NO OPPOSITION:

On Iran and Korea, few options (Steven R. Weisman, , March 28, 2005, The New York Times)

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has won praise from Europeans and Democrats for working closely with American allies on a common approach to the crises of Iran's and North Korea's nuclear programs. Her phrase "the time for diplomacy is now" has become a kind of State Department battle cry.

But Rice has also sharpened her tone of impatience, as have other administration officials, over the stalled nuclear talks with North Korea and Iran, suggesting that "the time for diplomacy" may not last forever. [...]

The Bush administration was riven by ideological splits on foreign policy throughout the first term.

The former Secretary of State, Colin Powell, a moderate, was often pitted against conservative elements of the administration, led by the vice president, Dick Cheney, and the defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld.

But some administration officials, who asked not to be named because they were speaking about internal rivalries, said that Rice is not in that kind of opposition to other officials.

"The president has a goal, and the notion of hard-liners and moderates competing for influence is just not the right paradigm," said a senior administration official. "When it comes to Iran and North Korea, in neither case do we see that time is on our side, but in both cases we realize that progress isn't going to happen overnight."

The notion of State as a source of opposition to a president, while accurate, is deuced odd.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 27, 2005 11:22 PM