• Home
  • About
    • Straight Up
    • Jan Herman
    • Contact
  • AJBlogs
  • ArtsJournal

Straight Up | Jan Herman

Arts, Media & Culture News with 'tude

MR. WAFFLES

April 20, 2004 by cmackie

Always good to see the editorial page of The New York Times ratifying our snap judgments. The editorial board must be genteel,
of course. It cannot be as blunt as we were about Colin Powell, but its considered opinion this
morning is pretty much the same.


This is what we said yesterday:


So he warned our dopey Maximum Leader about owning Iraq. Let’s not make
the U.S. Secretary of State a hero. Isn’t he the man of principle who went to the U.N. with
so-called proof of WMD in Iraq, which he in fact doubted? Didn’t his diplomatic charade come a month after he knew the
decision to go to war for all intents and purposes had already been taken?

This is what the Times Web site said in its summary of today’s lead editorial: “If Secretary of State Colin Powell
thought the invasion of Iraq was a bad idea, his inaction is puzzling and disappointing.” Such
puzzlement. Such disappointment. Can’t you see the sorrowful looks in their faces as the
ladies and gentlemen of the editorial board gather for their meeting in the clubby
atmosphere of the Times building’s 10th floor?


The editorial itself is headlined “Which Powell Is Which?” There’s no gainsaying that. It
notes:


What we seem to have once again with Mr. Powell is a desire to have it both
ways, to be seen as a loyal member of the Bush team, but also as a wise man who knew all along
that the Iraq war would be a mistake. If the Woodward version is correct, Mr. Powell should have
spoken up more than a year ago.

We also said of Mr. Waffles:


Not to put too fine a point on it, is he not the guy who went along with “the
Gestapo,” his own term for “the civilian conservatives in the Pentagon loyal to [Dick] Cheney,”
according to Bob Woodward’s “Plan of Attack”?

Now, according to
CNN this morning
and others, and as the
Times reports separately from its editorial, Powell has
“disputed Mr. Woodward’s account in several respects.” He said “he had an excellent relationship
with Vice President Dick Cheney and that he did not recall referring to officals at the Pentagon
loyal to Mr. Cheney as the ‘Gestapo office.'”


Notice that he didn’t deny the reference; he simply didn’t remember saying it. Mr. Waffles is
still waffling.

Share on email
Email
Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on reddit
Reddit

Filed Under: main

Jan Herman

When not listening to Bach or Cuban jazz pianist Chucho Valdes, or dancing to salsa, I like to play jazz piano -- but only in the privacy of my own mind.
Another strange fact... Read More…

About

My Books

Several books of poems have been published in recent years by Moloko Print, Statdlichter Presse, Phantom Outlaw Editions, and Cold Turkey … [Read More...]

Straight Up

The agenda is just what it says: news of arts, media & culture delivered with attitude. Or as Rock Hudson once said in a movie: "Man is the only … [Read More...]

Contact me

We're cutting down on spam. Please fill in this form. … [Read More...]

Archives

Blogroll

Abstract City
AC Institute
ACKER AWARDS New York
All Things Allen Ginsberg
Antiwar.com
arkivmusic.com
Artbook&
Arts & Letters Daily

Befunky
Bellaart
Blogcritics
Booknotes
Bright Lights Film Journal

C-SPAN
Noam Chomsky
Consortium News
Cost of War
Council on Foreign Relations
Crooks and Liars
Cultural Daily

The Daily Howler
Dark Roasted Blend
DCReport
Deep L
Democracy Now!

Tim Ellis: Comedy
Eschaton

Film Threat
Robert Fisk
Flixnosh (David Elliott’s movie menu)
Fluxlist Europe

Good Reads
The Guardian
GUERNICA: A Magazine of Art & Politics

Herman (Literary) Archive, Northwestern Univ. Library
The Huffington Post

Inter Press Service News Agency
The Intercept
Internet Archive (WayBackMachine)
Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
Doug Ireland
IT: International Times, The Magazine of Resistance

Jacketmagazine
Clive James

Kanopy (stream free movies, via participating library or university)
Henry Kisor
Paul Krugman

Lannan Foundation
Los Angeles Times

Metacritic
Mimeo Mimeo
Moloko Print
Movie Geeks United (MGU)
MGU: The Kubrick Series

National Security Archive
The New York Times
NO!art

Osborne & Conant
The Overgrown Path

Poets House
Political Irony
Poynter

Quanta Magazine

Rain Taxi
The Raw Story
RealityStudio.org
Bill Reed
Rhizome
Rwanda Project

Salon
Senses of Cinema
Seven Stories Press
Slate
Stadtlichter Presse
Studs Terkel
The Synergic Theater

Talking Points Memo (TPM)
TalkLeft
The 3rd Page
Third Mind Books
Times Square Cam
The Tin Man
t r u t h o u t

Ubu Web

Vox

The Wall Street Journal
Wikigate
Wikipedia
The Washington Post
The Wayback Machine (Internet Archive)
World Catalogue
World Newspapers, Magazines & News Sites

The XD Agency

Share on email
Email
Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on reddit
Reddit
This blog published under a Creative Commons license

an ArtsJournal blog

Copyright © 2025 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in