11/18/2004|||110077057164534946||||||

FOGGY BOTTOM BLUES

The Times' Gerard Baker, definitely on song at the moment, takes a sharp look at the prospects for the anti-Bush faction at the State Department:

It is not difficult to find people at the State Department who speak with open contempt of Mr Bush and his policies. Outside Manhattan, there was probably nowhere more miserable the day after his re-election in the entire country...

"Part of the problem in weaning the US away from its pro-EU policy has been a deep cultural enthusiasm for Europe, notably at the State Department. The Anglo-Saxon foreign ministries are especially prone to what economists call “adverse selection”. Those who are drawn to a diplomatic career are probably the last people you want defending your interests in the world. They generally prefer foreign cultures, and look with undisguised contempt on hicks in their own country.

The State Department, like the Foreign Office, is chock-full of people who believe, deep down, that Europe is a more cultured and civilised place than the Anglo-Saxon world that they are occasionally forced to inhabit. They feel more at home in the salons of Brussels and Paris than they would ever do at a hoedown in Oklahoma. Their influence, already on the wane, will plummet now."

|||Clive|||http://clivedavis.blogspot.com/2004/11/foggy-bottom-blues-times-gerard-baker.html|||11/18/2004 09:29:00 am|||||||||

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