Worst Speech Ever

This is really shocking:

In a pattern that would become familiar, however, a chill quickly followed the warming in relations. Barely a week after the Tokyo meeting, Iran was included with Iraq and North Korea in the "Axis of Evil." Michael Gerson, now a NEWSWEEK contributor, headed the White House speechwriting shop at the time. He says Iran and North Korea were inserted into Bush's controversial State of the Union address in order to avoid focusing solely on Iraq. At the time, Bush was already making plans to topple Saddam Hussein, but he wasn't ready to say so. Gerson says it was Condoleezza Rice, then national-security adviser, who told him which two countries to include along with Iraq. But the phrase also appealed to a president who felt himself thrust into a grand struggle. Senior aides say it reminded him of Ronald Reagan's ringing denunciations of the "evil empire."
Once again, Iran's reformists were knocked back on their heels. "Those who were in favor of a rapprochement with the United States were marginalized," says Adeli. "The speech somehow exonerated those who had always doubted America's intentions."

In short, Michael Gerson and Condoleezza Rice, purely in order to make a speech that (a) sounded good, and (b) pretended not to be exclusively about Iraq, set the United States on a collision course with Iran. That's really got to be a historic speechwriting blunder.

Naturally enough, Gerson's paid a high price for his role in instigating this destructive conflict. After continuing to serve for years in the White House he's been forced to accept a humiliating position as a Council on Foreign Relations fellow and a columnist for some obscure magazine called Newsweek.

2/11/07 6:35PM del.icio.us this incoming links

Comments

Gerson recently landed a job as a Washington Post columnist, too.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Michael_J._Gerson

Posted by: Parakeeta on February 11, 2007 07:07 PM

Might be some questionable cause and effect assumptions here. But it is amazing how such a dizzyingly ill-advised phrase as "AXIS of EVIL" was so lapped up by the majority at the time.

Posted by: Bill on February 11, 2007 07:13 PM

is it possible that rice's insertion, even at the time, was based around some calculation about bringing the fight to iran, even as they were still planning (albeit having decided) to invade iraq? pure speculation, but not outside the range of possibilities.

Posted by: looj on February 11, 2007 07:19 PM

Matt can't really be shocked by this can he? That is pretty much what I assumed at the time. The three countries were in no way an axis or even allies, as the bloody Iran-Iraq War underscores.

The Bush administration making radical policy shifts for the sake of a sound bite, is par for the course.

Posted by: AJ on February 11, 2007 07:56 PM

Actually, Dr. Rice wanted to add the Soviet Union and "San Francisco Values" to Iraq. It was Gerson's decision to use Iran and Korea because Rice's version "totally fucked up the meter."

Posted by: something polish on February 11, 2007 07:57 PM

"In short, Michael Gerson and Condoleezza Rice, purely in order to make a speech that (a) sounded good, and (b) pretended not to be exclusively about Iraq, set the United States on a collision course with Iran. That's really got to be a historic speechwriting blunder."

It could be a blunder, or it could be a choice that reflected the priorities of the President. I don't think that the Newsweek story says one way or the other.

Posted by: Kenneth Almquist on February 11, 2007 08:01 PM

Matt, that's one of the most depressing things I've read in a long time. I suppose if these people don't see it as a destructive conflict, they feel no remorse. But what awful irresponsibility.

Posted by: Jim M on February 11, 2007 08:10 PM

It could be a blunder, or it could be a choice that reflected the priorities of the President.

OK, all three are fucking incompetent war criminals.

Happy?

Posted by: dave™© on February 11, 2007 08:26 PM

Matt, that's one of the most depressing things I've read in a long time.

Agreed.

Posted by: a on February 11, 2007 08:35 PM

It's like our entire executive branch is a Dilbert cartoon, except it's not so funny.

Posted by: latts on February 11, 2007 08:53 PM

So, it's just like a Dilbert cartoon then?

oh, snap

Posted by: DivGuy on February 11, 2007 08:59 PM

The equally despicable David Frum has long taken "credit" for coming up with the Axis of Evil line.

I'll bet that Goebbels, Goering, and Hess fought among themselves over who came up with Der Fuhrer's slogans. Maybe a cage match with Gerson, Rice & Frum can settle this one. Or maybe the truth will come out at the war crimes tribunal.

