Washington Monthly Magazine/"A Higher Power" (re: James Baker)

[Penndems]

James Baker puts Bush's Iraq policy into rehab.

By Robert Dreyfuss

Amid the highly charged political infighting in Washington over what to do in Iraq, you might be excused for not noticing that a bipartisan commission quietly started work last spring with a mandate to help the Bush administration rethink its policy toward the war. Of course, anything labeled "bipartisan commission" seems almost guaranteed to be ignored by a highly partisan White House that is notoriously hostile to outside advice and famously devoted to "staying the course." But what makes this particular commission hard to dismiss is that it is led by perhaps the one man who might be able to break through the tight phalanx of senior officials who advise the president and filter his information. That person is the former secretary of state, Republican insider, and consigliere of the Bush family, James A. Baker III.

Since March, Baker, backed by a team of experienced national-security hands, has been busily at work trying to devise a fresh set of policies to help the president chart a new course in--or, perhaps, to get the hell out of--Iraq. But as with all things involving James Baker, there's a deeper political agenda at work as well. "Baker is primarily motivated by his desire to avoid a war at home--that things will fall apart not on the battlefield but at home. So he wants a ceasefire in American politics," a member of one of the commission's working groups told me. Specifically, he said, if the Democrats win back one or both houses of Congress in November, they would unleash a series of investigative hearings on Iraq, the war on terrorism, and civil liberties that could fatally weaken the administration and remove the last props of political support for the war, setting the stage for a potential Republican electoral disaster in 2008. "I guess there are people in the party, on the Hill and in the White House, who see a political train wreck coming, and they've called in Baker to try to reroute the train."

The fact that Baker is involved has sent the Washington rumor mill buzzing with the theory that the commission is really a Trojan Horse for the views of Baker's friend and former boss, George H.W. Bush. It has been widely speculated that the former president never agreed with his son's decision to invade Iraq, and the son appears to have repaid that perceived dissent by largely refusing to reach out to his father for advice on national security, despite the elder Bush's knowledge and experience. In any case, for reasons that may be Oedipal or that may have to do with neoconservatives' disdain for realists associated with Bush 41, or both, Bush 43 has so far kept the 41 circle at arm's length--including Baker; his confrere Brent Scowcroft; and even, during his ill-fated tenure as secretary of state, Colin Powell. But with the situation in Iraq sliding towards irretrievable chaos, a moment of receptivity may have arrived.

It's hard to know what the commission is really up to because its inner workings are nearly as secretive as those of the White House. Baker has imposed an ironclad gag order on all of its participants. The 60 people involved in the effort have been instructed, in the strongest of terms, not to comment to reporters on the task force's work. Every one of the participants I spoke to flatly refused to comment for the record, and several did not want to talk even off the record. Some were palpably nervous. "We're not allowed to talk about it," said one person involved. "We get about every month a warning: 'Do not discuss in any context the substance of what is happening in this group.' You know how bad it is? Initially they wanted us to end all of our contacts with the media, make no statements, write no op-eds--in other words, become monks. Then they realized, how can you take the entire community of Iraq experts in the United States and have them all stop talking?"

Link:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2006/0609.dreyfuss.html
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A lengthy, but informative and excellent, piece.

[cspanlovr]

1. Thanks for the post. can't read it now, but will later.

[Penndems]

2. It's an excellent piece that does require time to digest

n/t

[havocmom]

3. .

... for later when I have the time it deserves

[grytpype]

4. A very important piece, everyone should read.

This "Study Group" of Baker's is Daddy Bush's attempt to help Junior get out of Iraq with his skin. It was announced in March, and the White House was against it at first but then they said, whatever.

But I think events in Iraq are moving too fast, and there will be total collapse before Baker can get his recommendations out for a bipartisan fig leaf.

[Penndems]

6. Baker is attempting to pull Junior's fat out of the fire, and take the

Iraq War off the table as a campaign issue in the 2008 Presidential race. He'll do anything to save the Republican Party and the Bush family any humiliation and embarrassment.

The fact that he imposed a gag order on the commission isn't the least bit surprising. He did the exact same thing at the State Department. Anybody who discussed anything about Baker's foreign policy stratagem, or criticized him or his cronies could expect to have a character assassination run against them or have their careers destroyed.

The man is a first-rate bastard. One would think the unfortunate death of his grandson would've humanized him somewhat but, unfortunately, that's wishful thinking.






(edited for additional text)

[grytpype]

7. Junior is destroying everything GHWB and Baker worked for.

They wanted a permanent Repug majority, and it looks like Junior effed it up big time.

It will be another generation before America trusts the Repugs to run anything.

[librechik]

5. Dreyfuss rules! Saw him on Cspan book tv last week

His book, Devil's Game, is about how the US created and encouraged radical Islamic fundamentalists.

excellent!