When brickbats are better than bouquets, take 2

Last week Paul noted the bouquet thrown by the Washington Post at Secretary Rice, and found it to be “grounds for concern[.]” A bit of the same phenomenon (including a cameo appearance by Joe Biden) is at work in the Time story by Romesh Ratnesar on Secretary Rice: “The Condi doctrine.” The Time story assigns Secretary Rice “responsibility for cleaning up its biggest calamity: the war in Iraq…” and describes her mission as “allow[ing] the U.S. to beat a dignified retreat.” I’m sure that Secretary Rice understands that the folks at Time are holding the brickbats behind their back in the event that Secretary Rice strays from the course it assigns her.
Ratnesar peddles the mainstream media line on Secretary Rice’s recent visit to Sudan, asserting that “she can also play tough: in Sudan last month, Rice demanded an apology from the Khartoum government after members of her traveling party were manhandled by Sudanese security agents; she got one within an hour.” It is left to the more observant denizens of the Internet to note the profound public silence of Secretary Rice in the face of the release of Osama bin Laden’s long-time friend and benefactor by Sudan in late June: “The pope of terrorism, part 1.”

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