Rice Wiggles On McCain Before Tickling The Keys

ASPEN, Colo., SUNDAY, 3 August -- Two-thirds of the U.S. Secretaries of State have been women this millennium. One is talking on the stage below me speaking to a hushed crowd of about 2,000, in a tent at Aspen Institute. Her name is Madeleine Albright. She's a Democrat and served as Secretary of State in the Clinton administration.

"So I phoned Condi," Madeleine is saying, "to see if she would be an adviser to the Michael Dukakis's campaign."

Why is the crowd laughing now?

Madeleine continues, "And Condi said to me, 'I don't know how to tell you this, Madeleine, but I'm a Republican.'"

"HOW COULD YOU BE?" Madeleine says to Condi. "We had the same father."

Now the crowd really goes nuts.

I hope she explains this, I'm thinking.

It turns out that Madeleine's father, Josef Korbel, taught international studies at the University of Denver and that two of his students were, you guessed it, both Madeleine and Condi, but not at the same time. Albright told the same story in a footnote of her autobiography.

"Condi was his favorite student," she says to the crowd. "So I would like to introduce my sister now, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice."

It's old home week in Aspen for Condoleezza Rice, who attended music school one summer here as a teen. She's come back to play the piano with a quartet of music students. She's also feels at home apparently with some pretty heavyweight Democrats, too, including Albright and U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, who is also in the tent.

Well, it seems Bush's Condi used to be one herself -- a Democrat I mean. As a Demo, she even worked in the State Department when Jimmy Carter was president. And even after she became a Republican in 1982, reportedly because she didn't like Carter's foreign policy, she served as Gary Hart's foreign affairs adviser when he ran for President in 1984.

Condi also is in Aspen to be interviewed by Walter Isaacson -- an author and former Chairman and CEO of CNN and the former editor of Time magazine -- who now heads Aspen Institute. Their exchange is about to start.

Condi takes the stage to a standing ovation.

I've been worried about how Condi might be received. She is scheduled to receive the Leadership Award from Aspen Institute and there are some folks pissed about it. In fact I had expected to see a protest group here, but everything's cool, so far.

I arrived early. Guys with "bomb squad" written on their shirts were running around everywhere. And there was a bomb-sniffing dog that sniffed all my cameras, notebooks and stuff and even sniffed the piano that Condi is to play and the chairs where Walter and Condi will be seated for the interview. And two guys sat in the chairs to try them out. Remember those mob movies where the boss would send his wife out to start his car?

There have been several negative letters to the editor in the local papers about Condi. One entitled "No good reason for Condi Award" accused Condi of using "untruths" and helping stir "mushroom cloud" fears in order to sell the war in Iraq. And she's been referred to locally as a "war criminal" and "supporter of genocide."

I might also mention that the letter, "No good reason for Condi Award, " was situated in the Aspen Times above one entitled "Obama -- a Manchurian puppet." . . .

The interview has already started.

Condi and Walter are seated and talking to each other.

He's steering her toward making a comment on the upcoming presidential election. Whoopee!

"Have you been vetted yet as a possible running mate for John McCain?" Walter says.

"No," Condi answers emphatically. Apparently Condi doesn't want to be vice president or anything else in government, for that matter, after being Secretary of State. "I don't need another government job, " she says. "There's something to be said for fresh blood." A few moments later she hits this point again. "I'm quite serious about new blood."

The woman seated next to me in the tent is scribbling madly. "Wow!" she says. "Did she say what I think she said? It could have come out of Obama's play book."

She may have something there. The image of John McCain doesn't immediately come to mind as a presidential candidate with either fresh or new blood.

So is Condi a closet supporter of Obama's?

C'mon, Walter ask her if she's going to support McCain!

But Walter doesn't. He knows which side his bread is buttered on, and he may want Condi to come back some time.

There's a guy in the audience now standing. He wants to make a statement. He is Dr. Saleemul Huq, group head of the International Institute for Environment and Development. Condi has already said that global warming is a national security issue, but that if China and India don't clean up their pollution then what the rest of the world does won't make any difference. We can drive electric cars and do all that other green stuff 'til hell freezes over and it won't matter a whit.

"If China and India are not part of the framework nothing we do to reverse greenhouse gas is going to work," Condi says. "The Chinese have to create twenty-five million jobs a year - They're not going to give up growth for the environment."

Okay here's Dr. Huq making a statement. "China and India as well as the U.S. are already in the framwork of Kyoto Protocol as well as 180 countries. The U.S. is the only country not to sign it."

There is a burst of applause from the audience.

