Condi! Whose Cup Are You Drinking From Lately?

Power comes from lying ... Lying big and getting the whole damn world to play along with you ... Once you got everybody agreeing with what they know in their hearts ain't true, you get them by the balls

Senator Roark, from “Sin City - That Yellow Bastard”

Just curious there, piano girl, but do you ever see yourself on television? Do you review your public statements, so, theoretically, you don't go out the next time and put your knee-high-booted foot in your mouth?

I ask, you see, due to you, our Nanny of State, last week, while in Russia, chastized the Russian government, and its' leader, Vladimir Putin, over what appears to be a consolidation of power;

"In any country, if you don't have countervailing institutions, the power of any one president is problematic for democratic development," Rice told reporters after meeting with human-rights activists.

"I think there is too much concentration of power in the Kremlin. I have told the Russians that. Everybody has doubts about the full independence of the judiciary. There are clearly questions about the independence of the electronic media and there are, I think, questions about the strength of the Duma," said Rice, referring to the Russian parliament."

First off, when did the memo go out that Russia was a beacon of democracy?

Are they going with an a la carte democracy, or did they buy the Starter Kit, complete with a ready-to-go Constitution and a bonus set of "Mission Accomplished" banners?

And, if they are installing the Bush-Style Democracy, they shouldn’t have any problems complying with their FISA Act, being, if it takes a week to make a phone call, there's plenty of time to get down to the courts for the warrants.

Secondly, and here you have the boatload of irony, did it occur to you there Missy ... Well, better asked ... Is not having countervailing institutions and "the power of any one president" a problem for already-established democracies?

I'm surprised Putin didn't laugh in your face and shoot back - "You, mean, like in your country!"

We know that our Nanny of State has been out of the limelight for some time (although, Barry Crimmins has the scoop that she was "found by the BBC"), so maybe you've got, I don't know, a Vitamin D deficiency, or something, going on ...

I mean, there's the above lulu (almost as good as when here work husband, The Commander Guy, uttered, with similar straight face "I'm aware of the fact that perhaps somebody in the administration did disclose the name of that person ...") and there's the one last month, when you equated Zarqawi To Ulysses S. Grant And Robert E. Lee ...

Whose cup are you drinking from down there?

Is it the pressure of being husband-less? ... The new rumors on your lifestyle? ... Still steamed about the Pope blowing you off?

I don't know, with you now running off to the Middle East, you might be tempted to try to kick-start a late-second-term-facing-saving-Mid-East-Peace-Plan that calls for ... I don't know ... Something like the Palestinians to have their own state...

Oops!

Bonus Condi Girl Links

Michael J.W. Stickings/The Reaction: Headline of the Day (Condi Rice edition)

Glenn Kessler/Washington Post: Transformed By Her Bond With Bush; Rice's Loyalty Brings Power and Pitfalls

Top Ten Cloves: Things About Condoleezza Rice Becoming NFL Commissioner

Our Girl Condi Gets A Theme Song - Neocons and Lovers