or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
September 30, 2006
It's Really Uncanny How Christopher Hitchens Manages To Be Right About Absolutely Everything
Fukuyama's essay betrays a secret academic wish to be living in "normal" times once more, times that will "restore the authority of foreign policy 'realists' in the tradition of Henry Kissinger." Fat chance, Francis! Kissinger is moribund...
TCR: Let's talk about your journey, if you will, on the Iraq question, which has a lot to do with the Kurdish struggle and your support for it.HITCHENS: ...If you wanted to see a Kurdish person go from relative composure to peeing green, the easiest way to do it is to mention the name Kissinger.
From Bob Woodward's new book State of Denial:
A powerful, largely invisible influence on Bush's Iraq policy was former secretary of state Kissinger.Posted at September 30, 2006 11:15 AM | TrackBack"Of the outside people that I talk to in this job," Vice President Cheney told me in the summer of 2005, "I probably talk to Henry Kissinger more than I talk to anybody else. He just comes by and, I guess at least once a month, Scooter and I sit down with him." (Scooter is I. Lewis Libby, then Cheney's chief of staff.)
The president met privately with Kissinger every couple of months, making him the most regular and frequent outside adviser to Bush on foreign affairs...
Victory had to be the goal, he told all... Don't give an inch, or else the media, the Congress and the American culture of avoiding hardship will walk you back.
I find it very reassuring that the foreign policy svengali whose brilliance has played out so well for so many decades still has the time and strength to guide our callow but well-meaning preznit.
Posted by: J. Alva Scruggs at September 30, 2006 12:46 PMMaybe invading Cambodia again would help. When things are looking bad, escalate.
Posted by: Lloyd at September 30, 2006 05:31 PMFirst thought: oh crap; I guess this means the secret bombings of Iran have already begun. I guess it's too pollyanna to hope that he's advising a "Nixon to China" strategy with Iran.
Second thought: Kissinger stuck around the Ford administration even after Nixon resigned. What, exactly, is ol' Henry advising Cheney on? How to cover your butt when your Prez goes down with the ship? Kissinger was also a master of the bureaucratic version of realpolitik.
Posted by: Whistler Blue at October 2, 2006 01:11 PMI still find it hard to believe that a guy (HTK--Henry The K, not Headline To Come) who's been in this country since 1938 keeps a Germanic accent--one which seems to get only more pronounced (pun intended) with age.
It's always seemed to me that it's merely a pompous pedantic affectation. Now more than ever.
FWIW.
bw
Posted by: Bill at October 3, 2006 06:40 PMBill, that's what we call strangelove-itis.
Posted by: almostinfamous at October 6, 2006 05:15 AM
