Why Did Condi Make a Personal Visit?

Generally the US is fairly assiduous in not being seen to take sides in domestic politics. Generally this means they avoid calling by when elections are due. At the time the late July Rice visit was mooted many saw it as unlikely for electoral courtesy reasons and because our Foreign Minister was getting deeper in the doo-do by the day, the liklihood of a visit was probably remote.

Despite this background Rice did in fact come and as we know was subjected to the ignominy of watching Peters's press conference descend into farce as domestic questions dominated around his deepening funding scandals - Remember the quote to a journo - "watch it sunshine" or WTTE . All very unedifying. The Hive carried all these perambulations well.

Condi could have gone straight to Samoa for the PIF meeting - it was after all a US Air Force jet with little need for more than fuel from here - if that.

Now as we watch things play out in the last days of the Helengrad regime I have been thinking - - maybe - just maybe - Condi had a more diplomatic mission - one conducted in the old way. A personal contact as emissary of GWB to the head of the NZ Government - anti-nuke Clark.

Condi's job was to tell our PM, Miss Clark, in person, that unless she got Filk Off into line on the nuclear front - particularly helping "our" friends in India - matters would quickly drop out of Helen's "conscientious and competent" hands as a number of cover-ups in the US started to get headlines; at an awkward time.

Weird isn't it that Clark, Filk Off, King, Mallard, Cullen and all the anti-war gang - people of principle? - have rolled over and granted a major non-signatory of the Nuclear Proliferastion Treaty an open goal. Fishy eh!

There are rumours aplenty in the blogosphere of the dirty dealings of Clark and Co - the VRWC is in full cry - tally ho - or is that Talley Ho?