"I've seen Blackwill in action"

Oh, really? Cuz you're only telling half the story here, you know ... apparently he likes to parade around naked in his house where Francis Brooke can see him. Or so says Richard Leiby.

Is this Wonkette, or danieldrezner.com? Who cares if Blackwill parades around his house naked (besides his neighbors, I mean)?

"Imperious SOB" and "manager of rare gifts" do not *usually* go together...

Also "manager of rare gifts" and "plunging morale among staff."

I also don't understand the claim that Blackwill's departure is a shame. Surely we can find good managers and policy-makers who are also good people.

Also, I understand Professor Drezner's desire to keep things bipartisan, but I'd be interested to know the occasions that Holbrooke and Sperling assaulted low-level civil servants.

I'd also like to know if Holbrooke joined a lobbying firm that had offshoots that were highly involved in gaining contracts for work in Bosnia. Mr. Blackwill is now employed with a lobbying firm that has benefitted tremendously from Iraq related contracts.

It is really really nice that he can fall in to a nice think tank job. If you or I hurt a female staffer we would be out, probably sued and on unemployment.

Oh yes, different rules for Novaks and Blackwells.

C'mon. Let's all stop pretending that any person, any policy is going to make a difference in Iraq.

It was a Bad Idea, and now we are paying the price. Actually, not we, but working class Americans. This story and this post is just one more example of the noise being put out about Iraq.

Put me down as being confused as to how he's an SBO and a manager of rare gifts.

I worked with Blackwill at the US Embassy in India.

Blackwill is an incredibly brilliant thinker with absolutely no interpersonal skills. As such, he is not even a half-way decent "manager", when the management concerns people. He manages concepts, however, extraordinarily well.

I never saw Blackwill touch an employee other than to shake hands. His manner is such that embassy staff wondered that he could have fathered three children. Or have married twice. "What the hell did a spouse get out of the relationship?" was the question.

Blackwill is the textbook definition of "workaholic." He sleeps four hours a night. He informed staff that he wanted only one day off of work, every two weeks. He expected his supporting officers and staff to share that same work ethic. Staff and officers liked to pretend, at least to themselves, that they had lives and families outside of the office. The officers who did best with him were the ones who were forthright with him.

One junior officer, my Deputy Information Officer who was responsible for many of his speeches and statements, bluntly told him that he would do whatever the Ambassador wanted, but... Thursdays nights were out, due to one child's soccer practice; Tuesdays were out due to another child's theater group; Sundays were out because his family went to church. (It was understood, of course, that a crisis would alter the limits.) When I suggested to him that his staff really did need two-day weekends, Blackwill not only accepted the suggestions, but abided by them. Most State officers, though, were far too concerned about their careers to dare challenge an ambassador. Had they done so, they would have been surprised.

By the time I'd arrive in my office at 0730 (early, because I knew there'd be a lot of work waiting), I would find between 20 and 30 e-mails from Blackwill, time-stamped from 0330 onward, most dealing with materials he'd gleaned from the Internet. He was exceptionally demanding of his staff, to the point where they were breaking down with overload.

While Blackwill made my life difficult, he was always a decent human being. I think his major fault was that he simply lacked empathy toward other human beings, whether they were staff or foreign counterparts. It seemed, at times, that what he knew about managing personnel he'd read in a book. He could and would argue his side exceptionally well; he was not quick to realize that other sides might have some merit on occasion.

That being said, I'd go back to work with Blackwill in a flash, particularly if the choice were to work with Holbrooke instead. Blackwill was not mean-spirited, just clueless sometimes. Holbrooke, in my estimation, is out outright bastard.

A friend of mine had similar experiences with Blackwill as John Burgess and has similarly high regard for Blackwill's intelligence and dedication. The demands Blackwill is said to have placed on his staff are unusual in government and academia, but not at all unusual in the private sector. High-performing organizations just don't prioritize making their employees' lives all that comfortable. There are any number of young professionals at top-level consulting firms, investment banks and law firms that could tell similar stories about the partner/MD/etc. that they worked for. I don't think this or any administration would work well with 100 Blackwills, but zero is way too few. It is a real shame that he left, and I say that as a Democrat.

