{"id":52707,"date":"2019-11-15T03:00:16","date_gmt":"2019-11-15T08:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=52707"},"modified":"2019-11-14T12:32:16","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T17:32:16","slug":"in-a-functioning-system-the-head-of-the-government-sets-foreign-policy-and-the-diplomats-enact-it-so-naturally-theres-not-a-chance-of-that-in-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2019\/11\/15\/in-a-functioning-system-the-head-of-the-government-sets-foreign-policy-and-the-diplomats-enact-it-so-naturally-theres-not-a-chance-of-that-in-washington\/","title":{"rendered":"“In a functioning system, the head of the government sets foreign policy and the diplomats enact it. So naturally there’s not a chance of that in Washington”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark Steyn<\/a> on the foggiest of Foggy Bottom diplomatic bafflegab on the first day of the :<\/p>\n

Yesterday I caught a bit of the impeachment theatre en route to a lunchtime speaking engagement. To be honest, if they’d come round and performed it live in my hotel room, I’d still have fled. If universally respected eminent lifelong career foreign-service bigshots Bill Taylor and George Kent are Adam Schiff’s star witnesses, their chief purpose seems to be to get Democrats pining for the charisma of Bill de Blasio and the self-effacement of John Kerry.<\/p>\n

In a functioning system, the head of the government sets foreign policy and the diplomats enact it. So naturally there’s not a chance of that in Washington. When Taylor and Kent whine that there seemed to be a “shadow foreign policy”, the shadow is theirs; they spent a day testifying that everything had been going ticketty-boo for decades just as they’d always done things – and then Trump came along and took a different view. Oh, my! Anyone would think that, as Barack Obama once proposed, “elections have consequences”.<\/p>\n

First up was George Kent, the “Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Eastern Europe and the Caucasus”. He warmed up the crowd with some extensive biographical material about the “nearly sixty years” of George Kents (I believe he’s George III or some such) who have “chosen” to endow America with the blessings of their “public service”. It didn’t help that he wore a bow tie. Eventually he stopped talking about himself and started talking about Ukraine:<\/p>\n