Our civilization, brought down by fucking sound bites...

Posted by: woid on February 11, 2007 09:00 PM

No, this would require a modicum of competence, the likes of which this administration has never mustered. Occam's Razon: just another boneheaded idiocy from these morons.

Posted by: Dave on February 11, 2007 09:08 PM

D'oh! That should, of course, be Occam's Razor. Occam's Razon is one of those claymation thingees.

Posted by: Dave on February 11, 2007 09:12 PM

Apart from the failing upwards part, I think all of this has been known for several years.

I believe it was widely acknowledged that Gerson's axis of evil speech is what put North Korea on edge and led to their restarting their nuclear weapons program (that did lead to an eventual successful test.)

I recall driving through Tillamook Oregon in January 2003 listening to David Frum interviewed on Fresh Air....
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=907198
when they discussed, in part, the disastrous outcome of the axis of evil speech. (I haven't listened to this interview since then, I could certainly be wrong.)

Posted by: jerry on February 11, 2007 09:20 PM

The inside story of Rice's insertion:

You think you're a bad ass don't you George!
You're a pussy George.
Ahmadinejad is a real man George. Ahmad has 8 inches George. Kim has 7 inches George, and what? You barely have 3 twisted limp little inches.
Look at you, what a spineless wimp you are George. Lick my Ferragamos George.
Uh, uhh, I'm cumming Laura, I'm cumming Laura.

Posted by: Ari Fleischer on February 11, 2007 09:25 PM

Well, we shouldn't forget about the author of two-thirds of the phrase, whose wife bragged about her hubbie. This is one of my all-time faves (Pause that refreshes!):

"Dear all,

I realize this is very "Washington" of me to mention but my husband is responsible for the "Axis of Evil" segment of Tuesday's State of the Union address. It's not often a phrase one writes gains national notice—unless you're in advertising of course ("The Pause that refreshes")—so I'll hope you'll indulge my wifely pride in seeing this one repeated in headlines everywhere!!

Posted by: david mizner on February 11, 2007 09:28 PM

Gerson is an example of David Brooks' version of meritocracy: If you're wrong the way the corporate elite is wrong you get promoted, but if you have the misfortune of being right when the corporate elite is wrong you get sidelined. The difference is measured in six-figures per year.

Posted by: cp on February 11, 2007 09:56 PM

Please go Google this:

David Frum coined the phrase Axis of Hatred in late 2001 for use in the 2002 SOTU speech. The first Axis referred to IRAQ and IRAN. North Korea was added to make it seem like they weren't being anti-Arab or anti-Islam. Hatred became Evil - more powerful; evil must be crushed (no compromise with evil) while hatred must be counseled (shown the right path).

Frum was tossed out of the White House because his wife blabbed about it in an email.

Frum then spent a couple years recovering his right-wing creds.

Posted by: Clarity on February 11, 2007 10:14 PM

Gerson's a good speechwriter. Yeah, he's a neocon, supports the Iraq war, loves Bush, etc. But it's not like he could have done anything to deter Bush in any of those areas. As a senior advisor he mostly spoke for human rights and the fight against AIDS. Bush has spent a lot of money to fight AIDS in Africa, and Gerson gets some of the credit for that.

Still, why did NEWSWEEK hire him? Why does TIME hire Bill Kristol? It mystifies me, it really does.

Posted by: Korha on February 11, 2007 10:16 PM

Gerson is the Peggy Noonan of the Bush administration. A flowery writer hired to gin up and/or obscure hateful and lunatic rhetoric.

Only a matter of time before Dolphins appear on the pages of Newsweek.

Posted by: Upper West on February 11, 2007 10:18 PM

Matthew - Have you forgotten the NEOCONs? Go read what Norman Podhoretz wrote in Commentary and a shorter version in the WSJ:

"World War IV: How it Started, What it Means, and Why We Have to Win."

Listen to his interview on Fresh Air on NPR September 1, 2004:
The host reads this quote of his article to Norman:
“...we are only in the very early stages of what promises to be a very long war, and Iraq is only the second front to have been opened in that war: the second scene, so to speak, of the first act of a five-act play.”