Reminds me of Patton being sacked for slapping a shell shocked soldier. I think it says alot about our country that we are willing to sacrifice an SOB even if it's a very VERY inconvienent time to do so.

Don't forget shakeups at the CIA. Four more years of fun ahead.

What makes you so sure that Blackwill was forced out? I think he may have just called it quits when his pride was affronted. He doesn't seem to me to be the kind of man that would take a dressing down from Condi, a former protege of his. Given how hard he worked, the Bush Administration needed him more than he need them. They should have remembered that.

I could certainly accept the idea of his leaving after his pride was unredeemably bruised. "Humble" is not an attribute I'd pin on him.

I certainly take anon's point, but would also point out that you cannot keep any machine running full-out indefinitely. And those young lawyers who work 90-hour weeks do so for a limited period of time before they either get promoted or move into other lines of work.

There's a bit of a difference, too, when the people involved are already near the top of the tree and are being told to go back down and count the acorns.

A couple of comments here:

Strong personalities often require strong supervision. The more important their job the greater is the imperative to keep whatever personal weaknesses they may have from interfering with their ability to do it. Evidently "strong supervision" and "Condoleeza Rice" are two concepts that do not go together.

The other thing is, what exactly is the requirement that an NSC official join a campaign trip by the President? Bush had use of the White House throughout the campaign as far as I know, in fact he returned there most every night. Secure, modern communications between the United States and Kuwait are available as well. Unless the idea was to have Blackwill assist the campaign by delivering spin on how well preparations for the Iraqi elections were going -- which idea would have been wholly inappropriate -- I'm not clear on why this flight Blackwill was so distraught over missing was even necessary.

I'm not sure, but I think I agree with that Bodazhang guy.

wayne writes: "eminds me of Patton being sacked for slapping a shell shocked soldier. I think it says alot about our country that we are willing to sacrifice an SOB even if it's a very VERY inconvienent time to do so."

But only certain kinds of SOB-ness.

The SOB who tries to legally justify torture, and says the President can do anything he wants during wartime - he gets nominated for Attorney General.

I'd prefer to stay anonymous, but my wife worked for Blackwill, and describes him as an incredibly abusive, mean-spirited, nasty person. She's not at all surprised by this latest episode, and said that she had seen similar experiences during her own tenure (grabbing female staffers when furious and squeezing their arms until they were bruised), although she was personally assaulted by him only verbally, and never physically. Might it be a matter of how he treats his *female* staffers? In any event, brilliant or not (and she agrees that he has a brilliant policy mind), there is some minimum level of human decorum that should be demanded, even at the highest governmental levels.

I've also seen Bob Blackwill in action --at the K School, where despite his horrid interpersonal skills, he is actually revered for his astute thinking and general brilliance. I don't know him personally but I too have heard enough stories from people in the Foreign Service (in India) and friends in the NSC --first Bush WH where he worked above Condi, and more recently now, where he was her deputy.
I really want to know more about the "scolding" (acc to the Post) Rice gave to him. State Department had it out for him too, which is why Powell went to her with the info and both went after him.

People don't have the popular impression that Condi is, well, a hard ass. Instead, she radiates sparkle and affability --or isn't that her main charm?

The only rare time I saw her lose it was a dandy: a virtual Krakatoa with lava spewing over, when a wise guy student handed out a fake final exam to her "Military in Politics" undergrad course at Stanford and students were beginning to take it! She actually hurled the student --with the student inside his desk/chair--out of the room with superhuman strength, seething as she was doing. You do NOT see this side to her but I wonder if she went ballistic with this boor.

Finally, happy 50th B-Day, Condi..hope that lavish gala at the British Embassy (with your admirers, Tony and Cherie Blair) was fun!