they work — although that would be nice. Their requirement? Only that Americans man these holes and die should the Russians come West again.
One could be pardoned for thinking “It’s a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham.”
Indeed that “what’s prosciutto” anecdote does sound fake – or partly contrived. Maybe not – it’s possible that someone said that. But for a variety of reasons (we could elaborate later) it sounds made up – The whole article sometimes seems like pondersous and roundabout way to attack the medicore Scheuer. Indeed, he has several attack pieces against Scheuer and it is puzzling because Scheuer did seem underwhelming – Liberals quoted him for a few news cycles but as he sort of revealed himself (Scheuer) seemed like a much less smart version of Buchnanan – but without the wit. So why is Schoenfeld so threatned by him? He also goes after Fallows in a misleading way – Fallows, it must be said, seems a heck of a lot brighter than Scheuer
Also – the Sov ‘diplomat’ in the above post is right our of central casting
Doc, you have been eloquent illuminating the Agency’s shortfalls and the weaknesses of Scheuer et al – Here Schoenfeld concurs and more – But putting aside his bias – read his essay – Depsite some good points – take note of his page one anecdote about Italian restaurant with the officer who supposedly said, “What’s prosciutto?”
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm?id=9866&search=1
We’ll speculate that may be a fake anecdote or something was adjusted beyond recognition – First of all -it’s too perfect and it is hard to imagine an Intel officer, no matter who weak in the mind, admitting such ignorance even if he was so ignorant.
OK – this is the last point about the Plame-Weiss debate – Above noted that Johnson seemed hot tempered as a personality and that seems strange, in the professional context. Maybe not – but maybe – Now Johnson is blogging that Plame was tortured and that she can’t talk about. But should he?
“Because of a pending appeal in her freedom of speech case against the CIA, she cannot say anything about joining the CIA in September of 1985 fresh out of college. She cannot say anything about her initial impression of her Career Trainee classmates–such as Jim Marcinkowski, Brent Cavan, Mike “the Griz” Grimaldi, Precious Flower, and mois. She is proscribed from telling you about wandering the forests of Camp Peary learning land navigation and she certainly will not, at least for now, be able to tell you about being taken hostage and subjected to torture for two days.”
As far as BMD goes, I’m rather keen on the Naval/Aegis ship options; I’m told ASTER/PAAMS is even more capable in that line. It has the advantage that a European capability is thinkable; a sort of defensive “MLF”.
I would have thought that if reassuring the Poles meant all that much, moving two brigades from V Corps there would be cheaper and more robust; NATO uses a huge 3rd Shock Army live-fire training area there already.
I’d also point out that the Plame affair is responsible for the one unequivocal kill anyone can claim against this lot.
When Joe gets together with some of the Indians and gets wasted – he starts dreaming out loud about commandering the Santa Fe railroad , becoming an Engineer on the railroad and turning it into this:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=EI6DsCrvykc
Larry King: We have Joe Wilson here tonight – live from Sante Fe – How you doing, Joe?
Joe Wilson: I’m cool Larry – How are you
LK: Where you been?
JW: Up on Dennis Jacob’s rooftop – doing some acid and writing some songs.
LK: Songs? Like Denise Rich?
JW: Yeah man.
LK: Sing us one
JW: No Larry – I’m kind of shy (Joe puts burlap over his face and ties a bow with his hemp string)
LK: Come on Joe, we all thing you are cool.
JW: (Singing) When the spying’s over – turn out the light – when the spying’s over – turn out the light …
Speaking of Harper’s – he has a piece on Romney – mostly no news – but some gems:
http://harpers.org/archive/2007/11/0081773
LOL – Speaking of the Agency – Hayden is on Charlie Rose and Charlie is really annoying him with questions about the definition of torture – No grown man can talk about ‘enhanced interrogation’ without revealing something dark. Joe Wilson’s acid trip – – flashbacks to a giant Navahoe in Baghdad – He dreams he is drowning in Niger tea.
Here’s our earlier Plame and the superior Black narrative discussion:
http://www.stiftungleostrauss.com/bunker.php?itemid=436#comments
Am looking for the thread of Joe Wilson in the hills above Santa Fe seeking his inner Indian ala Oliver Stone’s Val Kilmer/Jim M.