I'm sure Condi has something sensible to say in answer to Dr. Huq, but I'm busy searching for past references online about her connection to Barack Obama.

I find one on YouTube.

There's a video of Condi saying in part, "I congratulate Senator Obama and Senator McCain on their respective campaigns and Senator Clinton on hers as well. I look forward to viewing it all from the sidelines as a voter." So she's not going to campaign for McCain, apparently. Be your own judge. Seems a lot like the Republican Bush Administration Secretary of State is neither campaigning for nor endorsing the McCain candidacy.

Condi is leaving the stage now to another standing ovation. She changes clothes and returns to play piano with a quartet of Aspen music students. The pieces are Brahms Piano Quintet in F Minor op 34 and Dvorak's Piano Quintet in A Major, B. 155, op. 81. Remember Brahms's Lullaby? The Brahms piece sounds something like that. The Dvorak number really moves. It kicks. Condi bangs the keys like Liberace.

Interesting person, Condi. Albright described her earlier as a "charismatic Secretary of State who plays the piano better than any foreign minister and who is a far better foreign minister than any pianist."

-----
Aspen Free Press photos by Karen Day.

Comments

[sand cat]

Once again, the snide comment about a serious issue:

The claim that Ms. Rice - clearly complicit in initiating an unnecessary war by lying about the reasons for it - is a war criminal gets put in the same category as some one claiming Obama is the "Manchurian candidate."

And Democrats can't figure out why they keep losing, why so many people see no substantive differences between them and the Republicans.

[Adastra]

I can prove that Condi is a flat-out liar. I remember her being interviewed on TV once last year. The interviewer asked her exactly when she first knew that the claim about Saddam trying to buy uranium in Niger was a fraud. To this she answered, "Well, maybe somebody in the bowels of the CIA knew, but we at the top level of government had no such information at the time."

Now the problem with this statement is that I already knew from other sources that it was Dick Cheney who originally asked the CIA to send someone to Niger to check. And they sent Wilson, about a year before Bush stated this claim as a fact in his famous State of the Union address to Congress.

How believable is it that the Vice-President would wait a full year after requesting more information and never demandiing an answer? We can be certain that Cheney had the information as soon as Wilson came back. Cheney had the facts and either suppressed them or agreed to a cover-up Did Cheney simply decide to leave Bush out of the loop? Did he (and possibly Bush) decide not to tell Rice? It's hard to believe that she was either so uninformed that she remained ignorant of the facts, or so loyal that she agreed to suppress them. Either way, she is clearly culpable either for failing at her job or for lying to cover up for Bush and Cheney.

[dignityandhonor]

Yes, please pick Miss Oil Tanker for Veep. That would ensure an Obama victory.

[DoTheMath]

Sorry, I can't share your confidence on that one. In fact, it's one of my worst nightmares. Think of the "identity voters," especially the ones who didn't like the outcome of the Democratic primary. Yikes!

[nuglet304]

agreed.

[celticjag]

Walter should have asked Condi questions concerning mushroom clouds, PDB of August the 8th 2001 and her compicity in the illegal and immoral war in Iraq. Along with Bush and Cheney, she has to share in the responsibility for weakening our Constitution and for violating international laws concerning war and torture.

[Provencalkid]

What do we learn from this article? I learn that, whether we elect Obama or McCain, there will be no changes in American foreign policy. Madeline Albright, arguably the most hawkish, truculent, aggressive Secretary of State in American History, happily palsy-walsy with Condi Rice, serial liar, probable war criminal, Bush enabler, the embodiment of Bush's foreign policy; and they're all together, shukin' and jivin', playing the piano, smiling and joining hands in a public love-in.

And the reason for this giggly celebration? Because all of them know that, whoever wins, nothing, absolutely nothing , is going to change. The same war mongers who have directing American foreign policy for the past 30 years will continue to run the show: the party labels will change, but the policies will remain the same. They all (quite literally) went to the same school; they all learned the same (evil) lessons; they all bark in collective, instinctive, snarling unison.

I read this article and it makes me want to throw up. When will the Democratic Party come to its senses and reject the likes of Madeline Albright , Zbignew Bzenski (sp?) and the rest of the pack of pseudo-Republican war mongers?

What a shame. What a scandal.

[dontomas]

Regardless of Condi's charisma or democratic past she still was in the thick of promoting the Iraq War, sanctioning torture etc. I do not rexcall her ever backing down from Bush/Cheny.

