If you thought someone had sucked at their old job, why would you want to see them promoted to a new one? Let’s ask David Frum:

By shifting Condoleezza Rice to State, the president is gaining a loyalist and an appealing public face [uh, Sadly, No!] for US advocacy in the world. […] The NSC adviser is a policy coordinator and enforcer ? a job at which Rice has obviously not succeeded.

Obviously!

What does the Wall Street Journal have to say?

If Ms. Rice indeed switches jobs, Mr. Bush needs someone stronger than the current cast at the NSC. One of the problems of the first term isn’t that different parts of the Administration disagreed; that’s inevitable, even healthy. The problem is that the NSC did a poor job of vetting those differences for the President, and an even worse job of coordinating policy decisions down through the deputy ranks.

Do conservatives realize that being Secretary of State involves more than flying around to exotic places to show one’s appealing (as if!) face? Given that Bush is the living embodiment of the Peter Principle, it’s only fair that he manage his administration in the same way.