Things had gotten so bad I was actually looking forward to former NYC Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik being appointed chief of Homeland Security by President Bush. If we have to have this stupid sounding position, we might as well have a reliable technocrat to lead it. But of course, it is not to be. Even my modest hopes and expectations continue to be dashed.

Speaking of Cabinet shuffling and "<i>Homeland</i> Security" (a homespun phrase on par with Bush's "evildoers"), why on earth would he appoint Condoleeza Rice as Secretary of State? I mean, we know she did such a bang-up job as the <i>National</i> Security advisor that they had to essentially obviate her position, but Secretary of State? It's Condoleeza's fault we have a "Homeland" security office in the first place. If I were to pick a single person in government to blame 9/11 on, she would definitely be the one. Now that Bush initiated a disastrous corporate merger-style Homeland Security department, what exactly does the National Security advisor do? I guess we'll have to wait for the creation of the Domestic Security department to find out.

I'm not sure how to put this across in a sufficiently delicate way, but the whole affair smacks distinctly of tokenism. We all know the disdain with which the Bush adminstration views diplomacy in general–is it a coincidence that Colin Powell was the most marginalized member of Cabinet? And is it also a coincidence that the (arguably) least effective remaining member of Cabinet gets shunted over to the State Department?

I'm not saying that Ms. Rice is stupid–she's obviously very intelligent. But she's an academic disastrously out of her depth. They say those who can't do, teach, which was why her appointment to Cabinet at all was quite surprising, given that she had absolutely no government experience.

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Update: Some readers may be confused as to why I said I was looking forward to Kerik's nomination for Homeland Security chief. Let me be clear–no matter who Bush nominates, I won't like them, pretty much guaranteed. But just you wait and see–whomever he picks to replace Ridge now will be much worse than Kerik, nanny-gate be damned.