Word: rumsfeld
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...issues, the U.S. antagonized not just potential adversaries but also friends. Those friends saw the man they had assumed would be their partner appear marginalized. Even when they liked what Powell said, audiences at home and abroad have been regularly forced to ask what did Cheney say, what did Rumsfeld think, where did Rice stand. In an interdependent world, where the U.S. relies on others to shoulder peacekeeping burdens too risky for the American public to stomach, or to assist in the smooth workings of the global economy, this degree of confusion has made little sense...
...Bush Jr. put together something very different. He never imagined a team so moderate. He made his dad's conservative Defense Secretary his Vice President and put Don Rumsfeld, the hard-liner who taught Cheney how to do it, in the Pentagon. Into the White House he brought the impressive but fairly narrow Sovietologist Condoleezza Rice. She looked like a moderate but has steadily morphed to the right. Powell, by contrast, edged toward the center after leaving the Army, if not on goals at least on the diplomatic means...
...That has made Powell chum in the water for the sharks in Dubya's sea. Thanks to Cheney and Rumsfeld, a generation of players with a well-honed ideology give the team a distinct hard-nosed tilt. When a friend asked Paul Wolfowitz, who is one of them, why he took the managerial No. 2 slot at Defense, he gave a one-word answer "Powell"?though Wolfowitz now denies it. These guys don't salute anyone, and they don't operate behind closed doors. They speak loudly, in public, and they make demands. Powell faces rivals who are interested less...
...goodly handful were thrust upon Powell's staff, and he thought it was good politics not to protest too much. A few he actively blocked, like a Rumsfeld protEgE pushed for ambassador to NATO. Others languish in confirmation limbo. But some made it inside, and stir up trouble for him, like Star Warrior John Bolton in the powerful position of Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. Powell insists he had a "free hand" to pick from nominations. "Where we had a meeting of the minds, and the person and I looked like we could work together...
...general-hero could be too much his own man. He was outraged when Powell's 25-minute speech accepting his job rarely mentioned Bush in a substantive way. Cheney installed himself as overseer of defense and foreign policy portfolios, and sits in on the weekly lunches held by Rice, Rumsfeld and Powell. Lately his health and domestic issues have pulled Cheney back some. Despite his unilateralist outlook, White House aides say, the President still sees Cheney as an "honest broker," without the institutional agenda of Powell or Rumsfeld, which earns him a higher level of trust. Bush is said...