By constantly harping on the need to reform and transform the State Department without providing any specifics, it becomes clear that Gingrich is using the easy target of the State Department bureaucracy as a pretext for criticizing Bush's diplomatic policies through Powell. Gingrich appears to be attempting to drive a wedge between the president and his secretary of state in the name of reform, which plays right into the hands of America's adversaries. It also plays right into the hands of the Daschle Democrats who would love nothing better than to create dissention over foreign policy within the ranks of the Bush administration and blame the president for a failure.
Talking about the run-up to the war in Iraq, Gingrich charged that, "From President Bush's clear choice between two worlds, the State Department had descended into a murky game in which the players were deceptive and the rules were stacked against the United States." This accusation against the Powell State Department has the same ring to it as David Frum's accusation, published in National Review, against Bob Novak and other anti-war conservatives that "They have turned their backs on their country."
Gingrich laments that he believes Powell is complicit in a process that not only undermines the Bush administration but is in direct contravention with the interests of the United States. He really goes over the top when he lashes out at Powell for "throw(ing) away all the fruits of hard-won victory (in Iraq) by going to Syria." In Gingrich's words, "The concept of the American secretary of state going to Damascus to meet with a terrorist-supporting, secret-police-wielding dictator is ludicrous."
What's ludicrous is the implication that Powell would go to Syria on his own without orders from the president. If Gingrich understands that the secretary of state would only make such a visit at the direct order of the president (which I can assure you he does), then it is the president's actions, not Powell's, that Gingrich is calling ludicrous.
We haven't heard much from Gingrich since his AEI speech, so I can only assume he realizes his mistake. Coming from Gingrich, a week of silence says more than a year's worth of speeches.