His response includes at about 6 minutes 30 seconds into the interview:

“One of the next scenes or acts in this five-act play would have to be a change of regime in Iran. I think the same is true of Syria”

Posted by: Clarity on February 11, 2007 10:23 PM

I just don't believe Gerson's version of how that speech got written. Maybe that's how it seemed to him, the guy who took the policy bits and turned them into semi-coherent oratory. There were enough people in the administration who wanted to make threatening noises in Iran's direction that its inclusion in that speech was no rhetorical accident. That's not to suggest that the administration had anything resembling an actual policy on Iran; it sounds more like the hardliners were able to move fastest.

Posted by: Jackmormon on February 11, 2007 10:40 PM

korha -- why does Gerson get hired by Newsweek and WaPo op-ed?

Donald Graham.

Posted by: WaPoCritic on February 12, 2007 01:19 AM

The fucked up part is that this actually makes them look smarter than they did before. Earlier, the term Axis of Evil made it look like the Bushies thought that Iraq, Iran and North Korea were actually aligned like how Germany, Italy and France were once aligned. No it just turns out they were being cynical, which sadly is an improvement.

Posted by: Reality Man on February 12, 2007 01:23 AM

korha -- "Why does Gerson get hired by Newsweek and WaPo op-ed?"

Donald Graham.

Posted by: WaPoCritic on February 12, 2007 01:24 AM

Well, geewhiz.

And here I always thought it was David Frum that was the father of the nuclear arms race in the Mideast.

Posted by: Cheryl on February 12, 2007 01:45 AM

The term "sonofabitch" is SO overused these days, I suggest we restrict it to include only those whose actions resulted in the deaths of at least three thousand decent human beings. That would include Frum and Gerson. Given these characters are essentially children of the media, there are a number of appropriate things that can be done to register one's disapproval of individuals of this particular species: 1. Elevate their despicable action to a verb: i.e. to "Frum" is to create a condition in which an enemy is created out of whole cloth for the sole purpose of legitimizing an illegitimate action, i.e. invading a sovereign nation and killing its leader. To "Gerson" is to take part in foul political acts resulting in the deaths of thousands, and then be rewarded for it by corporations ostensibly involved in unbiased reportage.
Personally, the next time I write about these two "people" I plan to lower-case their names. As in "frum" and "gerson."

Posted by: RMiller on February 12, 2007 02:38 AM

Thank goodness my actions have only caused the deaths of 2,500 people. And most of them sucked! Instead of being a "sonofabitch," I'm just an asshole. Maybe someday I'll graduate to being a "sonofabitch."

Posted by: Reality Man on February 12, 2007 02:41 AM

Probably North Korea was included so that Muslims would not feel unduly singled out.

Posted by: bob h on February 12, 2007 06:33 AM

What do you expect from a Bush league administration?!

Posted by: Hedley Lamarr on February 12, 2007 07:05 AM

MY:

This post is startlingly naive. You can't possibly believe this was on Gerson's initiative and was merely a case of bad timing.

bob h:

The original third country was not to have been North Korea, but Syria. But that would have made the intentions of the policy too obvious.

Posted by: brendan on February 12, 2007 10:02 AM

Actually, the original Axis of was supposed to be Iraq, Mordor and Latveria, but Rumsfeld nixed the second one and Cheney nixed the third.

Posted by: pbg on February 12, 2007 10:23 AM

Actually, the original Axis of was supposed to be Iraq, Mordor and Latveria, but Rumsfeld nixed the second one and Cheney nixed the third.

I thought the third country was originally supposed to be Pottsylvania.

Posted by: Dave on February 12, 2007 10:36 AM

"...set the United States on a collision course with Iran. That's really got to be a historic speechwriting blunder."

I don't know that the Bush Administration would call it a blunder to set us on a collision course with Iran. That has been their intent all along.

Posted by: steve ex-expat on February 12, 2007 10:44 AM

"Naturally enough, Gerson's paid a high price for his role in instigating this destructive conflict. After continuing to serve for years in the White House he's been forced to accept a humiliating position as a Council on Foreign Relations fellow and a columnist for some obscure magazine called Newsweek."

In the Army they have a name for this: It's called "fuck up and move up." See: Sanchez, Rick and Casey, George.

Posted by: Peter Principle on February 12, 2007 11:00 AM

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