Agree – it’s over – we sometime trap ourselves into talking about that whole thing and the minutia etc and it’s just so grating and headache inducing. Plame was on Larry King tonight so will give her the last word. Conrad Black makes a better one man play.
re Plame
It’s all largely uninteresting to us. The Agency’s screw ups were as bad as the Administration’s spinning. (Can you say ‘Curveball’?). Its staggering failure will go down as World Historical.
Recall that parts of the Agency were actually pretty gung ho about a military solution. The 1990s demonstrated their inability to pull off a coup ala Kermit and Iran. The full scale institutional fingerpointing and open warfare between the Adminstration/EOVP and the Agency escalated only after April 2003 with no WMD. When Kay gave up in public in January 2004 that added more gasoline to the fire.
In our hyper partisan times, there is no room for narrative greys so the “Opposition” (mostly ahistorical ‘Left’) embraced the ‘good’ Agency against the ‘bad’ Administration. That’s what Firedoglake and the like saw in Scooter and the whole Plame/Wilson affair. So the Agency became ‘victim’ and ‘good’ in the need for simple black and white politics. What’s his name at Harper’s online even wrote a doubly dumb piece about the Agency versus Cheney as the Wehrmacht (the good Germans) versus the SS (the bad Germans) on the Eastern front. Idiocy. On both levels. And so on.
Let’s end the Plame discussion here. She, Wilson and the whole bloated saga are trivial and boring.
Romney is suspicious because there is no way he can be the same person who buily Bain as the person he is on the stump – Poppy had this dichotomy between his “campaign mode” and himself – But if Romney comes accross as programmed freak on the campaign, while business people, of all stripes, vouch for him in private – The difference between his seen and unseen personality is just too stark.
We didn’t catch the interview – but we turned on Money Honey and she was interviewing Julian Robertson and we think we heard him say he was endorsing Mitt – Now, we know some folks who knew Mr. Robertson a while ago and thought very highly of him. But as MH alluded – Robertson’s concerns are closer to Gore than to Romney – on policy issues. – This leads us to think Romney is running an entirely phoney campaign that consists of sop to the rustics and winks to financial community.
Just one last note about Plame and PW’s post – Plame was at her least convincing when she relayed the chronology of her learning that Bush was getting ready to lie us into war on thin (absent) evidence – Her Eureka moment was around the time of Powell’s UN speech, so she said. This is weak – because we think it must have been earlier because that division in the Agency she worked in was leaking against OVP/neocons for sometime. Did she not hear anything by the water cooler? Or was she dim? That’s a sketchy section – the VF photo shoot was a PR fiasco, but technically not too relevant. But almost everyone we know – both parties – was hep to what Bush was doing and Powell’s speech was a joke from day one.
Doctor, Bush welcomed the head of Mongolia to the WH today – Did Bush refer to Mongolians as Mongoloids? Did he call the President “Mongo?” in front of him, or just behind his back to one of his yes men.
How can the Turks trust Bush to deal with the PKK when he has sent people to meet the PKK and he has reportedly assisted the PJAK Kurds in Iran – Poor Tancredo, of limited imagination – can pretend it super duper wealthy Armenian collossas just teamed up with Nan to stab the US in the back. But it doesn’t add up.
Doctor – maybe now is not the time to tell the Turks to get the f*** out of Cyprus, but …
There is nothing new or substantial here – but this is just such a good example of the drip drip banality of the elite liberal press – The article Somerby quotes is unintentionally hilarious with the quotes of the random Upstaters on Hillary. Also, Stonecash – great name:
http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh102207.shtml
Just a point on Lazare – again we think he basically agrees with the book he is supposedly attacking – But aside from his error about the ’73 war (since Pat wrote some memos to Nixon about this , at the time – arguable Pat deserves some credit for the win, which is funny) look at his vivid language: ” …and then sent specially outfitted jets streaking across the desert to bomb Iraq’s Osirak reactor in 1981 (a feat the White House would dearly like to emulate in Iran). ”
How can a jet do anything but streak? Obviously Lazare was affected by the image himself and decides know to attribute his thought to the American military establishment. Since those planes that bombed Osirik were built by Grumman, it stands to reason that the WH would not have try too hard to emulate.
