memo to Condi

I have probably said this to you before, Madam Secretary, but I feel the need to say it again: HOPING FOR THE BEST IS NOT A STRATEGY!

You see, I feel the need to remind you because I read that before you left on your Mideast shopping trip, er, um, listening tour, you had this to say to the assembled senators of the Foreign Relations Committee:

It's bad policy to speculate on what you'll do if a plan fails when you're trying to make a plan work.

I know this kind of overconfidence has worked really well for your husband boss in the past, but you’re supposed to be the smart one. Considering your gang’s track record in the region, all this arrogance just makes you look stupid. . . or lazy. . . or, considering that the folk definition of insanity is repeating the same experiment while expecting different results, just plain mad.

Speaking of stupid, lazy, and mad, you might want to tell your husband boss that this is not some college game of Risk. He can’t just “accidentally” spill his Shiner (oh, wait, that’s right, he went to school in Connecticut—he was probably spilling a Genny Cream or something) all over the board when he doesn’t like how things are going—and the tens of thousands of dead or wounded Americans and Iraqis don’t get a do-over.


(Thanks to NPR for putting me on to Condi’s “policy,” and to TPM for helping me track down the link to the quote.)