[dervish]

Instead, with a few exceptions, most notably John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations and Condoleezza Rice as secretary, we've gotten a State Department of Kerry-ites. Mr. Burns, moreover, is unusually influential as the third-ranking officer in the department because Ms. Rice has been relentlessly globetrotting and her immediate deputy, Robert Zoellick, has been preoccupied with Sudan and China. Mr. Burn's exact role in policy is hidden by State Department secrecy, but it's visible in the Bush administration's letting the E.U.-3 (Britain, France, and Germany) take the lead in handling Iran's march toward the A-bomb.

[M1Tanker]

Unfortunately, most of the State Dept looks like a Move-On rally, politically. The sayings in military circles range from "Ya know, we really need a US desk at State", to "We would have already won the WoT and returned home from Iraq had State not screwed things up."

It's not who the Secretary of State is, it's the entrenched leftists who populate the department and constantly undermine the President that are the problem.

[Buffettfan]

The state department is overwhelmingly lefist...so much so that they could be a mini-UN right in Washington, DC.

[humint]

Mr. Burn's exact role in policy is hidden by State Department secrecy, but it's visible in the Bush administration's letting the E.U.-3 (Britain, France, and Germany) take the lead in handling Iran's march toward the A-bomb.

Ex-Ce-lent, the Iranians will get there power plants and bombs...

[Waco]

The State Dept. has looked/been like a moveon cluser f-ck for a looong time.

[Unrepentant VN Vet]

Maybe, just maybe, if Able Danger, the leaks from CIA, State, FBI, Justice and that vermin Sandy Berger's escapades ever get completely brought to light, we can all sit and watch some real fun.

Right after a couple hundred of the major players get perpwalked to the nearest Redline Brig, the rest of the Clintonista moles will get their pink slip, a document box for their personal effects and ten minutes with armed guards in tow to gather their stuff before they all get shipped out of the country.

They will probably all enjoy France.

[nickcarraway]

I have never understood why Bush is so fond of people who hate him and so indifferent to his allies.

[popdonnelly]

What, no jobs for Sandy Berger and Joe Wilson?

[HarleyLady27]

John Kerry is an idiot; he comes from Mass, home of the idiots and drunks; he has no imagination, he doesn't even know what planet he is on; the only reason his missus married him, she needed a tax break.

We should trade him for Bin Laden, not a dime's worth the difference in either one of them.

[Jumper]

Everone here at FR has a right to their opinion. First, allow me to state (not State Dept) that I've been here at FR since 1998 and didn't join the US Dept of State until 2004. We are not all, as the conventional wisdom, democrats. And, our diplomacy is working to checkmate both enemies and allies into partners for peace, despite the yuppie-GenX instant gratification cycles.

The thing that never ceases to amaze me is that "instant gratification" immediate expectation that seems to be the benchmark for success.... Adults understand how to suceed. Western civilizaion, before socialism, was capable of deferred gratification and built both great minds and cultures. Today, it is sad that most of the world reacts without a longterm plan to the socialist CNN style cycle of gratification.

Trust your State Department a little more and understand that your President is being successful - that is why the democrats who ascribe to the world socialist viewpoint have gone to thier nuclear option of opposition.