Though Osirik was a victory – in many ways, for Israel – Iraq’s nuclear program started overclocking shortly after the attack. Saddam also gained sympathy – something hard to accoplish.
Here is the Plame show:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/17/60minutes/main3378089.shtml
Broadly speaking, like many oppositionist and the Law, we sided with Plame – But if you watch this video carefully with your Neocon glasses on, you will catch spots where Plame is vulnerable to propaganda and agitprop – Steyn could have a lot of fun with Plame’s blank wall space, for instance.
Wilson’s Santa Fe look was so predictable that we even joked about it on this blog.
We think that the creation of MachtPolitik in the US will inspire a number of Creation Myths – Post modern American memes all have creation myths,
Lazare’s is just one many. For example – Bill Bennett’s conversion to conservatism, while sincere – contains creation myths about being repelled by some Ivy League snot trashing America to him – This is sort of a composite character that Bennet invented and the story has varied over the years. When Geee Dubs decided to run for Pres, he originated his ‘born again’ experience with Bill Graham, but then changed that story when Graham was exposed on the Nixon tapes making cartoonishly ignorant anti semitic comments. But as this detail has faded, Graham has reappeared as central to Gee Dubs theological insights.
We don’t think Lazare is lying – he is stitching together a tissue of truths and falsehoods and projecting a bit so as to make his critical view of Israel more acceptable to himself. There is some projecting there. He wants to be against W&M for tactical and personal reasons – Very understandable and human of him. For the record – we disagreed with a number of things in the LRB article, but we liked to see them shake things up and provide ballast.
Anyway – Lazare agrees with W&M more than he is willing to say, so he feels has to blow up this particular book/village , so as to save the viability of the ideas.
re Lazare book review of M&W in the Nation
Indeed, Nixon saved Israel in 1973. We even went on nuclear alert against the Sovs to warn them off in addition to emergency U.S. replenishment. Stopping Sharon’s later destruction of the Egyptian Army was also in Israel’s interest as it allowed the Camp David Accords. We gave Israel what it never could achieve on its own — the neutralization of Egypt and thus Israel strategic security.
Begin’s Lebanon intrusion? The Reagan Administration and the Republican Senate both opposed it. In fact, John Tower smacked Sharon down directly for his smug condescension. Israel violated agreements with the U.S. and put air-to-ground racks on the F-15s we provided. More importantly, Lebanon became Israel’s Vietnam and did more to demoralize the IDF than years of feminine American pop culture-ala-Harvey Mansfeld/Michael Medved ever could. As for the strategic backlash for Likudist notions of force against the Palestinians, again we defer to Martin van Creveld.
Finally, the idea that Republicans and Democrats after Vietnam invited AIPAC influence to install Likudist macht politik spirit in the U.S. is either sheer lunacy or the telling of a Midsized Lie.
Also as usual – Weiss did not really think thru his point – If you follow his logic, you would have an Agency that would not only have no minorities at all – Or people who come from the cultures they will soon study. PW likes to throw stuff up on his blog and see what sticks. We are not sure that he believes it all – he is trying out thoughts and experimenting with modes and ideas. Sometimes just trying to provoke.
On a pure performance level of analysis – Did ‘The Very Best Men’ work magic – aside from setting an aesthetic? Interesting , in some ways, that Desmond Fitzgerald’s daughter wrote a very pro VC book and rebelled against the establishment.
Do we really want an Intelligence agency as good as better analyticaly shops on Wall St? No – because they would consistantly provide information – of they were being honest – that would be at odds with the wishes and disires of the policyworld.
Also -going forward, think about a rising India and China and the fact that getting the best people to report on those countries means that the Agency will have to accept th fact that they will have difficulty keeping spies out and the more heavy handed they were security, the more they will turn off possible recruits – who don’t want to be bothered etc.
Joe Wilson – in his book, he comes accross as bright, but his large ego is as apparent as is his questionable prose – He should have had Sid Blumenthal ghost the book for him.
