WP:Falling on His Sword (Colin Powell)

[cal04]

Colin Powell's most significant moment turned out to be his lowest

ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2004, eight days after the president he served was elected to a second term, Secretary of State Colin Powell received a telephone call from the White House at his State Department office. The caller was not President Bush but Chief of Staff Andrew Card, and he got right to the point.

"The president would like to make a change," Card said, using a time-honored formulation that avoided the words "resign" or "fire." He noted briskly that there had been some discussion of having Powell remain until after Iraqi elections scheduled for the end of January, but that the president had decided to take care of all Cabinet changes sooner rather than later. Bush wanted Powell's resignation letter dated two days hence, on Friday, November 12, Card said, although the White House expected him to stay at the State Department until his successor was confirmed by the Senate.

(snip)
"We've really got to make the case" against Hussein, Bush told Powell in an Oval Office meeting in late January, "and I want you to make it." Only Powell had the "credibility to do this," Bush said. "Maybe they'll believe you." It was a direct order from his commander in chief, and it never occurred to Powell to question it.

(snip)
In addition to proving the charges against Iraq, Wilkerson believed, they had to protect Powell's integrity against those within the administration who had long been out to tarnish it. There was a widespread belief among the secretary's loyal aides -- privately shared by Powell himself, although he brushed it off as meaningless political gamesmanship in conversations with them -- that both White House political adviser Karl Rove and Cheney had actively plotted to undermine him for the past three years. Powell had laughed when he described to his aides how the vice president, after a discussion of the upcoming U.N. speech, had poked him jocularly in the chest and said, "You've got high poll ratings; you can afford to lose a few points." Cheney's idea of Powell's U.N. mission, Wilkerson thought, was to "go up there and sell it, and we'll have moved forward a peg or two. Fall on your damn sword and kill yourself, and I'll be happy, too."




http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/27/AR2006092700106.html

[acmavm]

1. The name Powell and the word integrity in the same sentence. That just

gave me a case of intellectual whiplash.

And then to go on and imply that he had any. What a joke.

[ThoughtCriminal]

2. Fell on his sword for Bush instead of his country

Can't respect that.

[MADem]

3. The big finish is rather creepy!!!!!

A village IS missing an idiot!!!

When Powell saw the January 13 appointment on his calendar, his staff told him they assumed it was a goodbye photo opportunity with Bush. They suggested that perhaps he should bring his family.

"We've got a houseful of pictures," Powell replied dryly. Was he supposed to talk to the president? Or was the president supposed to talk to him?...He didn't have to say anything, he was told. It was just a "farewell call."

As the meeting approached, the White House -- which had scheduled it in the first place -- inexplicably called the State Department to ask for "talking points" ....The appointed time found Powell already in the Oval Office for a routine meeting; when it concluded, he lingered as the others left. As Powell later remembered it, Bush seemed puzzled and called after his departing chief of staff, "Where you going, Andy?"

"Mr. President, I think this is supposed to be our farewell call," Powell prompted.

"Is that why Condi ain't here?" he recalled the president asking.

[driver8]

4. "Maybe they'll believe you."

That one sentence says a lot.

[LoKnLoD]

5. Interesting read

thanks for sharing.....kinda shows how much Cheney was pushing this war. Hmmm..wonder why. Oh yeah Hailburton. :sarcasm:

[bhikkhu]

6. A coward's death

In more ways than one. He sold el diablo's agenda to the UN, knowing it was false, and sealed the fate of countless innocent thousands. Powell's a man with a great deal of work to do before he finds any understanding or sympathy here.