Glinda Arrives at State—By Scott Horton (Harper's Magazine): One thing seems clear regarding Condoleezza Rice’s stewardship of the State Department: she did not command the admiration of many of those who worked with her. The reaction of State Department employees as Hillary Clinton arrived this morning apparently bears comparison to the liberation of Paris at the end of World War II.
There are great hopes for Hillary at State. I met last week with a number of career State Department employees and was surprised when one said she was looking forward to the “Glinda Party” next week. I asked her: if Hillary was Glinda, the Good Witch of the South from the Wizard of Oz, did that make Condoleezza Rice the Wicked Witch of the West?
“You’re on to it,” she said. Another person pointed out to me that after Rice’s arrival in 2005 the tone of official State Department publications changed; they began to praise and glorify Rice. “No prior secretary,” said the twenty-year veteran, “did anything like this.”
Hillary’s message to her new team at State points to a major change at a department that under Rice issued doctrine and commanded complete personal loyalty.
I have not love for Hilary Clinton or her hardball politics. But I have even less love for the degradation of politics to swiftboating and McCarthyism of the Bush years.
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