Also – while Plame was already exposed before she appeared in Vanity Fair – that distinction is lost on ‘the base’ and so her enemies had a field day with that.
Excuse the typos – especially mispelling meritocracy. Sort of an interesting mistake. LOL
“The Agency that so fascinated DeNiro et al. is long since dead.” _Mailer was discusssing this recently – He decided not to continue Harlot’s Ghost (which we though was pretty good – with flashes of excellence in parts) because the Agency ceased to be real to him – It had moved beyond good or evil and became a boring beauracracy.
That article about JJA’s daughter et al was written sometime around 73 or 74 – if we recall. But anyway – we did not think Plame came off as dim and we were looking for that. She seemed hard to catagorize – In any event, Comment knows brilliant people who went to state schools and very dim people who went to Ivy or equiv – LSE is not exactly a pure meriticracy either – We think PW is a very entertaining writer – but he projects a great deal.
re Johnson – We cannot comment on his qualities as an DO officer, but his political analysis is somewhat hot header and might suggest a temperment that can be manipulated by someone who chose to do that. He’s mad as hell and won’t take it anymore and that’s all great if your pushing merchandise or selling something to the masses – But …
We did see that 60 Min and we knew [PW] he was mixing things up and we were looking forward to your elaboration. One of the ironie of the lifestyle issues like drugs is the desire for drug free recruits counterpoised with the Agency’s drug rich history (ex: Gottlieb and acid) – Creating a two tier cultural history of the Agency at odds with itself and screwing up narrative plot lines for movie makers as a result.
Generally speaking, better minds resent having someone examine their urine or whatever for specious reasons – Even if they are clean. George Schultz mocked the idea of being polygraphed himself – but didn’t seem to suggest lower employees follow his example.
Sometime ago we were flipping thru some old NYT and we saw an article about Angleton’s daughter joining an ashram and somewhere else there was an article about one of the Boston Cabot’s discussing his Marxism, etc.
Sic Trasit Gloria Establishmentia
Missed 60 Minutes.
re that posting, he is mixing apples and hohos. Agency paramilitary such as Spann historically and typically come from the armed forces, etc. Their background will be as diverse as the services they come from. Spann, for example, came from the Marines.
Plame first as a DO officer and later as an analyst, is a different story. The Agency long ago moved away from Pale-Male-Yale recruiting. This drive for the State University crowd began under Casey — believing the State University crowd would be more receptive to CIA service and perhaps closer to the ‘heartland’ values that we have come to know and admire under this regime.
For two reasons mainly — first, the number of recruits needed in the elite schools weren’t there for ‘tapping’ anymore — the Establishment died with Vietnam. By the late 1970s, it was more or less dead.
Second, the ‘lifestyle’ issues for clearance — not only drugs, but the whole ‘enchilada’ — posed a problem. This really worried some in the Community. In fact, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, some were arguing that Castro was facilitating the drug trade to deny the Community the recruits it needed — a war at the ‘roots’. And so on. It was one thing for that generation to PUT lsd in someone’s drink, a whole other kettle of fish to TAKE it and listen to Hendrix.
(Of course, it really meant nothing in practice because once cleared, one could still stray. In the U.S. the Czechs (for Moscow) if I recall correctly with their own agents in place were able to ‘trap’ officers at Plato’s Retreat, and everyone knows now that Ames beat the box in any event. Humans will be humans). Now in 2007 the FBI, the most uptight of them all, says a little drug use among friends won’t shut down a job application.
But when Plame and Larry Johnson were recruited, such concerns about Purity of Essence were fairly strong. Re that particular web posting, it was a typical Agency move for someone they were interested in or even in fact recruited to suggest/direct them to graduate work at a decent/prestigious place, particularly if they came from a mongrel State College background.
In order to promote people or have them deal with counterparts across the Community, an advanced degree is almost always essential. A B.A. won’t cut it — it’s a career ceiling. As you saw at that post, if the degree can be colored with some prestige to overshadow the State School impramateur, even better.
