Condi Goes Ballistic

Rice Slams US Envoy's NKorea Criticism
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday sharply rebuked a fellow member of the Bush administration who criticized international negotiations aimed at persuading North Korea to scrap its nuclear weapons program.

Rice said that Jay Lefkowitz, President Bush's special envoy on North Korean human rights, "doesn't know what's going on in the six-party talks, and he certainly has no say on what American policy will be in the six-party talks."

Lefkowitz said Thursday that the North is not serious about disarming and probably still will have its nuclear weapons when the next U.S. president takes over in January 2009, despite four years of nuclear disarmament talks by the United States, the Koreas, Japan, China and Russia.

The Bush administration has been working to distance itself from the rare public criticism of administration policy by a government official. The comments come at a time when the nuclear talks have reached an impasse, and the North has missed a promised deadline and increased its hostile rhetoric.

Rice, speaking with reporters on her way to Germany for talks on Iran's nuclear program, said that she knows where Bush stands on North Korean policy, "and I know where I stand, and those are the people who speak for American policy."

Asked if she thought the Chinese and Russians would be confused by Lefkowitz's comments, Rice said she doubted they would even recognize the special envoy's name.

[...]

Someday she might figure out who the bogeyman is.

Maybe.

Read the rest at The AP

UPDATE: Instapundit links. Thank you, Glenn!