Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal: A Weblog: The President Speaks of His Secretary of State (Things Have Been Worse Department)

September 10, 2004

The President Speaks of His Secretary of State (Things Have Been Worse Department)

A president on his secretary of state:

"That man.... I know not in what form his next insidious actions will appear. But as the attempts to... weaken the government are now become so open; and the desire of placing the affairs of this country under the influence and control of a foreign nation [i.e., France] is so apparent and strong, it is hardly to be expected that a resort to covert means to effect these objects will be longer [delayed]."

George W. Bush talking about Colin Powell? No! When was George W. Bush ever so articulate?

It is George Washington talking about Thomas Jefferson.

Posted by DeLong at September 10, 2004 05:32 PM | TrackBack

Comments

No doubt things have been worse. It is the trends that are worrisome.

Posted by: theCoach at September 10, 2004 05:48 PM

There, do you see why he lost his temper in cabinet meetings, swore, and stomped on his hat? Poor man.

Posted by: jm at September 10, 2004 05:48 PM

I doubt GWB knows what 'insidious' means. Then again, to be fair, insidious he's not.

Apropos G. Washington: the combination of Jefferson, the British, Congress, and those terrble dentures he had must have given new meaning to the concept of "headache" in an age before good oral pain killers.

Posted by: clio at September 10, 2004 07:05 PM

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/10/opinion/10krugman.html?hp

Question from Paul Krugman's article:

"Paul Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman, says there's a 75 percent chance of a financial crisis in the next five years."

When Paul Volker speaks of a high chance of a financial crisis, what might set off such a crisis and where are we most vulnerable? Is the issue all public and private debt?

Posted by: anne at September 10, 2004 07:51 PM

In Washington's defense, he was willing to put aside that personal animosity. Soliciting the Madison/Hamilton debate over implied powers, for example, should be a model for any executive.

Posted by: JR at September 11, 2004 06:20 AM

Brad, Sorry but things today are much worse. Case in point? Check this out

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/230663p-198121c.html

Pardon his French!

Colin Powell
U.K. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw
Did Secretary of State Colin Powell tell his British counterpart two years ago that the U.S. government's three top hawks were "f--g crazies"?

Respected Brit journalist James Naughtie reports that in private talks with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw before the war in Iraq, a deeply frustrated Powell used just those words to describe Vice President Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Powell's chief rivals in the Bush administration.

Yesterday, Powell - through a spokeswoman - predictably denied Naughtie's account, which appears in a new book, "The Accidental American: Tony Blair and the Presidency."

"This is nonsense," Powell said. "I never said anything like that to Jack, nor him to me. Anyone who says I did is wrong."

Likewise, after fevered consultations between the State Department and the Foreign Office Wednesday night and yesterday, a British official E-mailed me: "These allegations are without foundation. Secretary Powell has never used these words to the Foreign Secretary."

But Naughtie - a well-known BBC radio personality whose contacts in the British government are deep and wide - refused to back off.

"I did not use these words lightly," he told me yesterday. "I had information which convinced me utterly that they had been used. Whatever the statements issued from the two offices concerned, I stand by the quote."

Naughtie declined to discuss his sources, but he is known to enjoy a longstanding close relationship with Straw, who teamed with Powell in the United Nations in a foiled attempt to prevent military action in Iraq.

The politically embarrassing quote comes at an especially bad time for Powell, who has publicly tried to show loyalty to President Bush in the heat of the reelection campaign.

But privately, according to numerous press accounts, Powell opposed the timing of the war against Saddam Hussein and has since lamented its cost in money and lives.

Powell's spokeswoman, Emily Miller, dismissed Naughtie's account: "Someone's just trying to sell a book."

Question, why doesn't Powell break his silence? If he does not, he deserves everything Harry Belafonte said about him.

Posted by: llamajockey at September 11, 2004 08:06 AM