Georgia On My Mind and Pepper 2

Critics who roasted Pepper for appearing “too presidential,” a few weeks ago, are now criticizing him for not being “presidential” in his statements about the Russian invasion of the Republic of Georgia. Clearly, no matter what he does, Pepper will never please a certain body of fools who worship at the crumbling clay feet of Man Who Wears MooMoo Made of Bed Sheets. That said, it is apparent that Pepper is trying to avoid the flatulent, bellicose rhetoric practiced by his opponent, a rhetoric that suggests impotence, rather than strength. Vice president Cheney has already made menacing sounds that could be interpreted as a deep desire forAmerican military confrontation in this newest war zone, and there is an echo of that pronouncement in MooMoo Man's statement. (Are we surprised?) Given our reduced capacity to open yet another war front, perhaps Cheney will recommend nationalizing the Girl and Boy Scouts and the adult members of the YMCA and YWCA to form their officer corps. Calls for international cooperation by President Bush have, so far, fallen on deaf ears in Europe. The leader who could not lead more than a handful of nations into his “coalition of the willing” now finds that his call for action has even less authority. The specter of Putin, still commanding a vast atomic arsenal, puts the international policy failures of the Bush administration into high relief and shows clearly how foolish and dangerous our invasion of Iraq has become, so far as American policy going forward is concerned. It is clear that Putin would like to reassemble the old Soviet empire, at least in part, and crush the democratic process wherever possible. He has made a successful start. In this critical situation, what are the options for Pepper? Sadly, they are very limited. Unlike MooMoo Bed Sheet Guy, he cannot and will not recommend immediate military action by the United States. Our international credibility has been severely damaged; ”Mayor Pepper" has yet to take office and test the willingness of foreign leaders to work with his new administration. That is a form of goodwill that cannot be lent or traded around to the credit-strapped Secretary Rice. Putin has already made his disdain for Rice brutally clear and very public. Moreover, it might be deemed inappropriate for Pepper to say or do anything that could undermine whatever efforts the Bush administration is still trying to make. (Remember when Ronald Reagan observed a discreet distance from Carter’s agony over our hostages in Iran, a problem that more or less vanished the very hour that the new president took the oath of office?) The situation in Georgia will not vanish in the inaugural mists, but Pepper may be able to deal with the situation more effectively, since Putin knows we will begin withdrawing forces from Iraq almost immediately. Pepper may also be able to excite some interest on the part of the Chinese, who cannot be pleased with the revival of an aggressive Russia. Bush clearly has little or no credit at that window, either, and his baiting of the Chinese leaders on “human rights” issues about which he has done little or nothing for eight years, simply proves he has written them off for the next six months. Without executive power and a willing congress behind him, there is nothing Pepper can or should do, beyond the obvious calls for Russiato stop fighting. If Putin feels safe in ignoring Bush and Cheney, who actually have their hands on the firing codes, he certainly will not yield to a man who is not yet the official nominee of his political party. Chess is the great national game of Russia; it appears that we have been placed in check so far as our foreign policy is concerned. Impotent howling from Man Who Wears MooMoo Made of Bed Sheets will do nothing to change that grim reality.