Rice: "We frankly have better things to do than invite people to Annapolis for a photo op."

[babylonsister]

Analysis: Summit Holds Risks for Bush

By TOM RAUM
The Associated Press
Sunday, November 25, 2007; 7:02 AM


WASHINGTON -- President Bush, who has avoided playing much of a role in the Middle East peace process, is now gambling that the time is right for progress in the troubled region. But the risks are high, and the odds for success seem long.

The planned three-day conference in Annapolis, Md., and Washington this week comes with just 14 months left in Bush's term and his legacy tarnished by the war in Iraq.

Pushing for an Israeli-Palestinian peace has preoccupied more than one U.S. president. President Clinton made it a top agenda item in the closing days of his presidency. But with the notable exception of President Carter, whose Camp David sessions in 1978 led to a peace treaty the following year between Israel and Egypt, presidential Mideast peacemaking has fizzled.

The U.S.-sponsored peace conference _ first proposed by Bush last July _ is designed to build momentum toward the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, suspended for the past seven years. The idea is to eventually establish a Palestinian state. Bush called on moderate Arab states to take an active part in promoting negotiations that could lead to "a final peace in the Middle East."

"The president will say that the Annapolis conference will signal broad international support for the leaders' courageous efforts, which will help provide for meaningful progress toward a just and lasting negotiated settlement to this conflict, and ultimately a comprehensive peace in the Middle East," White House press secretary Dana Perino said Saturday.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice insists the sessions will be "serious and substantive." Standing next to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank this month, Rice said, "We frankly have better things to do than invite people to Annapolis for a photo op."

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/25/AR2007112500581.html

[trumad]

1. Yeah Condi---we know how the Bush admin hates photo ops.

[PDittie]

2. Like what, Condi?

Is there a holiday sale on Manolo Blanik in Chevy Chase?

[SpiralHawk]

7. "Like vacation. D'oh. Smirk." - Commander AWOL

"Some of us 'elite' republicon homelanders have earned rankings in the Guiness Book of World Records as the Most Excessively Vacationed President of All Time. And let me tell you, it's HARD WORK keeping that record safe for posteriority. Smirk, smirk, smirk."

- Commander AWOL

[SalmonChantedEvening]

3. It's much better to fly to the West Bank for them!

"President Bush, who has avoided playing much of a role in the Middle East peace process...."

When you're bombing something to bits, who has time for peace talks? And where's the money in 'em?

:argh:

[jimshoes]

4. Well, there is a shoe sale at

Sak's Fifth Avenue. I mean c'mon lets talk about first things first.

[ck4829]

5. Things like going to the Middle East for a photo op?

[KingOfLostSouls]

6. BULLSHIT!!!

fuck you condi. fuck you chimp

we all know and have seen what REAL leadership is. it was when jimmy carter wasn't worried about "photo ops" and brought anwar saddat and menechem begin together and refused to let them leave til they brought about a treaty. saddat paid for it with his life and they all three showed us what leadership is

its when bill clinton brings yitzak rabin and yasser arafat together and tried to broker peace between two men who hated each other. and they sat there and shook hands like men. and rabin paid for it with his life at the hands of a freedom hating likudinik. a REPUBLICAN SUPPORTED party that showed hatreds and death towards those who wanted to bring peace to God's land. rabin showed what strength comes from a leadership who keeps hubris in check.

fuck you condi. those were REAL american leaders and REAL leaders of the world. they didn't care about photo ops, they did what was right to try to bring about peace through strength and courage.

god willing, condi, you will be marched before a tribunal of the hague where you belong.

[babylonsister]

9. The real irony is, after saying that, there will be a photo-op in Annapolis this week:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.rice25nov25,0,6060365.story

Rice's legacy on the line at Annapolis conference
Experts say Middle East talks a chance to boost credibility after Iraq setbacks

By Robert Little | Sun reporter
November 25, 2007


While the Bush administration has worked to suppress expectations for the Middle East peace conference Tuesday in Annapolis, observers say the professional and political stakes for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are much harder to minimize.

An outcome resembling success could restore some of the former Stanford professor's diplomatic credibility, they say, and perhaps add a line to her career's postscript that doesn't contain the word "Iraq."

Something less than success could extinguish whatever progress she has fostered as the president's top diplomat in the past three years, and perhaps worsen relations with a part of the world considered vital to American security and foreign policy.

"She's about a year or so away from being judged as a kind of inconsequential secretary of state," said Aaron David Miller, a Middle East expert and adviser to six secretaries of state, and a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.

more...

[KingOfLostSouls]

11. no doubt

condi is as self serving as the rest.

shes here to indulge herself and keep her master's image protected

they could give fuck all about us, this country, and our status as leader's of the world



I'll say one thing, the * administration want to go down in history, they are


as the worst one possible. they are a stain on this great nation and the great experiment of democracy that we will work hard to remove. hopefully, if they do not find ajudication in this world, they will find it in the next.

because if they believe in God as I do, then he will most certainly not have mercy on their undeserving souls.

[spanone]

8. time to try to frame the bu$h* legacy.....waaaaay too late.

[malaise]

10. I agree

Go shopping for shoes Condi!!!

[demnan]

12. It is so apparent how very bad this woman is in her job

She lacks any sense of diplomacy. She is arrogant, self-rightous, mis-informed and incompetent.

It's a shame.

[momster]

13. Why The Hell Aren't They Doing Them?

Photo-Ops is all they do. With the troops, wounded or unwounded. With Katrina or wild-fire victims. With turkeys. With French Presidents. You name it -- they've taken a picture of it with Smirky McPoopypants out in the front.

I guess Cheney's doing the 'hard work' 'cause we hardly ever see a picture of him. Frightening thought.

[flordehinojos]

14. the boy and the nanny who cried wolf too many times ...

[lpbk2713]

15. Selective amnesia on CONdi's part ....

CONdi you are full of shit. Just like your lying boss.

[Toots]

16. "peace talks, suspended for the past seven years."

The Bush* Administration in a nutshell