Bob Fertik

Bob Fertik gives us the 411 on John Negroponte's demotion from Director of the National Intelligence Department to Condoleeza Rice's deputy at the State Department [Liza's Note : This article has been reprinted with permission by the author] :

Everyone is trying to figure out why John Negroponte would take a demotion from Director of National Intelligence - overseeing 16 intelligence agencies with an unlimited budget and zero oversight - to become Condi's #2 at the State Department, which gets as much respect (and funding) under Bush as the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

There's a very simple reason: Karl Rove has chosen Condi Rice to run for President , and he needs to line up her replacement so she can resign in March to begin her campaign - before she has to answer subpoenas from Joe Biden.

You read it here first.

The idea of running Condi isn't new; Dick "Toesucker" Morris wrote a book about it , and talks about it all the time on FOX.

Many believe that the White House is Hillary's to lose, but as longtime strategists Dick Morris and Eileen McGann explain in Condi vs. Hillary, the former first lady's bid for the Oval Office is vulnerable to a challenge from a most unexpected quarter: the Bush administration's brilliant and charismatic secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice.