Tomorrow's Wall Street Journal has an interesting article on the relationship between Barack Obama and Brent Scowcroft, the foreign policy realist who served as National Security Advisor under both Presidents Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush. Of particular note, at least from this vantage, are Scowcroft's views on the role of a Middle East peace process in helping foster stability throughout the region.

Many of the Republicans emerging as potential members of the Obama administration have professional and ideological ties to Brent Scowcroft, a former national-security adviser turned public critic of the Bush White House.

Mr. Scowcroft spoke by phone with President-elect Barack Obama last week, the latest in a months-long series of conversations between the two men about defense and foreign-policy issues, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The relationship between the president-elect and the Republican heavyweight suggests that Mr. Scowcroft's views, which place a premium on an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, might hold sway in the Obama White House.

[...]

Mr. Scowcroft said his biggest piece of advice for the new administration was that it should make a renewed push to help broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. He also endorsed Mr. Obama's call for diplomatic engagement with Iran.

Renewed attention towards a possible Israeli-Palestinian peace deal from the administration would come as a welcome development following eight years of disengagement from the Bush White House. A professor of mine once likened America's role in the peace process to a bicycle rider -- if the rider gets off, the bike doesn't continue to ride itself. So while there may be some potentially positive omens out of Israel, particularly the suggestion that Israeli leadership might consider the peace proposal forwarded by Saudi Arabia, without America on board helping to move the process forward, it's difficult to see much of any headway being made.

It's in light of this that the selection of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State is so enticing. While there is a sense that Clinton is more hawkish than Barack Obama, that she is to the right of him on some foreign policy issues, I agree with Jerome that the differences during the primaries were overstated by both sides to make electoral cases. More to the point, though, the Israel-Palestine situation is one in which Clinton, like her husband, could try to stake her legacy. Indeed, if she were able to move the process significantly forward, thus improving not only the situation in the immediate area but also throughout the region, not only would she be able to cement her own place in history she would also be able to fulfill the effort upon which her husband hoped to stake his term in office.

To be clear, I'm not blind to the difficulty going forward, and the very real prospect that Bibi Netanyahu, rather than Tzipi Livni (or Ehud Barak, for that matter), becomes the next Prime Minister of Israel in the spring makes the path to peace that much more arduous. That said, there remains a glimmer of hope that cannot be overlooked, and the role an active U.S. administration could play in making peace a reality should not be underestimated.

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Reprinted from The Satirical Political Report http://satiricalpolitical.com

Although its formal proposals are not due out until the end of the year, The New Yorker's Seymour Hersh has learned that the key recommendation of the Iraq Study Group will be to send a battalion of LA cops to Baghdad.

While this was not part of the Baker Commission's initial plan, recent events -- including LA officers repeatedly punching a suspected gang member in the face, and UCLA cops tasering a student in the campus library -- have convinced the bipartisan Commission that this just may be the last, best hope.

The proposal, being marketed as "Stay the Coarse," or "Tased Re-Destroyment," was briefly summarized by Commission Co-Chairman Lee Hamilton: "no disrespect to the Marines, but if you're ever going to get control of the insane asylum known as Baghdad, you have to send in your own crazy motherfuckers."

Although he has absolutely nothing to do with the Commission, John Kerry also weighed in on the move, stating that "if you don't get an education at UCLA, you end up working campus security there, then you end up in Iraq."

CONTINUED at: http://satiricalpolitical.com/?p=419

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Reprinted from The Satirical Political Report http://satiricalpolitical.com

After getting past their election of a Majority Leader, Democrats are now showing great resolve and unity in proposing the creation of "The Vietnam Study Group," intended to explore ways keep Bush in Vietnam.

Bush, who's visiting Vietnam for a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders, was presented with a colorful bouquet of flowers, thus prompting him to assert "that if we stay the course in Iraq for 30 more years, perhaps we can finally get flowers there too."

Bush also drew another lesson from Vietnam, saying that "if we don't fight the terrorists over there in Iraq, they'll be taking over all of the neighborhood businesses in the United States."

The Democrats' proposal was greeted with bi-partisan enthusiasm, especially by the advisers of Bush 41. As one anonymous source, strongly believed to be Brent Scowcroft, said: "If we can get the Vietnamese to rough Dubya' up a little, maybe he won't be so gung-ho about rushing to war."

CONTINUED at: http://satiricalpolitical.com/?p=416

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The Bush administration is now officially in a state of collapse, and they are now looking for someone to blame. I suggest that given Cheney's record-low standing in the polls that Bush and Rove may be planning to throw Cheney to the wolves after the midterm elections. I suggest this possibility because there has been a rash of anti-Cheney stories that are currently posted on Insight, the magazine of the Washington Times.

The most recent of the articles is an article suggesting that Cheney will retire after the mid-term elections. This, after a couple of articles suggested that Cheney, based on "anonymous sources" was taken out of the loop on Bush's foreign policy decisions. We know that Karl Rove is a master of whisper campaigns. I suggest that he is planning to save his own skin. We know that Bush and Rove had a rift after Plamegate broke out. I suggest that they have patched up their differences the best they could and are now working together to tag team Cheney.

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