Sid Blumenthal hopes General Jello may redeem himself this Fall:
Throughout the excruciating years of his slow destruction, no one served Powell less ably than Powell. To the degree that his abusers and tormentors may be haunted, he is more haunted. Powell’s aides are now on the front line of criticism against the administration, while he obviously simmers, pretending to be happily retired. He travels the country delivering motivational speeches, a theater of make-believe, as though he were the same Colin Powell as before Bush.
While he preaches his secrets of success, he can see the neoconservative architects of failure in Iraq who demonized him distributed among the leading Republican candidates for president. There is not one among them who does not boast neocon dominance of his foreign policy circle. Powell’s absence cedes the political terrain to those who ousted him from office. Notwithstanding his tarnished reputation, he has a final chance to regain his dignity and at least some of his previous standing by stepping forward at the crucial hour. Does he accept his marginalization as permanent?
He is Banquo’s ghost, but will he make an appearance at Bush’s banquet?
We doubt. General Jello reached his evolutionary peak as a bureaucratic apparatchik – he never reached phylum chordata. He constitutionally is unable to enter the political fray with meaningful impact. Lacking a spine, he can not risk engagement.
Eveything that IS Powell would collapse into nothingness. To pull out the knife himself in public and take on the Administration and the apparat? And risk retaliation? Sid goes on to ask a litany of whys which litter the Jello-man’s career. All of which in aggregate demonstrate General Jello to be a most ineffective Banquo’s ghost, should he even make his typically feeble effort. Arching an eyebrow means squat. 2 news cycles at most.
A fearsome ghost? More like the hapless sheet-wearing stooge in a Scooby Do episode.
[Update]:Here’s some of the the Neocon/Republican candidate foreign policy advisor rosters re Sid’s column as best as we can determine — please by all means help fill in the blanks.
(a) Rudy
(i) Stormin’ Norman Podhoretz
(ii) Charles Hill, former Schultz aide
(iii) Martin Kramer, Olin fellow at Haahvahd and Washington Institute for Near East Policy
(b) McCain
(i) Woolsey
(ii) Randy Scheunemann, President, Committee to Liberate Iraq, Iraqi Advisor to Rumsfeld, former PNAC Board Member
(iii) Robert Kagan
(c) Team Mitt
(i) Dan Senor
(ii) Cofer Black, Vice Chair, Blackwater nee Agency
(iii) Matt Rees, speachwriter for Bush NSC and later Weekly Standard
(iv) Vin Weber, former BFF of Newt’s
(d) Fred
(i) Mark Esper, former EVP Aerospace Association, former dep. ass’t sec. defense for Warlord
(ii) John Shin, former Bush Cheney campaign staffer, oddly still part of Scowcroft Group
(iii) Liz Cheney
Comment says
Stephen Hayes on c-span this morning w/ Brian Lamb pulling the transparent “Even O’Hanlon and Pollack…” stunt.
Alex says
That’s remarkable; literally each contender has acquired one advisor whose advice anyone rational would pay good money to avoid. (Rudy: Norman “Not crazy-like-a-fox, crazy like a crazy fox” Podhoretz, McCain: “Resume Ralph” Scheunemann, Mitt: Dan “We’re listening to the silent majority” Senor, Fred: Liz “need we say more” Cheney) You could have put them together and formed a negative excellence ticket; on reflection, that would be the current lot, no?