The NSC SOB leaves town

I missed this last week, but apparently Bob Blackwill has resigned from the National Security Council. Glenn Kessler and Al Kamen proffer one explanation for his departure in the Washington Post (link via Greg Djerejian):

Robert D. Blackwill, who resigned last week as the White House’s top official on Iraq policy, was recently scolded by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice after Secretary of State Colin L. Powell told her that Blackwill appeared to have verbally abused and physically hurt a female embassy staffer during a visit to Kuwait in September, administration officials said. The incident took place as Blackwill was rushing to return home after a visit to Baghdad to join a campaign swing planned by President Bush. As six officials describe the incident, he arrived at the Air France counter at the Kuwait airport and learned he was not on the flight manifest. Blackwill then turned in fury to an embassy secretary who had accompanied him to the airport and demanded that he be given a seat on the flight, grabbing her arm at one point, the officials said…. A National Security Council spokesman confirmed that Blackwill’s actions in Kuwait raised questions but said he could not comment on the details. He said the incident was not the reason Blackwill quit his job three months before Iraq is to hold its first elections. An official at the lobbying firm Blackwill just joined — Barbour, Griffith and Rogers — said yesterday that Blackwill was traveling to Europe…. Another official, who is familiar with Blackwill’s version of events, said that Blackwill believes the woman’s description of the airport incident is not accurate and that another NSC staff member present during the incident supported Blackwill’s version of it. The official did not elaborate. Several officials noted that after the incident was reported, Blackwill traveled repeatedly with Bush on his campaign plane in the final weeks before the election. Blackwill, a deputy to Rice, was widely considered one of the top prospects to replace her as national security adviser if she took another job in the administration. Instead, he abruptly left the administration and announced this week that he had joined Barbour, Griffith and Rogers…. Blackwill, who spent 22 years in the State Department’s foreign service, is widely regarded as a brilliant and prickly boss with a management style that has struck some subordinates as abrasive. When he was ambassador to India early in the administration, he was the subject of two critical reports by the State Department inspector general on his management skills and plunging morale among the embassy staff. Blackwill was Rice’s mentor and boss when they served on the national security staff of President George H.W. Bush, handling European and Soviet affairs.

I’ve seen Blackwill in action and heard enough backchatter from people who have worked for him to be utterly unsurprised by anything in this report. His tenure as the U.S. ambassador to India was marked by similar problems. Still, Blackwill’s departure is a shame. He may have been an imperious SOB, but he was also a policymaker and manager of rare gifts — and the country could use a few of those people. [You’re just saying this because he’s a Republican–ed. No, the Democrats have senior policymakers on their side with a similar set of positive and negative traits — see Richard Holbrooke, Gene Sperling, or Ed Rendell. So Holbrooke and Sperling were physically abusive bosses?–ed. No, absolutely not — but the verbal abuse, well, that’s a different kettle of fish.] UPDATE: John Burgess provides an illuminating comment about his experiences working under Blackwill in India.