"candid" condi? prognosis unlikely

So Crown will publish 3 books by Condi, paying $2.5m for the privilege. Crown's press release crows,

"Rice will combine candid narrative and acute analysis to tell the story of her time in the White House and as America's top diplomat, and her role in protecting American security and shaping foreign policy during the extraordinary period from 2001-2009," according to a statement issued yesterday by Crown, a division of Random House. Dr Rice's book is planned for 2011.

The only thing that I think is likely to be true in that paragraph is that the book - a memoir of her eight years in the de facto Bush Administration - is planned for 2011. Rice more than anybody is a creature of the Bush Dynasty, one who owes her professional advancement (I hesitate to write "success") to her buddy-buddy relationship with George W. Bush, which began during the presidency of Poppy Bush, in which Rice played a relatively junior role at the NSC. Of all former Bush Administration officials, Rice is the last one I can imagine writing a truly "candid" analysis of her time at NSC or State. Because a "candid" analysis would include such trenchant details as fixing the intel to satisfy the preconceptions of Cheney and the neocons who were spoiling for a war in Iraq from before Bush's election. It would include (assuming she is self-aware enough to notice it) an analysis of her failures in the role of National Security Adviser, as demonstrated by the Pentagon-State rivalry under Rumsfeld and Powell on key issues like Iraq.

As it is I will be interested in her "candid" look at things such as how Bush looked in Putin's eyes and saw his soul and deemed Putin somebody he could work with to support US policy goals (Putin will do so only as far as they support HIS goals), or how Bush, Rice and everybody else blew off Richard Clarke's "hair on fire" August 2001 warnings of an imminent Al Qaeda attack in the United States.

But I think it safe to assume that Rice will write little to offend or hurt her husband I mean her most recent patron, George W. Bush. I'm sure Crown will make money on the deal because the usual suspects on the right will buy her book in bulk. But unless I am vastly mistaken, I wouldn't expect it would be worth your hard-earned dollars. And unless she totally surprises me and IS candid, I bet far more copies are sold than are actually read.

Oh, as for "acute analysis" I'll be interested and surprised if she produces any. Because really, that's what she should have done in her eight years at NSC and State.