David Broder Calls Biden and Lugar Our Foreign Policy's Best Hope

That was the title of one of his columns last week - Foreign Policy's Best Hope.

"Last week, I visited the likeliest source. I spent two hours in separate but parallel interviews with the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Joseph Biden of Delaware, and the ranking Republican on that panel, Richard Lugar of Indiana.

Despite all the static in the political atmosphere, Biden and Lugar left me believing that there is hope of overcoming the divisive legacy of the past six years -- in large part because of the work these two have done together to prepare the way."

***

It is not certain that Biden and Lugar will remain in their posts when the new president takes office. Biden is a plausible choice for vice president or secretary of state under Barack Obama. Lugar could serve as secretary of state for either John McCain or Obama, a man Lugar recruited for membership on Foreign Relations and a vocal admirer of his.

But if they stay where they are, they could be the best friends the new president has on Capitol Hill. Both Lugar and Biden have run for the presidency themselves, and both are genuinely ready to work with a new president after feeling more than frustrated by their dealings with the Bush White House. If that new president wants a genuine partnership on an American foreign policy, he would have to look no farther than these two.

Lugar and Rice Op/ Ed Piece in The Washington Post

Lugar and Condoleeza Rice wrote A Civilian Partner for Our Troops:

It is unusual in Washington when an idea is overwhelmingly supported by the president, a bipartisan majority of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the State Department, and both the civilian and military leadership of the Pentagon. But that is the case with the proposed Civilian Reserve Corps, a volunteer cadre of civilian experts who can work with our military to perform the urgent jobs of post-conflict stabilization and reconstruction.

Not much to comment about until I got here:

We have learned that one of the central tasks of U.S. foreign policy for the foreseeable future will be to support responsible leaders and citizens in the developing world who are working to build effective, peaceful states and free, prosperous societies.

Responding to these challenges is a job for civilians -- those who have the expertise and the experience in the rule of law, governance, agriculture, police training, economics and finance, and other critical areas. The State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development are working heroically to meet this need.

So it takes civilians and not troops to rebuild a country - what a novel concept! Has anyone told our Fearless Leader, George W.?

Wow:

It would be penny-wise but pound-foolish to continue to overburden our military with reconstruction duties. We urge Congress to stand up for our troops by giving them the civilian help they need

Buyer lectures Lugar

Thanks to Masson's Blog because I missed altogether Representative Buyer telling Senators Lugar and Warner that they need to wait for General Petreaus' report. Wow. Read Buyer to Lugar: Shut up and wait. Masson makes a great point:

Buyer conveniently overlooks the fact that this report is to be written by the White House. Buyer, as you’ll recall, is the military genius who wanted to use nuclear weapons in Afghanistan. Unlike Buyer, his potential challenger for Indiana’s 4th Congressional seat, Nels Ackerson, is not hesitant to take a look at the past 4.5 years and suggest that changes are necessary. It is ridiculous for Buyer to suggest that we need to wait for a report ghost written by the White House before we can figure out that the White House has gotten a tremendous number of things wrong in Iraq.

Is Buyer trying to supplant Dan Burton as Indiana's Congressman most likely to embarass the State of Indiana?

Dick Lugar - performance anxiety?

From Harold Myerson's column in today's Washington Post:

Anyone searching for the highest forms of invertebrate life need look no further than the floor of the U.S. Senate last week and this. These spineless specimens go by various names -- Republican moderates; respected senior Republicans; Dick Lugar, John Warner, Pete Domenici, George Voinovich.

They have seen the folly of our course in Iraq. The mission, they understand, cannot be accomplished. The Iraqi government, they discern, is hopelessly sectarian.

In wisdom, they are paragons. In action, they are nullities.

When Lugar made his speech against Bush's Iraq policy, I thought he finally awoke and our not opposing him in the last general election made sense. Not so now.

MIA and slim pickings

Out of town most of last week and no internet access over the weekend results in no posts. Going to be slim pickings today, too. Work, work.

I skimmed a few of the papers today. I see that Kucinich and Conyers introduced a national health insurance plan. I read something last evening to the effect that our health care system hobbles our entry into the global market. Considering how well General Motors and Ford are doing right now, I think we will see them demanding a national health insurance program. It seems that the union bashers are out again. The UAW caused GM and Ford failing in the global market by getting healthcare benefits. Probably the same people who bash the idea of national healthcare as socialism and predict national healthcare will be our national apocalypse. The United States avoided national healthcare because the big corporations paid the bill for healthcare. That was easy to do when there was little international competition. Now we got lots of international competition from companies where there is national healthcare.

E.J. Dionne has an op/ed piece in the Washington Post about California moving its primary. This paragraph caught my eye:

And it's time that our candidates get tested early by broader electorates. Was it really good for the country that South Carolina's Republicans put an effective end to the battle between George W. Bush and John McCain so early in 2000, on Feb. 19 to be exact? Was it helpful that the Democratic battle between Al Gore and Bill Bradley that same year effectively ended after New Hampshire voted on Feb. 1, or that John Kerry wasn't tested harder in more places after his Jan. 27, 2004, victory there?

I am one of those who would say that none of us were served well by Kerry wrapping up the nomination before all of the primaries were done. Call me a chauvinist but I think the Midwest ought to have its say and maybe we would get a better selection of candidates.

Our Senator Lugar also has an op/ed article in the Post, Beyond Baghdad. I had a great-aunt who lived in Indianapolis who said Lugar talked like butter would not melt in his mouth. She did not mean it as a compliment and she was a Republican. Reading this article reminded me of that. Reading between the lines I see a conflict between Lugar trying to be a good Republican by offering to salvage his President's new Iraq plan and his intelligence.

The administration must avoid becoming so quixotic in its attempt to achieve the optimal outcome in Iraq that it fails to adjust to shifts in the region or political realities within Iraq. Although any administration would be reluctant to talk about a Plan B when its primary plan is still in motion, the president and Congress must reach a consensus on how to protect our broader strategic interests regardless of what happens in those Baghdad neighborhoods or on the floor of the Senate. Otherwise, the fatigue and frustration with our Iraq policy that is manifest in the resolutions of disapproval before the Senate could lead not just to the rejection of the Bush plan but also to the abandonment of the tools and relationships we need toPublish defend our vital interests in the Middle East.

Ever wonder if Dick Lugar wakes up at night with the cold sweats wondering how this idiot got elected President and he did not?