Condoleezza Rice | The New York Observer

Rolling Stone Closes Book on Bush Era With Fart Jokes

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:48:54 -0500

In the new issue of Rolling Stone, National Magazine Award winner and onetime Observer 'Power Punk' Matt Taibbi offers a little bit of George W. Bush fan fiction in the form of a fake interview headlined Bush Apologizes: The Farewell Interview We Wish He'd Give.

Subheadlined "W. comes clean—on his dad, Condi's farts and the time Dick waterboarded the house boy," the piece is the sort of prankish, juvenile, utterly bogus Q&A that...

Bono Writing for Times' Editorial Pages Next Year

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 09:50:43 -0400

That's what Times op-ed editor Andy Rosenthal told a Columbia j-school class last night, Radaronline.com's Ben Chapman reports.

The U2 frontman will write between "six and ten" columns next year, and he's doing it ... pro bono.

Other Rosenthal dish from last night:

He admires the work of The Atlantic's Megan McArdle and The National Review's Byron York"Condoleezza Rice is a particularly bad op-ed writer."Tom Wolfe writes too...

The Wizard of W.

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:13:00 -0400

On the night of Monday, October 13, Oliver Stone was being chauffeured around downtown Manhattan, looking for the dinner party he was running late for, and talking about what the subject of his new film, W., has in common with the Wizard of Oz. Connecting W., which examines and chronicles the life of George W. Bush leading up to and including his presidency, to the 1939 Judy Garland flying-monkeys extravaganza might not seem all...

Wow! Mr. Diane Lane Makes a Wonderful W.

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 13:18:35 -0400

W.
Running time 131 minutes
Written by Stanley Weiser
Directed by Oliver Stone
Starring Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Banks, Richard Dreyfuss, Jeffrey Wright

Oliver Stone’s W., from a screenplay by Stanley Weiser, arrives at a strange time in our nation’s history, when even Iraq and Afghanistan have been pushed off the front pages and away from the TV talking heads by our current doomsday financial crisis. Of...

Schumer, Kerry, McCaskill Want Rice to Intervene in Iraq Oil Deals

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:54:56 -0400

Earlier today the Bush administration made clear they don't intend to intervene in the negotiations between the Iraqi government and several large oil companies.

Chuck Schumer, along with Claire McCaskill and John Kerry, responded quickly with a letter to Condoleezza Rice asking her to prevent the deals from going forward until there is an oil-revenue sharing law.

Both Schumer and Kerry are on the Senate Finance Committee; Kerry and McCaskill are both surrogates for Barack...

McCain-Rice Gets a Little More Real

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 23:06:51 -0400

Sort of like the idle Colin Powell rumors that swirled before the 1996 and 2000 Republican conventions, we’ve been forced this campaign cycle to endure months of sporadic chatter about Condoleezza Rice’s supposed candidacy for the number two spot on the G.O.P. ticket.

Except that the speculation may have just taken a twist that the Powell talk never did: There’s suddenly reason to believe there might be something to it.

The twist was provided by, of...

Clinton Office: Her Passport File Was Breached, Too

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 12:08:35 -0400

This statement just came in from Hillary Clinton's Senate office:This morning, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice contacted Senator Clinton in order to inform her that the Senator's passport file was breached in 2007. The State Department will be briefing Senator Clinton's staff this afternoon to provide details about the recent unauthorized breaches of passport records. Senator Clinton will closely monitor the State Department's investigation into this and the other breaches of private...

A False Choice Between Human Rights and Security

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:07:48 -0500

The most important question asked at last week’s Democratic debate in Las Vegas did not create much of a stir. It set off no pyrotechnics between Senator Hillary Clinton and her rivals, caused no tsunami in the blogosphere, incited no pundits to new heights of hyperbole.

It did, however, cut to the heart of how the party’s presidential candidates see the world and America’s place in it.

CNN moderator Wolf Blitzer...

Bush Clutches at a Middle East Legacy, But Too Late

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 15:25:46 -0400

One can hardly blame the Bush administration for wanting to change the subject when it comes to foreign policy.

Iraq remains bloody and chaotic, the security situation in Afghanistan is rocky and efforts to stabilize Pakistan by pushing Pervez Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto into a pact are at risk of unraveling.

Casting around for some way to chalk up an international success, the White House has of late turned its...

The Morning Read: Friday, December 22, 2006

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 03:46:01 -0500

Hevesi: toast. It should be quite a scene this morning. First phrase of Fred Dicker's story: "Sealing his political doom..." A lot of people want his job. His temporary replacement may be Jack Chartier, Peggy Lipton's friend. Times' editorial page on Hevesi's replacement: "This choice should be about credentials, not patronage." What's Rohatyn up to? The Times Union has big scoop on the Joe Bruno story: a source says the Feds are investigating him for mail fraud and money laundering....

