Here come the Jets:
Little world, step aside!
In yesterday’s BooTrib story, “Conservative Warns Lugar: Bolton Is a True Force of Darkness,” I excised a bit about Armitage for brevity. Today’s NYT makes clear that there was war – more than we knew – in the State Dept. between Armitage’s and Bolton/Cheney’s gangs, and how!
ACTION: (Spoken) Tony don’t belong any more.
RIFF: Cut it, Action boy. I and Tony started the Jets.
ACTION: Well, he acts like he don’t wanna belong.
BABY JOHN: Who wouldn’t wanna belong to the Jets!
ACTION: Tony ain’t been with us for over a month.
Hum some mo’ “West Side Story” tunes as you read below:
This morning’s (May 10) NYT reports: No. 2 at State Dept. Was Said to Put Restrictions on Bolton
WASHINGTON, May 9 – A new portrayal of John R. Bolton describes him as having so angered senior State Department officials with his public comments that the deputy secretary of state, Richard L. Armitage, ordered two years ago that Mr. Bolton be blocked from delivering speeches and testimony unless they were personally approved by Mr. Armitage.
What was part of Armitage’s beef with Bolton? I’d excised this yesterday (for brevity) from Mr. Wanniski’s letter to Lugar:
“Bush the Horse, Cheney the Rider” Oct. 23, 2003
How did Bolton get the job at State in the first place. This is from Jim Lobe, a Washington correspondent:
Not only did Cheney personally intervene to ensure that Powell’s best friend, Richard Armitage, was denied the deputy defence secretary position, but he also played a key role in securing the post for Paul Wolfowitz. Moreover, it was Cheney who insisted that ultra-unilateralist John Bolton be placed in a top State Department arms position, from which he has pursued policies that run counter to Powell’s own preferences.
The May 10 NYT goes on:
“Therefore, the deputy made a decision, and communicated that decision to me, that John Bolton would not give any testimony, nor would he give any speech, that wasn’t cleared first by Rich,” Mr. Wilkerson said, according to a transcript of an hourlong interview with members of the committee staff last Thursday.
In an e-mail message on Monday, Mr. Wilkerson said of the restrictions imposed on Mr. Bolton that “if anything, they got more stringent” as time went on. “No one else was subjected to these tight restrictions,” he said.
Read the entire NYT article this morning (May 10).
The Jets are in gear,
Our cylinders are clickin’!
The Sharks’ll steer clear
‘Cause ev’ry Puerto Rican’s a lousy chicken!
Here come the Jets
Like a bat out of hell.
Someone gets in our way,
Someone don’t feel so well!
Here come the Jets:
Little world, step aside!
Better go underground,
Better run, better hide!
We’re drawin’ the line,
So keep your noses hidden!
We’re hangin’ a sign,
Says “Visitors forbidden”
And we ain’t kiddin’!
Here come the Jets,
Yeah! And we’re gonna beat
Ev’ry last buggin’ gang
On the whole buggin’ street!
On the whole!
Ever!
Mother!
Lovin’!
Street!
Yeah!
“West Side Story” lyrics