When George W. Bush summarily fired Colin Powell as Secretary of State and replaced him with Condoleeza Rice, he was demonstrating the priority he places on complete, unquestioning loyalty and subservience over independence and being the messenger of bad news. In Bush's administration, independence and principled opposition is verboten; and yes-men (or women, as the case may be) have a comfortable home. It is all part of what Sidney Blumenthal over at Salon calls "...the true face of this strange, Soviet administration, where bureaucratic fear and blind loyalty reign supreme."