Q Poll: Most Powerful Woman

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 05:55:29 -0500

In today's Quinnipiac poll, 45 percent of voters said Condoleezza Rice is the most powerful woman in the country. That's compared to 29 percent who said the same thing about Hillary Clinton, and 23 percent who said it about Nancy Pelosi. Regardless of who voters support in a presidential race, 56-41percent said Hillary is qualified to be president. Not directly related, but also interesting:

"American voters oppose by 52 - 45 percent laws allowing same-sex couples...

(At Last?) Bush Puts Israel/Palestine on Front Burner

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 05:45:40 -0400

An important piece in the Forward this week suggests that Bush is at last going to do something about Israel/Palestine so as to try and redeem his failed policies in the Middle East and restore American legitimacy in the world. The Forward quotes Philip Zelikow, an assistant to Condoleezza Rice, speaking at the pro-Israel thinktank, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy: Zelikow said that the Europeans and the moderate Arabs are America's most...

The 'Times' Asserts Kiddie Porn Viewing Rights

Fri, 01 Sep 2006 07:51:33 -0400

How scary must the New York Times legal department be when Salon is forced to run a second and much-expanded correction to a story they've already corrected and removed from their site? The crux of the correction, regarding a piece by Debbie Nathan on Kurt Eichenwald's internet-child-porn reporting, is an amplification of the right of the Times—and of you!—, as per federal law, to inadvertently view kiddie porn. (Here we come a-trolling, XTube.com!) Even though...

The State of Engel

Tue, 01 Aug 2006 10:08:12 -0400

With Condoleezza Rice pressing for a cease-fire and a particularly high weekly toll in civilian casualties, we asked Congressman Eliot Engel -- one of the more vocal politicians urging strong support for Israel's actions on "the frontline of terror" -- whether his attitude had evolved at all since the beginning of hostilities. Here was Engel's emailed reponse to our question: "I believe there should be a cease-fire but only after it can be guaranteed that...

Security Rudy Trumps Gay Rights Rudy

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 08:26:58 -0400

More evidence that Rudy Giuliani's liberal social positions are either a) unimportant to the national Republican base or b) unknown to them. A new Gallup poll finds that "only three candidates would be acceptable to a majority of Republicans." The are, in order: Giuliani with 73%, Condoleezza Rice with 68% and John McCain with 55%. Read the whole summary here. -- Josh...

Condoleezza Rice's Blind Ambition

Wed, 21 Jun 2006 08:18:02 -0400

Right now, the first line of Condoleezza Rice's resume is that as national security adviser, she drank the neocon Kool-Aid and spouted bad intelligence leading to the Iraq war. Interviewed by PBS's Frontline for the on-line documentation of its "Dark Side" documentary, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell's former chief of staff, tries to explain Rice's failure: We had a one-word description of the National Security Council... and that one word was "dysfunctional" .... I asked...

How George Bush Can Save His "Legacy" by Cashiering Cheney

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 05:25:25 -0400

Few would disagree that George Bush is the worst president since—at least—Herbert Hoover. Bill Clinton will have a roll of historical toilet paper trailing off his heel wherever he goes, thanks to his bad judgment in the Paula Jones case, but George Bush is forever manacled in history's dank dungeon by his bad judgment on Iraq. Herewith, a Hail Mary play for Bush 43. The other night, Charlie Rose asked Tim Russert who Bush...

Neocon Gotterdamerung?

Thu, 01 Jun 2006 11:38:54 -0400

Is Condi Rice's warm-and-fuzzy opening to Iran, after President Ahmedinejad's man-to-man letter to President Bush, a signal of a sharply soft turn in an Administration desperate to shore up public trust, not just in Europe but in the U.S.A.? I think so. The Secretary of State came off as lovely, thoughtful and transparent in interviews on two network shows last night, the News Hour then Hardball. ( Would that her predecessor had been...

[em]Times[/em]' Stolberg Takes White House Beat

Thu, 06 Apr 2006 15:12:08 -0400

New York Times Congressional reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg will be moving to cover the White House, filling the paper's last vacancy on that beat. Stolberg will be taking the spot currently held by Elisabeth Bumiller, who is scheduled to go out on book leave in June to spend a year writing a biography of Condoleezza Rice. "I’m honored the Times thought of me," Stolberg said by phone April 6. "I think I have big...

Bright Shapes, Crisp Contours: A Painter Plays Hide and Seek

Sun, 06 Nov 2005 19:00:00 -0500

The 11 paintings by Shirley Jaffe on display at Tibor de Nagy Gallery make for the finest exhibition of contemporary art I’ve seen since—well, since last week. That two of our finest painters, Ms. Jaffe and Helen Miranda Wilson, are having concurrent shows is an exceptionally lucky coincidence. That they also happen to be exhibiting in the same building—Ms. Wilson’s pictures are down the stairs at the DC Moore Gallery—is not only serendipitous but...

