Even Ascendant, Condi is Still Ineffectual

From this week’s Time magazine cover story: Although the secretary of state has persuaded Bush to give diplomacy a go in the fight against radical Islam, Rice “has yet to pull off any major diplomatic breakthrough that could burnish the Bush legacy.”

Time magazine:

The practical costs of the last plank of the Bush Doctrine–unilateralism–may have finally persuaded the Administration to jettison that too. This move is being led by Rice, who is emerging as Bush’s most visible and intimate adviser. “The President is more willing to listen to arguments in favor of utilizing diplomacy as a tool to fight radical Islam when it comes from her, because he trusts her totally,” says a presidential adviser. Rice appears to have won some internal arguments–such as getting Bush to offer conditional direct talks to Iran and calling for the closure of Gitmo–but she has yet to pull off any major diplomatic breakthrough that could burnish the Bush legacy. And neoconservative allies of Bush blast Rice for pursuing diplomacy for its own sake. “When you are bereft of options, you pursue process and call it progress,” says Danielle Pletka, a vice president of the American Enterprise Institute.

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