Bush could well offer the secretary of defense job to his one-time political opponent, senator John McCain. Putting McCain, a career Navy officer whose heroics as a prisoner of war in Vietnam are legendary, in charge of the Pentagon would be a popular choice. It would also be a way of getting him out of the Senate, where his demands for further tobacco industry regulation and for eliminating corporate underwriting of political campaigns could prove pestiferous. In the Bush administration, Powell s opposition to Desert Shield caused a chill in his relations with Cheney when it became public. But Rice goes along with the Powell doctrine of aggressive passivity.
Famines are really the withholding of food as a political act.
A former foreign service officer who has been advising Gore for 20 years, Fuerth would almost certainly become the national security adviser if his boss wins in November. Other members of Gore s foreign policy team are veteran interventionists. Richard Holbrooke , the odds-on favourite to become secretary of state, was the chief broker of the fragile deal that ended the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff through much of that conflict, John Shalikashvili , is the likely secretary of defense in a Gore administration. The chief broker of the Northern Ireland peace talks, former senator George Mitchell, was considered a potential Gore running mate and could be tapped for the State Department or for United Nations ambassador, if he is not appointed to the Supreme Court.