'Mad dog' and 'Leezza': A Libyan love story?

Oh, to be a fly in the tent when Condoleezza Rice meets Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi.

The meeting may only last for an hour or two, probably in the Colonel's famed Bedouin-style tent, but it will be historic. Washington and Tripoli have patched up their relationship -- Gadhafi has agreed to stop funding terrorist groups, we've agreed not to call him names like "mad dog of the Middle East" anymore -- and Rice will be the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Libya in more than 50 years.

The State Department has been talking about this visit for well over a year, after Gadhafi joined the "war on terror" by cracking down on Islamic fundamentalists. The AP calls Libya "a foreign policy success for a Bush administration badly in need of one in its final months."

Now, I'd be careful about labeling this an unmitigated success. For one thing, you could argue that oil-rich Libya needs the rapprochement at least as much as the West does, probably more. For another, even if Gadhafi is cooperating on terrorism, his human rights record remains abysmal, even by the State Department's own reckoning.

Still, you'd think that the administration would be trumpeting the trip. Yet Rice is visiting while the news back home is dominated by the Republican convention.

A PR opportunity missed? Or a clever bit of preemptive scheduling? Because with the odd, temperamental Gadhafi, you never know what you're going to get.

This is the man who convened a major round of Darfur peace talks in his hometown last year and then threw a tantrum during the opening speeches because the two main rebel leaders spurned his invitation. I still remember sitting in the plush conference hall in Sirte last year, trying to keep from laughing uncomfortably as Gadhafi, wearing a khaki military shirt and a distant gaze, told the delegates that they were wasting their time.

"The international community had better devote its time to grave problems elsewhere," the Leader said. "To intervene in tribal problems is an exercise in futility."

Who knows what flights of rhetorical fancy Rice in the flesh will inspire from a man who loves to hear himself speak. The State Department press corps has been lustily quoting from an interview that Gadhafi gave to Al Jazeera last year, when he -- totally unprompted -- called Rice "my darling black African woman," and said he admired the way she "leans back and gives orders to the Arab leaders."

The interviewer, likely being familiar with Rice's spotted record in the Middle East, appeared surprised.

Jazeera: (interrupts the leader): You are referring to the American secretary of state, right?

Gadhafi: Yes, Leezza, Leezza, Leezza... I love her very much. I admire her, and I'm proud of her, because she's a black woman of African origin. I congratulate her on reaching this global status. When she beckons to the heads of the Arab security agencies, they come running. She's the secretary of state, yet she heads the Arab security agencies.

In the closing months of her term as secretary, Rice might like to hear this version of events. But other statements could send her running to the exit. Gadhafi has also reportedly called her "mistress of the Arab slaves."

I have to agree with Geoff Porter, an analyst for the Eurasia Group risk consultancy, who put it succinctly: "Such statements perhaps vindicate the State Department's decision to arrange the meeting while all eyes are focused on St. Paul," site of the Republican convention.

Comments

[bankelele]

This is too funny, and unfortunately it's a real world story so I shoulld not be laughing at the new owner of the Grand Regency Hotel (I wonder what he told our leaders when they went to his tent)

[woz]

fabulous!