Condi: Rock Star

Back in December Joel Brinkley wrote a terminally silly and wishful thinking article in the New York Times about Condi's travels and her "rock star image" abroad.

How's that image doing these days? Today's New York Times has a report today on Condi's trip to England, which tells us that she "faced more protests and public embarrassment here on Saturday" and that it has been a "two-day run through a raucous, mishap-ridden gantlet." Not only have British Muslim protesters given her hell, but her fellow rock stars wouldn't even meet with her.

"On Friday, Ms. Rice had to content herself with a visit to the Liverpool school where Paul McCartney studied instead of meeting him — and had to face a short line of students wearing T-shirts that said: 'No torture. No compromise.' During a visit to a school in Blackburn, she was greeted with chants of 'Condi Rice go home!'"

There was a concert for Condi at Liverpool's Philharmonic Hall on Saturday. Poet Roger McGough (who used to be in a 60s pop band called The Scaffold with Paul McCartney's brother Mike) was supposed to host, but pulled out last week, in the wake of calls for protests outside the event by the Merseyside Stop the War Coalition. Singer Jennifer John, who agreed to perform at the event, chose to perform John Lennon's utopian pacifist song, "Imagine," as a form of protest. (Imagine no religion...). Condi was supposed to visit a mosque in Blackburn yesterday, but that invitation was withdrawn due to pressures from anti-war activists.

Some rock star. Eat your words, Joe Brinkley! (Although one might argue in defense of Brinkley, who was just doing what most reporters do these days: copy the statements put out by government PR and spinsters.)

Tags: Condoleeza Rice, Liverpool, anti-war