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Bush and Condi Find Something to Celebrate

Crisis, what crisis? It's all backslapping at Foggy Bottom

By Jason Farago, Newser Staff

Posted Jan 16, 2009 8:33 AM CST

(Newser) – India and Pakistan are at loggerheads, Afghanistan is a narco-state, and the Middle East is almost unspeakably troubled—so how did George W. Bush's diplomatic team see off their president? With yesterday's "Ceremony to Commemorate Foreign Policy Achievements," a State Department lovefest complete with billowing flags and commemorative plaques. As Dana Milbank of the Washington Post notes, the lack of actual achievements kept the ceremony short, but there was no shortage of adulation.

Condoleezza Rice presented Bush with a plaque, revealed with a flourish when a military aide pulled back a curtain. Not enough? The secretary of state then gave Bush another plaque—saying, "This one shows what you have done to expand the circle of human freedom in the world"—along with a "Certificate of Appreciation" for the first lady, and five flags "in nifty triangular boxes." Condi herself went home empty-handed, though not without this last bit of praise from her boss: "She's like my sister."

[Images (4)]

[Quotes (2)]

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice presents President George W. Bush with a memento displaying the flags of European nations that entered NATO during his time as president, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush visit the State Department in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009, for a farewell ceremony with diplomats and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

President George W. Bush, right, kisses Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009, at the State Department in Washington. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

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Mr. President, history's judgment is rarely the same as today's headlines.
- Condoleezza Rice to Bush at yesterday's Ceremony to Commemorate Foreign Policy Achievements

History will say that Condi Rice was one of the great secretaries of state our country has ever had. - Bush to Condoleezza at yesterday's Ceremony to Commemorate Foreign Policy Achievements

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Bush and Condi Find Something to Celebrate