Daily Inspiration Quote by George P. Shultz

A phrase like "stick the Congress's finger in King Hussein's eye" is diplomacy translated into barroom anatomy: vivid, borderline crude, and deliberately undeniable. George P. Shultz reaches for the bodily metaphor because it captures what policy memos often hide - the pleasure some lawmakers take in symbolic injury. Not persuasion, not leverage, not strategy. An "attempt" at irritation for its own sake.

The specific intent is to reframe a congressional move (likely a resolution, restriction, or public rebuke tied to Middle East policy) as provocation rather than principle. Shultz, a seasoned executive-branch operator, is implicitly defending the idea that foreign policy should be coherent, negotiated, and disciplined - not used as a domestic stage prop. By pinning the agency on "the Congress" as a collective, he also sidesteps naming individual villains while still assigning institutional blame: this is what legislatures do when cameras are rolling and constituencies demand a posture.

The subtext is equally pointed about King Hussein. Hussein of Jordan was widely treated in Washington as a pragmatic, pro-West stabilizer in a volatile region. To "poke him in the eye" isn't just rude; it's strategically self-defeating, risking humiliation of an ally whose political survival depended on maintaining dignity at home. Shultz is warning that congressional grandstanding can create diplomatic costs the executive then has to pay - in trust, access, and the quiet cooperation that never makes it into a press release.