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In a State of Denial

By Daniel McKivergan
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A few disgruntled folks at the State Department have again run to the Washington Post to air their grievances — anonymously, of course. This time they’re not happy with Secretary Rice’s reorganization plan that reportedly doesn’t include rogue operators walking the halls of Foggy Bottom.

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Rice and her top aides have sought to heal the damaging rifts that existed with the Pentagon and other agencies. Some State Department officials privately acknowledge that they used to be thrilled by the department’s reputation as a renegade in President Bush’s first term, but they say the message has become clear in the past year that such attitudes are no longer acceptable.

“Thrilled” at sticking to their boss, the elected President of the United States? But the Post story gets better. A paragraph later one of the anonymous officials claims that they’re really just professionals with no political axe to grind.

“The suspicion is we would undermine the policy,” said one of the officials who have felt sidelined. “That is what all of us find most offensive. We are here to serve any administration.”

But apparently, as the Post piece reveals, going around the back of their immediate boss was not “offensive” to their collective conscience. What was “offensive” to them was the White House’s skeptical view of IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei, along with other “administration positions,” which had made “several” of them “embarrassed for the United States.” Thank you, Secretary Rice.

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