11:45 am
While You Were Away: Hot for Condi
You may have missed it, what with Sarahpalooza and everything, but Dick Cheney wasn’t the only Bush Administration official exiled sent overseas during the Republican National Convention.
For some reason, Condoleezza Rice, perhaps second only to the Vice President on the list of people George Bush actually listens to, was sent to Libya to meet with raving nutjob new ally Moammar Gadhafi (or however the hell he’s spelling it this week).
Libya was never major-league caliber evil, but they did make it to the high minors a couple of times, particularly during the Reagan Administration. There are some who still think they have the stuff to be Axis-caliber, but the Bushies have decided to make nice.
Not everyone — particularly the families of the victims of Pan Am Flight 103 — shares that sentiment, so apparently the Administration thought that sending The Condi to Tripoli in the middle of the Republican National Convention might mean that most Americans would be too distracted by McCainia to realize she was meeting with the Gadster (or is it Qaddster? Khadster? GQKaaadster? I can never keep it straight):
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi - once reviled as a “mad dog” by a U.S. president - on Friday on a historic visit that she said proved that Washington had no permanent enemies.
Rice’s trip, the first by a U.S. secretary of state to the North African country in 55 years, is intended to end decades of enmity, five years after Libya gave up its weapons of mass destruction program.
“I think we are off to a good start. It is only a start but after many, many years, I think it is a very good thing that the United States and Libya are establishing a way forward,” Rice told a news conference after talks with Gaddafi at a compound bombed by U.S. warplanes in 1986.
For a couple of years now, the Bush Administration has bragged about how it forced the Libyans to give up its nucular nuclear ambitions and return to the community of nations. But what we didn’t know was that Gadhafi had a secret motive for improving U.S.-Libyan relations: love.
From a 2007 Al-Jazeera interview with the Lucky Gadhafella himself:
Qadhafi: I support my darling black African woman. I admire and am very proud of the way she leans back and gives orders to the Arab leaders. She beckons to the Arab foreign ministers, and they come to her, either in groups or individually.
Interviewer: You are referring to the American secretary of state, right?
Qadhafi: Yes, Leezza, Leezza, Leezza… I love her very much. I admire her, and I’m proud of her, because she’s a black woman of African origin. I congratulate her on reaching this global status. When she beckons to the heads of the Arab security agencies, they come running. She’s the secretary of state, yet she heads the Arab security agencies.
I think we’ve just established a new gold standard in the category of creepy stalker boyfriend wannabes.
Dipnote, the State Department’s little blog that could (if it only had the proper clearances!), either didn’t see this little tidbit or has a much more twisted sense of humor than I thought. This is the headline to their story about The Condi’s visit:
What Lessons Can Be Learned from the U.S.-Libyan Relationship?
Nudge nudge, wink wink. Say no more!
But what do you do with a problem like Moammar? I have a suggestion. The Condi should invite him to play a round of golf. And now that Dubya has set a timetable for withdrawal of our troops in an aspirational horizon for success in Iraq, he could give up giving up golf and join them. Add Dick Cheney and you have a war criminal foursome! Be careful: if you don’t let them play through, you might be taking lessons from the golf pro at Guantanamo Country Club.
Better yet, Moammar could tour with Van Halen. They need a new lead singer (again), and “Hot for Condi” has a nice ring to it.
Hat tip: Somewhere in Africa
Photos: Wikipedia
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