The Performer: Bush's Credibility Now Rests on Her Shoulders

[kskiska]

By ELISABETH BUMILLER

WASHINGTON — It has become a political cliché of Washington to say that Condoleezza Rice's upbringing at the hands of ambitious parents who pushed her to excel - as a concert pianist, a competitive ice skater and a young girl tutored in Spanish and French - created a woman who has lived on stage for most of her life.

It is not a cliché to say that on Thursday, when Ms. Rice publicly testifies to the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks, she will have to turn in a show-stopping performance as the woman on whose shoulders the credibility of the Bush administration now rests.

Ms. Rice, President Bush's national security adviser, was last week's media-figure-on-the-hot-seat, her scowling face glaring out from the front pages of newspapers and the cover of Time. Her celebrity came not just from her boss's initial refusal to allow her to testify, but from the reality that emerged from the statements to the commission of other senior Bush officials: Ms. Rice is the gatekeeper between the president and the entire counterterrorism policy of his administration.

(snip)

Ms. Rice, who spends most weekends with the president and first lady at Camp David, as well as long periods of time at the Bush ranch in Texas, first got to know then-Governor Bush as his foreign policy tutor during the 2000 campaign. In contrast to her public demeanor of the past week, Ms. Rice is irreverent in private, and Mr. Bush warmed to her as a woman who could explain the world to him in cogent bites.

(snip)

Ms. Rice's critics say she has spent so much time being the president's friend and adviser that she lost sight of a critical element of her job: to manage the administration's foreign policy. Commission members are certain to question her about her management style, and how attentive she really was to Mr. Clarke's pre-9/11 warnings about the possibility of a catastrophic terrorist attack.

more…
http://nytimes.com/2004/04/04/weekinreview/04bumi.html?pagewanted=2

[punpirate]

1. She loves George and the boys....

She'll defend `em, and it's up to the commission to poke holes in her testimony. If a few commissioners do that, she's toast, because she simply can't lie well.

She should have listened to J.C. Watt's father a long time ago....

[aquart]

2. A concert pianist AND a competitive skater?

Those are each full-time occupations, requiring endless practice.

My god, is she still that desperate for daddy's approval?

[KittyWampus]

3. Weird How Screwed Up Some Folks Can Make The World

because of their own personality problems.

[kskiska]

4. Apparently, she wasn't good enough at either.

You know what they say, "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach," and Woody Allen's addition, "Those who can't teach, teach gym."

[virgdem]

13. I have heard the expression as: "Those who can do, those who can't teach,

and those who can't teach administrate."

I once blasted a Vice Principal of an elementary school who was unbelievably full of himself, with that line. Boy, did that feel good.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

25. Both my parents were teachers and they were pretty damn good...

...at what they did for a living. Dad was also a football coach and was able to send close to one hundred kids to colleges across the country on athletic scholarships during his 55 year coaching career. Mom eventually became head of the English department head at her middle school before she retired.

Most teachers "do", and they do it out of love of what they "do", which is more than I can say for most people that I've met over the years. Teachers sure as heck aren't paid even close to the amount of money to provide the excellent educational foundation for the kids and their parents that never seem to be grateful for their efforts.

If I had been the vice principal you abused in such a manner, I would have been convinced that you were a flaming ass. And I bet he felt REALLY good thinking that as you left his office.

[priller]

26. Both my parents are teachers also

And that cliche, "those who can't do, teach" is pretty awful. It may be true for some small percentage, but most people who teach do it, like you said, because they love to teach and they love making a difference in young people's lives.

[PartyPooper]

7. Just another cliche: "A Jack (or Jill) of all trades, a master of none."

*sigh*

:eyes:

[arikara]

17. She just puts me in mind of that old Johnny Cash tune "A Boy Named Sue"

Her name. It just strikes me as odd that if her parents were so ambitious on her behalf that they hung a moniker on her like Condoleezza.

It obviously hasn't held her back, I wonder if it was meant to toughen her up, like that boy named Sue?

[w4rma]

5. Sometimes I wonder if Bush and Condi may be having an affair.

He seems closer to Condi than to his window-dressing wife, imho.

[R Hickey]

19. Maybe she should be called Monica Rice

Bush and Monica Rice spend more time alone together than Bush and Laura.

[Piperay]

21. I think so too...

if not a physical one than an emotional one, Pickles is the odd woman out.

[susu369]

22. They are "fond" of each other

http://www.guardian.co.uk/september11/story/0,11209,1178312,00.html

--snip--
The Bush family repays the loyalty of its acolytes. "She's very fond of the president, and he's very fond of her," said a senior Republican who knows her well.