Is Plame’s kilowattage dim? Wouldn’t surprise. (We’ve only seen and dealt with her and Wilson at salons and other orchestrated Imperial City events. Wilson’s unctiousness was a blight over everything). On the other hand, there are many tactical reasons why someone of that phenotype would deliberately encourage the perception. She may have even been coached to speak in such simplicities by a media coach. (The Stiftung has been through such ‘media training’ before). Her audience would not be the blogosphere/traditional media per se, but the great unwashed, watching 60 Minutes over dinner — and potential book customers.
The Agency that so fascinated DeNiro et al. is long since dead. The new levee en masse since 9/11 is just the latest dilution via cohort replacement, although the DO dwindled to almost nothing in the 1990s through retirements, particularly in the critical active demographics. What will emerge? It won’t be the Agency of old, but perhaps something new.
Lashing out at blondes – calling out elite media types for failing to serve:
http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2007/10/plames-subpar-i.html
Just one more note on the debate – We note a repeat of of a pattern – The Mitt Romney started talking about the ‘genocide’ in Darfur (something highly debatable and debated) shortly after the ritual mocking of the indisputable Armenian genocide – This has happened so often in the recent past with other pols that one suspects some sort of guilt/transference -mixed with ignorance.
If the base knew the facts about the genocide, it would be a huge cause and rallying cry – It was huge with churches when it was happening, but that is all forgotten and lost- So many people in the GOP live in fog of missing wmds and fictions of pure invasions etc.
Here is Dan Lazare in The Nation (reviewing the W&M book) explaining it all:
“If “Israel has earned the respect of the American people,” it is because the United States, devastated by its experience in Vietnam and humiliated by the embassy takeover in Tehran, watched with growing envy as Israel racked up stunning military victories in 1967 and 1973 and then sent specially outfitted jets streaking across the desert to bomb Iraq’s Osirak reactor in 1981 (a feat the White House would dearly like to emulate in Iran). The Israel Defense Forces were everything that aggressive imperial elements in Washington wanted America’s traumatized military to be. Hence, in their bipartisan struggle to overcome “the Vietnam syndrome,” the Republicans and Democrats set about remodeling themselves as overseas branches of Israel’s hawkish Likud Party. Groups like AIPAC did not grow of their own accord. Instead, the war party in Washington encouraged them to grow to help it win its battles on Capitol Hill.”
—
This seems to be a bit off – What Lazare’s says has political resonance, but if you break it apart – it falls apart on the particulars. Was not Reagan opposed to the seige of Beirut? He reportedlu lashed out at Begin – Indeed, he also condemmned Osirik. In addition Golda may be popular in the US, but she was not really a good war leader – and Nixon saved her when he was leaving Nam.
Israel has been blessed with poor enemies that have horrible governments – But this is not the basis of support with most American – That’s rooted in recent history, Bible history, and a preference for a free society over the corrupt Arab regimes.
From JPost:
Monday, October 22
The Institute for Policy & Strategy at IDC Herzliya together with the NATO Public Diplomacy Division and the Atlantic Forum of Israel will host the second NATO-Israel symposium. The event, to be conducted entirely in English, will take place October 22 and October 23. Topics on the agenda include: NATO’s role in the Mediterranean and the broader Middle East; NATO-Israel Relations and the Mediterranean Dialogue: The Road Ahead and Common Challenges; NATO’s Political and Military Transformation; and Israel’s Perceptions of NATO. The event will also mark a year since the implementation of the bilateral cooperation program between Israel and NATO. Israel is the first country from outside of the European continent to have such a program in effect. Among the scheduled speakers are NATO Deputy Secretary, Amb. Claudio Bisogniero; Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni; Deputy Minister of Defense Matan Vilnai; Opposition Leader and former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu; NATO’s Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Regional and Security Affairs Dr. Patrick Hardouin; Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz; Chair of the Atlantic Forum of Israel Prof. Uzi Arad; and many more. The symposium will begin at the Daniel Hotel, Herzliya, and continue at the IDC campus.
