Neo-Cons Now Running Shadow US Government

This is the most important summary of the progessive liberal news today so I won't post anything else.

Center for American Progress - Progress Report

Here is a small excerpt:

PRAGMATISM AND MODERATION ARE NO VICE: [Senator] Hagel also said “we must avoid the traps of ideology” in dictating foreign policy – a critique of recent revelations of just how hard-line the Administration’s foreign policy has become. Just this morning, the Sydney Morning Herald reports, “A former Pentagon officer turned whistleblower says a group of hawks in the Bush Administration, including Vice President Dick Cheney, is running a shadow foreign policy, contravening Washington's official line.” Karen Kwiatkowski, a former Lt. Colonel in the Air Force and Middle East specialist for neo-conservative icon Douglas Feith at the Pentagon, said “Key [governmental] areas of neoconservative concern were politically staffed.” She said pursuit of national security decisions often bypassed "civil service and active-duty military professionals," and was handled instead by political appointees who shared common ideological ties. Her analysis is consistent with today's Knight-Ridder in which "both friends and critics of the Administration agree that the contrasting remarks from Bush and his vice president reflect the rival views and crippling schisms dividing the Administration's senior councils." On one side are "neoconservatives favoring strong U.S. assertiveness, led by Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. On the other are pragmatists favoring diplomacy and allies, led by Secretary of State Colin Powell." As one senior official said in an earlier story , “It's not about tactics; it's about ideology, there's no compromise possible between two opposing views of how this country should deal with the rest of the world."