Wilkerson op-ed piece in today's LA Times

For those of you who didn't participate in the Red Eye diary and thread, it was announced that Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell's former chief of staff while Secretary of State, has an op-ed piece in this morning's Los Angeles Times.

Here's a link to that op-ed piece, which is guaranteed to delight and amaze you:
The White House cabal .

I think that the op-ed piece goes beyond the speech Wilkerson delivered last week, but you'll have to make up your own minds about that.  I quote my favorite sentences from the end of the piece below the fold.

The administration's performance during its first four years would have been even worse without Powell's damage control. At least once a week, it seemed, Powell trooped over to the Oval Office and cleaned all the dog poop off the carpet. He held a youthful, inexperienced president's hand. He told him everything would be all right because he, the secretary of State, would fix it....

Today, we have a president whose approval rating is 38% and a vice president who speaks only to Rush Limbaugh and assembled military forces. We have a secretary of Defense presiding over the death-by-a-thousand-cuts of our overstretched armed forces (no surprise to ignored dissenters such as former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki or former Army Secretary Thomas White).

It's a disaster. Given the choice, I'd choose a frustrating bureaucracy over an efficient cabal every time.

•  Ahem...a little tip jar

  There are longer excerpts posted in the Red Eye diary and thread.  Also, you'll find a link there to the Stanford Daily article on the TWO HOUR speech Joe Wilson gave there last night.

  Well, it's early.  Here's a link to that article:
  http://www.stanforddaily.com/tempo?page=content&id=18286&repository=0001_article .

  by JTML on Tue Oct 25, 2005 at 03:57:16 AM PDT

•  Now, if we just could get some Democrats

  to stand up and admit their mistakes about their war vote and go on the attack against this "cabal",then the public will finally start to get it!!!!  Until well-known public figures(i.e. Congress people) start pointing what we all know, the MSM is not going to get the story out.

  by Phil S 33 on Tue Oct 25, 2005 at 04:39:02 AM PDT

  •  The Nation calls for expanded investigation

    Here's a link to the call from The Nation for Fitz to broaden his investigation:
    Fitzgerald Must Broaden Investigation .

    by JTML on Tue Oct 25, 2005 at 07:18:49 AM PDT

•  He speaks the truth

  I'm so tired of conservatives asking why we dislike GWB so much.  THIS is why.  The country has been damaged and is being damaged every day by the anti-democratic and incompetent cabal.

  by Pellice on Tue Oct 25, 2005 at 04:50:07 AM PDT

•  Great diary

  Please fix the link to the la times url.

  < a href = " " > Link < / a >

  Use the above code.  Just eliminate all the spaces except the one between "a href"

  Like so:  Link

  Thanks.

  by Steven D on Tue Oct 25, 2005 at 05:09:17 AM PDT

  •  Sorry

    I like using the entire URL.  Sometimes it does get a bit long, though.

    by JTML on Tue Oct 25, 2005 at 07:02:13 AM PDT

•  Wilkerson

  Brave man.  Striking, and disturbing image of Powell coming to the Oval Office every week to clean up the dog poop.  Perhaps Congress should enact the same "pooper scooper" law in effect in NYC: when your dog takes a crap, you have to pick it up yourself.

  by litigatormom on Tue Oct 25, 2005 at 05:14:28 AM PDT

•  Don't forget to read the LA Times'

  scathing editorial opposite the op-ed piece!

  A glimpse of the language:

  "But according to numerous dissenter accounts, the Bush commissars strove not only to stifle competing policy proposals but also nettlesome facts and analysis that did not support the administration's ideological proclivities. Those whose loyalty was deemed suspect were reportedly isolated or pushed out.

  In such a Soviet-style atmosphere of political correctness, is it any wonder that the bureaucracies under Bush began to tailor their reports to what they knew their masters wanted to hear?"

  by dmmteacher on Tue Oct 25, 2005 at 05:17:36 AM PDT

  •  wow!

    That says it all!

    by erik in grayslake on Tue Oct 25, 2005 at 05:45:22 AM PDT

  •  Link to the editorial

    I posted this diary before I picked up my copy of the LA Times.  Here, now, is a link to the editorial:
    Bush regime like commissars .

    by JTML on Tue Oct 25, 2005 at 07:07:51 AM PDT

•  the beginning

  I hope his stepping out serves a reminder to many other people who could also go public with their concerns and experiences in the administration.  

  Maybe indictments will help encourage people in CIA, State, Defense, etc. to speak up and add their voice to the media chorus.

  by lizah on Tue Oct 25, 2005 at 05:17:50 AM PDT

•  There's nobody left to be an adult

  Insulated in his self-perpetuating "bubble" Bush has NOBODY left to serve as a "reality check."

  ALL past Presidents had at least ONE person who could stand up and be straight - say "You're wrong."  or "This is nuts."  Bush has nobody left to remotely fill this role in his second term - and had a limited amount of it in his first term.

  Scary.... very scary....  a President who CONSCIOUSLY isolates himself from the media, from ANY expression of dissent - be it protestors outside the White House or private comments in the Oval Office.  When EVERYTHING is screened and staged, how "in touch" could this President POSSIBLY be?

  Is this HIS desire?  or the result of a staff who - fearing his temper - makes sure there's nothing to anger him?  

  Either way, giving someone what they want and NEVER saying "no" is a recipe for disaster - with a 3 year old or a National Leader.

  by xrepub on Tue Oct 25, 2005 at 07:11:05 AM PDT

•  "dog poop"

  Wow, not mincing words. I only wish it was a bit longer.

  by subtropolis on Tue Oct 25, 2005 at 08:20:09 AM PDT

  •  Last night, The Daily Show

    showed tape of part of Wilkerson's speech last week.  There were a few nice shots, like Wilkerson calling Douglas Feith the "dumbest" person he'd ever met.

    by JTML on Thu Oct 27, 2005 at 06:11:20 PM PDT

•  The whole this is so reminiscent of

  ... the Kremlin.

  Pre fall of the USSA.

  oops..... you know what I meant.

  by jpwillis on Tue Oct 25, 2005 at 08:22:03 AM PDT