Wolfowitz: The Fox Is Again In The Hen House. Rice Is the Hen.

Well-known as the chief architect of the current war in Iraq, disgraced former World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, the man with whom many associate the term “neocon,” was named today by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as the new chair of a high-level advisory panel on arms control and disarmament, the International Security Advisory Board. This is a perfect move, as Wolfowitz knows where all the weapons are, having been in large part responsible for starting the war in the first place. Wolfowitz was the “most passionate and compelling advocate” of the Iraq war.

Wolfowitz has a long history in armaments, having worked in the Nixon administration for the head of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. One could argue that this is a good fit, but I would argue that this is a typical pattern of the Bush administration: putting the fox in charge of the hen house. Just think back to Bush’s nomination of Michael Barody, chief lobbyist for the National Association of Manufacturers, to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The National Association of Manufacturers is “ a powerful trade group that opposes aggressive product safety regulation.” Barody ultimately withdrew his name the day before the Senate was to vote on his nomination.

There is of course the disastrous career of Alberto Gonzales, the man who ultimately was forced to resign in disgrace as this nation’s Attorney General. You’ll remember Gonzales as the man who, among other assaults on the Constitution, declared that the Constitution does not guarantee the right of Habeas Corpus to every citizen. This, coming from the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, the attorney general.

In 2005, Bush named vocal United Nations critic John Bolton to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Knowing Congress would not approve this choice, Bush simply waited until Congress was out of session then named him as a recess appointment.

Recently, Bush nominated (and Congress approved) now former Air Force General Michael V. Hayden as the Director of the CIA. General Hayden testified that he could not define waterboarding as “torture,” because he was not privy to the specifics of the process, being only an Air Force General. Along the same narrow slope, add the controversial nomination of now Attorney General Michael Mukasey who “refused to classify the practice of waterboarding as unconstitutional, repeatedly claiming it depends on how one defines torture.”

The pattern is clear. Put the fox in charge of the henhouse. Put the one who is most opposed to the organization’s mission to be in control of it. Making Paul Wolfowitz the chair of the Department of State’s International Security Advisory Board, presumably an independent authority to advise Rice on arms control and disarmament is the move of an administration that obviously feels it has nothing left to lose, so why not go down fighting. To believe that Wolfowitz has any intention of moving toward disarmament - or any reduction of American weaponry or forces, is ludicrous. Wolfowitz, no doubt, will be working on inspiring and conspiring to ensure this administration goes to war with Iran, before their term is up. Of course, there is that signing statement that gives Bush complete and legal right to declare marshal law. Perhaps this is his opportunity to invoke it.

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