Kaplan on Rice as SecState

Lawrence Kaplan makes a persuasive argument in "One Way" in the New Republic that the appointment of Rice as Powell's replacement for Secretary of State will put an end to the foreign policy conflict in the Bush Administration.

The last four years has seen a feud in the Administration between the George H.W. Bush-era realists, centred around Foggy Bottom, and the neoconservatives, gathered in the Pentagon and in Vice-President Cheney's office. With Powell and, most likely, Armitage out, and with the more malleable Rice in, there will be little impediment to the neocons pursuing their agenda. Kaplan writes:

With Condoleezza Rice at the helm--and, in all likelihood, with Undersecretary of State John Bolton as her deputy--the State Department will now be run by a team known for its rigid loyalty to the president. They, more than any other administration officials, represent authentic expressions of Bush's foreign policy--more realistic than the Bush team's neoconservatives but far more aggressive than its self-described 'realists.' Rice, to be sure, is neither a great thinker nor a great manager. But she is a great lieutenant--that is, someone who can be relied on to convey and translate the president's inclinations into official policy. For his part, Bolton is all of these things, plus a fierce conservative. Between the two of them, they could well transform Foggy Bottom into something that looks more like the Pentagon--only competently run. Even if the State Department doesn't become the center of foreign policy deliberations, it certainly won't stymie them.

The State Department under Rice will become even less relevent to foreign policy than it was under Powell. Foreign policy will be run out of the Pentagon and Cheney's office from now on.