Cheney to Mid East, Rice to Liberia

I feel the need to say this again. After Sharon's stroke and its possible implications for the Arab Israeli conflict, after the upping of the ante in the Iran crisis, with the results of the Iraq election in a more and more controversial limbo, what statement is the Bush admin making about their current policy outlook and the relative status of Secretary of State Rice?

Cheney is travelling to Egypt and Saudi to discuss these issues plus Syria-Lebanon.

Condi Rice was sent on a "wive's trip" with Laura Bush to witness the inauguration of new Liberian President Sirleaf.

How much further could they cut Rice's credibility? If I'm a foreign leader, who am I gonna call when I need to talk about a crisis?

And then, to top it off, all the interviews press and quotes from the Liberia trip are from Laura Bush. (who has a wonderful statement about Jenna being involved in charter schools. Sounds like my mom when she's embarassed about what I'm doing now.)