Hold The Rice
It's not that Bush has been two-timing Condi (the second shot, from the NATO-Russian Council meeting last April). It's just that the French, led by Foreign Minister Kouchner, happened to be on the job -- and on the scene (above, in Gori yesterday) -- on the third day of the Georgian War, while the Secretary was still on vacation.
(image 1: AFP/Getty Images. Gori. August 11, 2008. image 2: AFP/Getty Images. NATO-Russia Council meeting at the Parliament in Bucharest. April 4, 2008)
It's always better when the neocons are on vacation... if Condi had flown in and been diplomatizing, Tbilisi would be in ruins, the oil pipelines destroyed along their entire length, and probably she'd have dragged Turkey into it somehow.
Posted by: mjfgates | Aug 12, 2008 at 12:37 PM
From the LA Times article regarding Rice's trip to Georgia in July.
Evidently something was lost in translation. According to Saakashvili, Secretary Rice encouraged him to "-dress up like a giant rib-eye and taunt the bear."
Posted by: ratfood | Aug 12, 2008 at 01:34 PM
Well the Russian's are Condi's expertise. When her vacation is over she will jump right in there and clean up the mess. Yeah Right!!!!!
Posted by: KansasKowboy | Aug 12, 2008 at 02:52 PM
Look at Bush in the lower picture, trying to appear nonchalantly engaged. But they're speaking either German, French, or English--and he doesn't understand any of them.
Posted by: Porter Wayfare | Aug 13, 2008 at 08:00 AM
The upshot is she got several new pairs of boots; the downside is she's being sent by Dumbya as his proxy empty suit, to publicly seem to be concerned about an issue he couldn't get Putin to acquiesce to.
Funny how being a lame duck President can kow-tow to the wishes of China, but can't seem to find a means of persuading a 'soulful' Putin not to put down a revolt on his doorstep.
The likes of McBush bravely suggesting that America should intervene in a regional conflict which at its core is an illegal invasion of a sovereign state is beyond farcical.
Posted by: jrfunkenstein | Aug 13, 2008 at 10:23 AM
As history shows why interefere with a good vacation after all W never bother to cut short his 'Crawford vacation' back in August 2001 when the presential breifing included the now famous bin laden wants to fly planes into the WTC
Posted by: Tom | Aug 13, 2008 at 11:42 AM
What is the point of having a Secty of State who is a Russian "expert" if she knows nothing about Russia?
Au contraire, mjfgates, it's when they DO go on vacation that all the disasters happen. Where was Bush during Katrina? Where was Condi during Katrina? Where was McCain during Katrina? Where was Bush on 9/11? Where was Darth on 9/11?
And don't you just love that it was the French that jumped right in and brokered the cease-fire? Freedom fries, indeed!
Posted by: Cactus | Aug 13, 2008 at 08:12 PM
Rice looks so....reptilian. It's erie.
Posted by: LanceThruster | Aug 19, 2008 at 10:05 PM