Tocqueville would have understood: The more things change, the
more they stay the same, if eight or nine years older. Thus the
latest specimen is the Hon. Eric Holder, Janet Reno’s former
number two and Marc Rich’s number one, now in line to dispense
Justice on behalf of the Obama Administration. There is also
Hillary Rodham Clinton herself, all primed to follow in the
footsteps of fellow Wellesley alumna Madeleine Albright at the
mysterious locale cheekily known as Foggy Bottom. Under a
Machiavel like the Messiah, it could turn out to be nothing more
than a ceremonial position for Madame Hillary, much as it was for
William Rogers in the Nixon Administration where he proved no
match for national security adviser Henry Kissinger. The question
now: Who will the Big O select to be his Dr. K?
Certainly not Sandy Berger, he of the deep pockets and sturdy
socks, the better in which to conceal classified documents
implicating him and his boss in shoddy anti-terror work during
his time as national security adviser. Yet the spirit of Sandy
Berger is already wafting over the new Obama team, in the person
of incoming White House deputy chief of staff Mona Sutphen. In
the Clinton era, she served as Mr. Berger’s special assistant, a
position not unlike the one she filled as an adviser to then
Ambassador Bill Richardson at the U.N., where her duties included
interviewing Ms. Monica Lewinsky for a sensitive post at the U.S.
Mission. As it was, Ms. Sutphen got the more exciting job,
serving post-Clinton as managing director of Stonebridge
International LLC, which is none other than Sandy Berger’s
big-bucks lobbying firm. In the midst of all this she became a
member of the New Leaders Circle of the International Center for
Research on Women (ICRW), the Council of Foreign Relations, and,
the clincher, the Ron Brown Scholarship Program advisory board.
According to a secret report
published in the New York Times earlier this year,
among Ms. Sutphen’s prized possessions “is a caricature of
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, her face an embryonic
scrunch.” Can we assume she does not like Dr. Rice?
That’s okay. Here at Enemy Central we don’t always like everyone
either. But Obama world isn’t making it easier with its teasing
appointments and nonappointments. John Kerry, for instance, who
has abandoned what dignity he still possessed to plead and beg
and grovel to be named Secretary of State. Why, he’s even ready
to take a trip into Cambodia this Christmas to earn that missing
foreign policy credential. And frankly we’ve missed Teresa Heinz
Kerry. Having her back in the public eye would put Mrs. Obama in
a whole new perspective.
White House matters bring out the heretical side in us, to be
sure. The other week, the Washington Post ran a story on
a White House butler who’d been serving drinks to presidents and
dignitaries for more than 30 years. He’s now retiring. Then no
sooner did President-elect Obama drop by for a cordial one on one
with President Bush than some long-time anti-Bush obsessives were
recommending that Mr. Bush stay on as the departing butler’s
successor. Which made us think: Would it have been better for all
concerned if Senator Kerry had won in 2004?
But don’t expect any reciprocation from the other side. The
remarkable thing about this year’s winners is their determination
to pile on against the losers. There’s an entire school of
liberal pundits who know better than even Davids Brooks and Frum
how to reform the Republican Party. The group’s spokesman
recently declared
that the GOP “is now more representative of 20th-century South
Africa during apartheid than 21st-century America.” Does that
mean that the Democratic Party is now more representative of 21st
century South Africa after apartheid than 20th-century America?
It takes a special rhetorical greatness to set off a debate like
that, and Frank Rich has never been one to shy away from his own
brilliance. In this instance, Mr. Rich should regard his EOW
prize as an achievement award. Let’s just hope the Obama regime
and the rest of the civilized world doesn’t proceed to impose
sanctions on the Republican Party. That would put its reform wing
out of business.