McCain brings up Hillary and the Woodstock museum – Cheap stunt, but you can hardly blame him with that slow-eyed crowd – But Russery went to Woodstock (took the bad acid)
Btw – Rudy is winning this debate again – Romney is just too wooden and false. His use of sarcasm – the favorit humor style of Republicans – is excellent – Pod must be smilling
Also – After a few beers at Christmas – he starts hitting on Money Honey, – forgetting due diligence and realizing he is far from her type and stands little chance – He brings up Philidelphia – asks her if she knows about Rizzo – he burps – them he is soon at a lost for words when Jack Welch comes by – “Jack!,” he yells – Then he gets back to Money Honey and brings up her wiki page and asks her about Brooklyn and gangs – wants to know if she was in a gang – Then he talks about that Broadway musical and tells her she reminds him of Rita Moreno.
That anecdote of his – drunk and bragging – is just hilarious because it’s so easy to visualize.
Tweety should trademark the word Tweety -But he would not able to do that – Getting hammered and bragging to chicks is his modus – that kind of operator (no, he does not listen – no matter what he says) can’t swollow his pride.
Duncan Hunter – out of the blue, brings up Bay of Pigs.
It’s easy to imagine Tweety discussing Bartiromo’s trademaring Money Honey with some of the guys over beers – Tweety wants their feedback – because he thinks – but is not sure – that her willingness to take a name that could be sexist, in a different context, means something – That she may be refreshingly non-pc, gritty, urban – old school Brooklyn. – By why, he wonders, do people complain when he calls women honey – He can’t figure it out – He slips and orders a beer and starts to get drunk as he exchanges girling stories with the boyos and rates all the chicks at the office. He wonders why Democrats can’t be more like Jack anymore. Someone brings up Phil Donahue – Tweety shakes his head and says Donahue was against the war in the wrong way. The clock runs on – he’s trashed.
Tweety would try and equate Bartiromo’s Brooklyn origins and subsequent success as a parallel life story to how he fought up from the ‘mean streets’ of Philadelphia to become the Colossus that he is. But it wouldn’t work and he would falter 1/2 the way into the telling of it. Because he knows she went to NYU and got a real journalism degree, she belongs to the ‘real Establishment’ in the Nation — plutocratic fianciers, not the fake D.C. cheap operatives with their off-the-rack suits. Suddenly she makes him feel small and cheap.
Bartiromo’s move to trademark Money Honey, however, would intrigue him. Tweety no doubt off air shouting to David Shuster and at home to his wife Cathleen that he MUST have something to trademark, too.
Though Tweety lacks O’reilly’s sharper mind (not always informed or reasonable though) – he probably shares some of Bill’s class consciousness – which Bill actually played up to exaggerate the way the Vassar women seemed blind to his charms when he was at a nearby Catholic college.
Though to read Mattews mind is hard – he probably was somewhat shocked and disappoined that Erin went to Williams – he was hoping Marymount or Chesnut Hill or a state college A Colleen striver, a pup Dowd.. “She is so not Williams,” he thinks. But he probably writes off Money Honey as too urban, too street for him – almost exotic. Especially after he reads her hilarious wiki bio.
Yes, a Williams grad might well see through Tweety pretty quickly, although he probably is just another horn dog hitting on her throughout the day. The Money Honey’s reaction to usurpation in that regard might also be funny to see.
In Tweety’s case, he would be the Platonic Form for all the Holy Cross or Fordham boys on a road trip who, to quote Tweety, think the way to pick up women “is be drunk and talk loudly about themselves.” Whereas now, Tweety blurts, the secret is to listen! Thank God Stewart smacked him down.
A shocker:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article2690066.ece
Consider this, too http://www.samsonblinded.org/news/muslim-world/pakistan
“Not Leonidas of the 300 Spartans, but Petraeus of the 300 million Americans. Let us praise Him, Point him out to your children and say ‘There goes a nobel man.’ Perhaps even a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. One advantage of giving David Petraeus the Nobel Peace Prize is that he has actually brought peace. And we honor peacemakers.”
~Bill Bennett (Loman/AFM)
Values Voter Summit
Erin Burnettt (along w/Cramer and Money Honey) are on Russert – and Burnett mentioned she went to Williams. It must grate all the more for her to have Tweety condescend to her and flirt with her on TV –
How about asking the Turks if we can base the radars in Western Armenia and the intereceptors in Northern Kurdistan, while moving Central Command HQ to Constantinople?
Why do the Czechs want the radars? Those are the targets.