America and Fill-in-the-Blank: Best Friends Forever
Looks like when it comes to the art of diplomatic flirtation, Condi has been recycling the same sweet nothing, over and over again:
CONDOLEEZZA RICE offered more than a bow after a meeting with Japanese diplomats here on Monday. She offered friendship. ''We have no better friend than Japan,'' Ms. Rice said at the State Department.It was a familiar refrain. As secretary of state, Ms. Rice has said that the United States had ''no better friend'' than Jordan, Greece, Italy, Australia, Singapore, Britain and, separately, the United Kingdom.
Of course, diplomacy depends upon stylized language, and other administrations have been equally adept at recycling it. But ''no better friend'' seems to imply an intimacy at odds with too frequent use.
Condi, we have no better Cabinet member than you. Seriously.