Mike Allen writes for Time that White House aides are delighted that the U.S. television networks are sending their news anchors to Amman, “ensuring massive coverage of an event that the White House has said is unlikely to produce any major announcement or development.”
Why? Because the White House is simply happy to have Bush in the spotlight — rather than James Baker, whose bipartisan Iraq Study Group has been garnering so much attention in Washington these past weeks.
Writes Allen: “Bush’s aides have begun to chafe at the idea that Baker is needed as some sort of savior for Iraq. Hadley made it clear that the President hopes his Jordan foray will erase any such notion. ‘It’s important, I think,’ Hadley said, ‘for the President to send the message to Prime Minister Maliki that while he is listening to all of these voices for ideas, is open to ideas, that in the end of the day to reassure Prime Minister Maliki that it is the President who will be crafting the way forward on Iraq and to reassure Prime Minister Maliki it will be done in a way that is cooperative with Iraq, rather than imposed on Iraq.’ In other words: Baker is a consultant, not calling the shots.”
In Jordan, Allen writes, Bush’s team hopes “he’ll once again show himself to be in command.” [emphasis mine]
5 thoughts on “How Did That Work Out For You Then?”
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I’m guessing Maliki didn’t get the memo?
One of my favorite movie lines from Batman Begins (delivered extremely coldly):
Didn’t you get the memo?
On their headlines, NPR was reporting the meeting had been cancelled, but it was “unclear” who had cancelled it.
I’m thinking Bush didn’t fly all the way over there just to say “Oh, you know what, forget it!”
nobody likes georgie anymore and his mom wears combat boots.
“Bush in the spotlight”? How about Bush in the bulls-eye?