[greginwva]

Dont,I try to like her, but your point is undisputable and powerful.She was one of the pro war neocons.Id like to know was she one of the original neos who along w/Bush was set on invading Iraq from the get,or a convert out some screwed up sense of loyalty.Your point though,in the end,makes my question mute.She was out in front selling the lie that cost us and frankly the oppressed Iraqi people so much.The Iraqis might have hated Saddam but they would still be alive,be they shia or sunni.The ones he wanted to make an example of,were already dead and the ones left grudgedly went about living together.

[wagadog]

Sounds like a great dance. What do they call it, the Time Warp? Condi...Riiiice.

[Triangle1]

Condi Rice would be a great VP choice. However, her direct involvement in the Bush inner circle means she'd become dead weight for McCain. It would help move some of those moderate female voters over into his slot though. As far as I know, there are no blacks in this country voting for anyone but Obama. 5% of blacks could care less about Obama or anyone else in politics. 5% are voting against Obama for counterculture reasons. That leaves 90% that will include Rice and every other black voter in the country. If McCain picks a female running mate, he'll win the election. Over half of the voters are female and I can't imagine any of them finding a problem with a first vice presidential pick.

[whatsthatsound]

What's with the "wiggle" and "tickle" headline. Sexist? Just wondering, 'cause when I see those words being used about a woman, my ears (at least) tend to perk up.

[Coyote2]

If L eftists (far left) didn't hate her so much, she would be a good running mate for O b ama. That would bring the R epublican camp into O's tent and kick the extremists (Israel-haters) out.

Coyote and Coyote: unbeatable

Ha ha ha

[RocketmanBob]

Too bad Ms. Rice isn't running.....

I like her muuuuuch better than McCain or Obama........

She's much more competent then Mav, and definately more qualified than the Obamateur.

She'd be my choice for POTUS.....­......Alas­, only in my dreams!

I wonder if I'm too old to go to Stanford; And I wonder if an MS in aerospace engineering would qualify me to be one of her grad students?

Again, only in my dreams!

Good luck after your service ends Madam Secretary, you are an outstanding American, a renaissance individual, and a true patriot!

[Clevelanded]

lol,

Your dreams are the stuff off my nightmares...

[sawdustinhershoes]

UGH! This woman is a liar and a traitor to the American people. SHe should be in federal prison with her co-CONspirators.

btw, her field of expertise is the Soviet Union. I guess that doesn't include Russia since she's done such a piss poor job with that country. Putin is currently going on about putting missles in Cuba again and saying nothing is off the table with regard to US missle defense plans.

It's amazing how such an accomplished woman could have done such a poor job for our country.

She is smart enough to be ashamed, would that she had the integrity to apologise to America, for her lies about Iraq, especially the families of fallen and maimed soldiers.

[jupitor]

No that wouldn't work! She wouldn't like being offered up to The Bikers at sturgis as their Buffalo chip queen, like mccain offered his wife up for!

[lmab]

Everyone should be held responsible for the damage they have done. Rice has been a big part of a corrupt and criminal administration. She has furthered their cause, period. There is no upside to that.

[section9]

McCain could actually pick Rice without the vetting. She has a nuclear Q clearance, and has been through vetting that the other prospects can only wonder about. However, she'd have to be dragged onto the ticket. McCain just may have to do that; the polling on Mitt Romney has been simply awful. I wouldn't be surprised if McCain tried to do it, as all his other options range between the hideous and the awful. The fact that people like Eric Cantor and Sarah Palin are being considered tells most Republicans that McCain is down to recruiting Carnival Barkers and Animal Acts for his Veep.

Much of this report is wishful thinking by the slavishly pro-Barack press. Neither Rice nor Gates will campaign for McCain because they have been instructed by Bush to keep their divisions strictly non-partisan. This is traditional for the "diplomacy and guns" departments. For Rice to come out and campaign for McCain would be a departure from State Department tradition. The clumsy leaking from the Obama Campaign to Time Magazine in the form of the Massimo Calabrese article of this week in an attempt to form some sort of secret Rice/Obama axis was neither accurate nor appreciated.

Rice has a future in the Republican Party. Expect her to do nothing that would damage John McCain's campaign, assuming he picks someone else as VP, other than maintain a strict neutrality as Secretary of State.

[kroses98]

She should stick to playing the piano!

[jerzyjc16]

Yes, this is the person who said "we never could have predicted that terrorists would fly planes into buildings...". No idea, even though the "Bin Laden Determined To Strike Within the U.S. " memo was in her hands on August 8th.

[section9]

God, the Left needs to drop that one trick pony. Have you ever actually read the August 6th PDB? The most current intelligence in it dated from 1999.

The only thing valuable in that PDB was the title, which, given bin Laden's declaration of war against the United States in 1996, was a bit like paging Captain Obvious.

Please, get a new meme.