Rice Watch Day 13

Events continue to indicate that the Rice Watch may extend into triple digits:

CRAWFORD, Tex.

President Bush slipped speedily into vacation mode this past weekend at his furnace of a ranch in Central Texas, where he spent Sunday fishing, clearing cedar and going for a walk with the first lady and his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice. But before the president ducked out of public sight, he made sure to address one of the biggest re-election anxieties of Karl Rove, his chief political adviser: the nation’s continuing loss of jobs and the uncertainty about the economy.

But CalPundit reports that somebody will be leaving, though not until the next inauguration on Jan. 21, 2005:

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and his deputy, Richard L. Armitage, have signaled to the White House that they intend to step down even if President Bush is reelected, setting the stage for a substantial reshaping of the administration’s national security team that has remained unchanged through the September 2001 terrorist attacks, two wars and numerous other crises.

Armitage recently told national security adviser Condoleezza Rice that he and Powell will leave on Jan. 21, 2005…

While not as much of a restraining influence as I had hoped, Powell is the sole voice with any authority in the White House that is not entirely in agreement with the neocon agenda. Bush foreign policy without Powell will be even more scary than it already is, and I suspect that a good portion swing voters will realize this and adjust their voting plans accordingly.

AB