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Making the case Coming Soon: Colin Powell Presents!By Rick Horowitz
Patience. Patience. The president is planning. So now the big date is February 5th. That's what the prez says, anyhow; on February 5th, if George Bush has his way, the U.N. Security Council is finally forced to connect the dots. The United States has the goods, the president insists: Saddam Hussein is up to no good -- up to terror-sized no good -- and on February 5th, we start putting the facts before a skeptical world. I say "we." I mean "he." Not "he" the president, though. "He" the secretary of state. Ladies and gentlemen: Mr. Colin Powell and his Orchestrated Roll-Out! And how, you might be wondering, did this prestigious yet pressure-filled presentation fall on Powell? The possibilities are plentiful. Protocol -- it could be just a simple matter of protocol. Your nation makes a crucial appearance before the world's most important diplomatic body, you send your country's highest-ranking diplomat. We're talking possible war here; maybe that calls for more than your standard ambassador to the U.N. (Of course, the model for this sort of show-and-tell was Adlai Stevenson back in 1962, holding up photographs of secret Russian missile sites in Cuba and demanding answers. Stevenson was our U.N. ambassador at the time. Then again, Stevenson was several cuts above "standard.") Prestige. It could be a matter of prestige. The secretary of state is first among equals in any president's cabinet. (Except when he's not.) When the talk turns to matters of international gravity -- including, of course, matters of Iraqi depravity -- who better to represent the president than his secretary of state? Get rollin', Colin -- people will pay attention. Pique. That's certainly another possibility. (Or would you rather call it punishment?) Powell gets the thankless task of reasoning with the French, not to mention some of our other "allies," because the president is perturbed with him. It was, after all, largely at Powell's urging -- and against the advice of the gung-holier-than-thou wing of the administration -- that the president decided to give please a chance. Decided (for the moment, at least) not to go it alone, but to try to rally the international community with weeks and weeks of negotiations on a resolution that would put Iraq on notice, and the rest of the world on record, that Saddam Hussein was running out of time to clean up his act, and that if he didn't straighten up pretty darn promptly, the posse was coming in to get the job done. Which resolution has led instead (exactly as the gung-holier wing predicted) to much flapping of jaws and striking of poses, and not a lot of posse. You got us into this mess, Powell -- you get us out. Then there's poise. Maybe Powell got the call because even the president has come to realize that there's no point in provoking the rest of the planet for the sheer pleasure of it. For years, the president has watched Powell stay absolutely, totally on message, purposeful yet personable. The president has also watched Donald Rumsfeld. Then there's precision. The president could have done the U.N. speech himself; he's done that kind of thing before -- last September, for instance, when he did an excellent job of it. But for this particular assignment, the president prefers Powell, and can you blame him? Powell is a former military man; when he speaks about weapons, he's got the details down cold, and if he has to go off his script to answer a question, he can do it without breaking a sweat. George Bush is a former owner of a baseball team, and if he has to go off his script to answer a question, Karl Rove starts breaking a sweat. (Perspiration isn't pleasant.) And then there's politics. Who better to convince a roomful of doubters than someone who's been publicly, perpetually doubtful himself? If even Powell is persuaded, if it's Powell who paints the picture, then the point is plain -- and powerful. Protocol. Prestige. Pique. Poise. Precision. Politics. Are my ponderings even partway plausible? Perfectly. Posted 1/31/03. Rick
gives "P"s a chance -- and the rest of the alphabet, too. Get fresh
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Rick Horowitz