--snip--

Very curious, IMHO.

I also agree with Sharon in post below that Condo-lies-a-lot is not a confident, forceful speaker. Yes, she "speaks in paragraphs" that sound okay at the time but then you ask yourself, "Wait a minute...what did she just mean by that?" Often her message is not clear.

[Joanne98]

24. Bingo.

We need to discuss that more. Look at the way they act together. He's always touching her and she's always looking at him with those "eyes". Just because he's a racist doesn't mean he's not fucking her. Look at Strom Thurmond. The woman who filed that rape lawsuit against Bush, the one who killed herself (hint,hint) a couple of months ago, she was black. The racist slave masters are always doing the slaves. Yup, they're definitely doing it. I'm convinced. I bet Laura knows too. She's probably glad to get off the hook. It must be hard for a librarian to have sex with a retard who doesn't read. If the dems on the committee were smart they've ask her when she's under oath. She'd lie but it would show. CONDI LIED ABOUT SEX UNDER OATH. Just what they deserve. It won't happen though. The Dems are to nice. grrrrrrrrrrrrr

[goforit]

27. Yep, he always acts differently around her than Laura.

And I bet ya that Karen Hughes is just jealous!!!

[SquireJons]

30. How could he resist her?

Condi is the ultimate taboo. He's a blue blood WASP who fancies himself a southerner... for him, what's better than having "n!%%er in the woodpile?" (to quote Billy Carter)

I don't know if he's actually screwing his own National Security Adviser, but I'll bet he thinks about it all the time. And they're certainly screwing the rest of us.

[SoDesuKa]

6. Patronizing Article

I found this Times article patronizing and offensive. My, how well she's doing. Why, she talks in whole paragraphs at a time! Her parents would be so proud of her.

[unblock]

HIS credibility rests on HER shoulders??

interesting how HIS credibility doesn't seem to rest on HIS own shoulders.

but then, what would anyone expect from the pass-the-buck administration?

[unblock]

8. HIS credibility rests on HER shoulders??

interesting how HIS credibility doesn't seem to rest on HIS own shoulders.

but then, what would anyone expect from the pass-the-buck administration?

[Eye and Monkey]

11. I don't think that point will be missed by everyone who reads the headline

Many, yes.

[Rex]

9. She won't be able to take the heat.

nt

[goforit]

28. Well, It depends on whether the PANEL has "balls" to ask.

One, I would like to know is....

Who's ya Daddy?

[Voltaire99]

10. She's gotta have it

Condi's just the kind of African American that the establishment has always wished to groom: obsequious, deferential, and glad to be of use. Momma of an oil tanker and pinstriped money-maker to the fattest cats, she's been the perfect beard for the Cheneys, Rumsfelds, Wolfowitzes, Perles, and Sharons who run U.S. foreign policy.

Now through the sheer delusion and depravity of neo-conservative thought, the house of cards is coming down. And yet it's on the shoulders of brave Condi that "the credibility of the Bush administration" rests?

Ha, ha! Talk about being made the fall girl!

[SharonAnn]

12. She's actually not a good speaker and she usually sounds

scared. Not a good trait for establishing credibility.

Her manner is stiff, distant and she looks and sounds like she's terrified of getting a bad grade. At times her voice sounds so strained that its pitch gets higher and higher.

She does not project confidence, competence, or someone who's comfortable with her resonsibilities.

[Eye and Monkey]

15. We can bet that she won't be doing her NSA job for the next six days.

For the next five of them, she'll be drilling her responses to the "take-home test" questions already supplied to her.

[daleo]

14. This doesn't sound healthy

"Ms. Rice, who spends most weekends with the president and first lady at Camp David, as well as long periods of time at the Bush ranch in Texas, first got to know then-Governor Bush as his foreign policy tutor during the 2000 campaign."

I wonder what right wingers would have made of Clinton having a female cabinet member doing sleepovers most weekends.

[arikara]

16. She isn't much of a tutor.

...first got to know then-Governor Bush as his foreign policy tutor during the 2000 campaign...

[moondust]

18. No way to save Bush's* credibility.

No matter what she says.

[anarchy1999]

20. One word - SICK -

n/t

Okay, wait, sick relationship also.

[Toots]

23. "her job: to manage the administration's foreign policy."

Silly me I thought her job was to advise on National Security not manage the Administration's foreign policy. I always thought foreign policy was the realm of the State Dept. No wonder these jokers don't have a clue as to what the hell they are doing. They don't know what their own job descriptions are.

[SquireJons]

29. How right you are...

And this kind of misinformation never gets questioned in the main stream press.