It’s taken me far too long, but I think I’m starting to understand how the right thinks about government during the Bush years. Ideas that are wrong should be implemented over and over again; ideas that are correct must be rejected immediately. People who are proven right but off-message must be removed from office, while those who are dramatic failures must be kept in place and shielded from criticism.
The latest example of the latter point came by way of Fred Barnes in this week’s Weekly Standard, who has an idea on who should replace Colin Powell as Secretary of State.
[E]fforts to improve relations with European countries, perhaps the only thing John Kerry convinced the nation that Bush must do to further American foreign policy. And all this touches on the matter of keeping good people. In national security, the indispensable person is not Secretary of State Colin Powell or Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld but Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser. To keep Rice, Bush might have to elevate her to secretary of state. He’d be smart to do it.
Rice, after all her mistakes, lies, and embarrassments is “indispensable”? Instead of firing her, Rice should be promoted?
The mind reels.