Blog Roundup: Rudy and Freddy

Mon, 29 Aug 2005 08:20:00 -0400

A couple of blog observations worth repeating: Over at Alarming News, Karol offers a reality check on Rudy and the blogosphere's other 2008 darlings, Condi Rice and Wes Clark. It's the usual story: too liberal, too many marriages. We'll see. And one of the died-in-the-wool liberals at the Daily Gotham is bummed by a couple of Freddy's ads on black radio: "Frankly, I don't care about his past and I don't feel like I need to know...

MISTER Livingstone, I presume?

Thu, 14 Jul 2005 08:49:00 -0400

As of this week, the New York Times is operating under a new stylebook rule: "Dr." is for doctors who are doctoring--not philosophizing, and certainly not running the Senate. Dr. should be used in all references for physicians or dentists whose practice is their primary current occupation, or who work in a closely related field, like medical writing, research or pharmaceutical manufacturing: Dr. Alex E. Baranek; Dr. Baranek; the doctor. (Those who practice only incidentally,...

Read About 2008 and 2009 Now

Tue, 26 Apr 2005 07:08:00 -0400

For those of us who can't wait for 2008 and 2009, we offer two items for your reading enjoyment: a novel based on a Hillary-Condoleeza 2008 race, and a 2-page spread on Bill Thompson's presumptive mayoral run in 2009. The main characters of "The Color of Demons"(!), due out May 1, are "modeled on Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice." According to the authors, brothers David and Nathan Martin, "Few things excite the hearts and minds...

Politics Prevails Again In Rice's Appointment

Sun, 21 Nov 2004 19:00:00 -0500

Until the very moment when the White House announced Colin Powell's resignation by "mutual" agreement, worried friends of the United States around the world hoped that the Secretary of State would somehow linger to argue for a realistic, multilateral foreign policy. Those friends knew that Mr. Powell was ineffectual in making those arguments more often than not, and they regarded him as sadly discredited by his participation in the fakery that led to the...

Clueless Bush Distorts Kerry’s ‘Global Test’

Sun, 10 Oct 2004 20:00:00 -0400

With Republicans up to and including the President blatantly distorting what John Kerry said about defending America during the first Presidential debate, let’s review the Democratic nominee’s remarks again so that there can be no mistake. It is important not only to understand what Mr. Kerry said, but also why George W. Bush and his supporters insist on misrepresenting him.

"What is your position on the whole concept of preemptive war?" asked Jim Lehrer, the...

Brent Scowcroft Calls Iraq War 'overreaction'

Sun, 05 Sep 2004 20:00:00 -0400

On Aug. 30, as Republicans gathered in New York to celebrate their "war President," retired Lt.-Gen. Brent Scowcroft sat with a reporter in his Washington office, giving his analysis of the direction of his party's foreign policy, weighing in on Iraq, Iran and the rest of the world, and lobbing a few rhetorical mortar shells in the direction of the White House, which is located just a few blocks away from his office.

"Look, I'm...

Vigilant Widows Wait For Condi With Suspicion

Sun, 11 Apr 2004 20:00:00 -0400

On the evening of April 5, the television was buzzing with wall-to-wall coverage of the 9/11 commission hearings and the ongoing violence in Iraq. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice (nicknamed the "warrior princess" by White House staff) was scheduled to testify under oath to the commission on April 8, the culmination of a long journey for the Bush administration. Initially rejecting the idea of forming the commission, the White House finally allowed it, even...

Tough Questions For Condi Rice

Sun, 04 Apr 2004 20:00:00 -0400

Condoleezza Rice has told everyone willing to listen that she wishes for nothing more than the opportunity to testify in public before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. (The President's national security adviser didn't say whether she was eager to subject herself to the penalties of perjury, as the co-chairmen of the 9/11 commission insisted.) Now the White House has announced that her desire to testify will be satisfied in...

To Show Loyalty, Rice Lies for Bush

Sun, 20 Jul 2003 20:00:00 -0400

According to contemporary political lore, the Bush clan exalts loyalty above every other virtue. Other politicians envy that inviolable code, whose power is reflected in the absence of leaks from the White House, in the lockstep obedience of politicians in Congress and around the country, and in the enormous cash donations from hundreds of wealthy "friends." This is how dynasties are built to endure.

But at the highest level, in the inner councils, such feudal...

Bush's Nutty Friends Should Scare Naderites

Sun, 22 Oct 2000 20:00:00 -0400

To those who insist they see no difference whether George W. Bush or Al Gore becomes the next President, recent headlines have offered a few more reasons to sober up.

The cliché that the malleable Mr. Bush will be guided by more sensible (or sentient) advisers, for example, is turning out to be yet another fashionable Washington stupidity. Thanks to such seasoned tutors as Condoleezza Rice, the former fraternity president has already disrupted American relationships...