This will come as no surprise, but word has it that the Carlyle Group--the defense-industry related investment firm run by such ex-Bushies as Brent Scowcroft, James Baker, and Frank Carlucci--has been letting Colin Powell know that the firm's doors are open to him should he decide to leave the State Department. (Who's Who).

This will come as no surprise, but word has it that the Carlyle Group--the defense-industry related investment firm run by such ex-Bushies as Brent Scowcroft, James Baker, and Frank Carlucci--has been letting Colin Powell know that the firm's doors are open to him should he decide to leave the State Department. That eventuality might come sooner rather than later, considering his continually diminishing position in the Bush administration.

Unnamed senior administration officials have already been quoted as saying that, in the wake of recent bombings in Israel, Powell's "road map" peace plan is a dead letter. Some have fingered NSC Middle East director Elliot Abrams as a source of these leaks--a reasonable assumption considering that Abrams openly badmouthed the road map before the Iraq war. But we hear that the real saboteurs are Dick Cheney's ally on the NSC Stephen Hadley and Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith.