Rice had it coming

Re “When Condi met Congress,” Opinion, Jan. 20

George Weigel takes the Democrats and Republicans who have “bailed out on President Bush” to task for “strategic myopia.” These critics of the administration are “not well positioned to think in terms of long-term strategies,” he says. The suggestion is that Bush has our long-term interests in mind.

When one thinks of the president’s tax cuts, environmental policies, words (and lack of action) on global warming and his unprecedented contempt for science, what comes most to mind is an administration that cares nothing for the long term and just about everything for short-term sucking up to its political base. And there is no doubt that one of the worst decisions for our long-term interests was the idea to invade Iraq in the first place. Weigel can compare Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Dean Acheson and suggest that Bush is a wise statesman all he wants. Fewer and fewer Americans are buying it.

SANDY COHEN

Northridge

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Weigel must have been sleeping through the run-up to the Iraq war. Otherwise, he would understand why Rice has destroyed her own credibility. Yes, Rice, in arguing in favor of a troop “augmentation,” was met with skepticism, criticism and anger -- finally! If only there had been blunt scrutiny when Rice predicted mushroom clouds in order to generate support for going to war. Or later, when she dismissed the beginnings of the insurgency by calling its fighters “dead-enders.”

At long last the administration’s distortions are being seen for what they are: dishonest manipulations.

RICHARD DUNN

Beverly Hills