Old Fish New Wrapper

[grassfed]

Obama is said to have chosen Dennis Ross, Richard Holbrooke and Richard Haass as his envoys re Iran, Afghanistan/Pakistan, and Israel/Palestine respectively.

"You can put lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig. You can wrap up an old fish in a piece of paper and call it change. It's still going to stink after eight years. We've had enough." Barack Obama

[greguganus]

1. Wasn't he talking about Hillary when he said that? n/t

[FrenchieCat]

2. Did those people serve in the Bush Administration?

Because as I read the quote, it appears that the administration prior to Bush wasn't necessarily Fish to begin with. In fact, those guys were pretty effective to a great degree back in the days.

And I don't believe that none of those listed, and also Hillary Clinton could be described as old fish.

[Donnachaidh]

3. The hypocrisy is absolutely AMAZING

Professional blogger suddenly thinks the Clinton administration is OKEY-DOKE. Of course, that's only because Obama is loading his administration with hand-me-downs. :eyes:

That CHANGE really is jingling in somebody's pocket.

[FrenchieCat]

8. For the thousands of people that worked in a Clinton administration

I'll speak up!

To believe that anyone associated with the Clinton administration
is to be blackballed, or that their past services should not even be an option is to be an idiot.

The De-Baathification of Iraq didn't work out well.
The De-Clintonization of Washington was done by Bush....and see where it got us.
Bringing back some of the only Democratic Professional Governmental folks back after 8 years,
in order to insure that the upcoming government has within its ranks experienced hands,
sounds like a decent idea considering how fucked up everything is after De-Clintonization of DC.

But of course, what makes sense doesn't fulfill the need to have something to be unhappy about.

[TreasonousBastard]

13. Ya know, you would almost think...

that Obama is coming into office with everything running so smoothly that he could afford to take a chance on some smiling little progressive kid who shows just oh, so much promise and the liberal bloggers approve of him or her, so what could possibly go wrong?

[Warpy]

10. Where else is he going to go?

The people from the Carter administration are all retired by now.

We've been cursed with too many GOP administrations. There just isn't that large a pool of seasoned talent to choose from.

Clinton's administration was disappointing domestically because of the conservatism of it. The foreign policy overall wasn't terrible, although it continued too much ridiculous policy from previous administrations.

Hand me downs from a conservative Democrat aren't an auspicious start, IMO, but consider that at least they're not hand me downs from Nixon and Reagan.

[elleng]

4. Hey, Frenchie!

(getting annoyed; please hold my hand!)

[FrenchieCat]

7. It's just some folks' writing.

These folks and their negativity want to get you down.
That is their aim.
Their misery loves company. They don't know anything else.
and if you look up their posting history,
you will find amazing consistency as to who and what they have supported on this forum.
So take it all with a grain of salt.

This is the first Dem admin we will have while the Internet is full blown,
so also keep that in mind. After 8 years of fish, folks can't seem to adjust their tastebuds.

Most importantly, remember that Obama will be judged by his results in the end,
by most reasonable progressive souls.
And also since Obama is not perfect and never said he was,
realize the irony in those who now act like he should be perfect,
yet are the same ones that keeps saying that he isn't.
Go figure that.

[elleng]

9. THANKS!!!!

.

[grassfed]

5. For Middle East Peace, Dennis Ross is Not the Change We Seek

Daniel Kurtzer, also an Obama adviser, has written that American and Arab negotiators saw Ross as biased and not "an honest broker." One Arab negotiator said, "The perception always was that Dennis started from the Israeli bottom line, that he listened to what Israel wanted and then tried to sell it to the Arabs." Aaron David Miller, who also served on the U.S. team, has written that under Clinton U.S. negotiators acted as "Israel's lawyer," rather than focusing on what would enable both sides to reach agreement.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/for-middle-east-peace-den_b_143888.html

[grassfed]

6. How Dennis Ross Proved the Palestinians Aborted the Peace Process - Finkelstein

This article, excerpted from a longer essay deconstructing Dennis Ross's book on the Palestinian-Israeli peace process from 1993 to 2000, focuses on the Camp David summit. In particular, it examines the assumptions informing Ross's account of what happened during the negotiations and why, and the distortions that spring from these assumptions. The article demonstrates that, judged from the perspective of Palestinians' and Israelis' respective rights under international law, all the concessions at Camp David came from the Palestinian side, none from the Israeli side. In reflecting on Ross's narrative, the author explores what he considers its "main innovation": the subordination of the normative framework of rights to the arbitrary and capricious one of "needs."

http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=11&ar=989

[TheKentuckian]

11. Somehow I missed the promise of change from the long established ME policy regarding Israel

Nobody promised it and those that were asking for it didn't do so in numbers or very loudly.

The only change you should expect in this area is more effort to act as a peace partner rather than ignoring the whole situation. think Clinton or at the most Carter but there is zero reason to expect some kind of massive shift in this area.

[Jane Austin]

12. Richard Holbrooke

did a phenomenal job in the former Yugoslavia, as I remember.

It seemed like every time he was dispatched somewhere, an agreement followed.