Speculation over Powell's successor is running hot and heavy. The brilliant Paul Wolfowitz is high on everyone's list. So is National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. But insiders believe that the president wants Rice to remain at his side in a second term that looks to be increasingly probable -- particularly as the Democratic presidential candidates implode with their campaign-trail McGovernism.
Some in the Bush inner circle are buzzing about Ambassador Paul Bremer, the administration's proconsul in Iraq. The handsome Bremer, a former executive assistant to Henry Kissinger three decades ago, has proven to be a tough-minded negotiator in Iraq. He has not been afraid to take action, but he has been politically sensitive enough to put together a governing coalition of Kurds, Sunnis and Shia.
Bremer took over seamlessly for Jay Garner, the hapless former lieutenant general. He immediately set to work on getting the power going, the water running and the schools operational. He brought in New York City's former top cop Bernard Kerik to train the Baghdad police force. He has also launched economic-reform plans that emphasize private investment and a market-oriented approach.
Both the Arab League and OPEC are beginning to worry that the Bush democratization experiment could well succeed. The dictatorial mullahs in Iran and the terrorist-sponsoring Bashar al-Assad in Syria must be quaking in their boots at the prospect of American-sponsored democracy spreading to their nations.
Chances are that a Secretary of State Bremer could bring some of this magic to the State Department's foreign service. As former Washington insider Peter Robinson wrote in his new book on Ronald Reagan, this is a group that time and again opposed Reagan's Soviet-dissolving Evil Empire and tear-down-this-wall messages. If the moss-backed foreign service continues to sympathize with U.S. enemies and remain hostile to Republican administrations, Bremer would undoubtedly act decisively to implement change.
Secretary of State Colin Powell served during a period of incredible tumult following the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Despite diplomatic opposition worldwide, he has been an effective purveyor of Bush policies. But now it may be time to bring in a man like Paul Bremer, whose thinking seems to be at one with that of President Bush, and whose strength of character and conviction would allow him to shake up the State Department and cement the president's policies for generations to come.