There’s been lots of banter in the blogosphere on the Iraq Study Group’s amazingly convoluted recommendations, much of it glossing over co-director James Baker’s longstanding financial and other ties to Saudi Arabia, but noting that out of all the proposed Middle Eastern conferences and diplomacy, the one country left out entirely is Israel. While making the Golan Heights a bargaining chip for Iraqi peace.
Some say that was predictable, given Baker’s reputed remark to Bush senior years ago to "F…the Jews, they didn’t vote for us anyway," since few of them are Republicans. But Baker, of Houston, has been known in Texas for cynicism ever since he ran for attorney general back in the 1980s. His television ads featured him slamming a cell door while talking about locking up criminals and throwing away the key. He didn’t invent the imagery or the slogan, he just mined it for all it was worth. What he knew, and what he also knew at least some of the electorate didn’t know, was that the Texas AG handles only civil cases. Not criminal ones. Forturnately for Texans, he lost.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 