Donk ankle-biters can't keep up with soaring Rice
SecState designate Condoleezza Rice sailed through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today by a vote of 16-2. If you couldn't guess that the two nay votes were Barbi Boxer and the Boston Balker, grab your dunce cap and go sit in the corner.
Given that Rice's nomination appears to have never been in doubt, it makes you wonder what Committee Dems thought they were accomplishing by their childish boorishness.
Ranking Democrat Joe Biden challenged Dr. Rice this morning to acknowledge Bush Administration "mistakes" in Iraq, as though it were still the middle of last year's election campaign. When she didn't give him the answer for which he was fishing, he accused (falsely) the Bush Administration of giving "shifting reasons" to justify the war to oust Saddam Hussein even though the President set forth several reasons for Operation Iraqi Freedom beforehand, and every one of them enjoyed broad Democrat support going back to Bill Clinton's origination of the "regime-change" policy in 1998.
To call some of this rhetoric mental masturbation is to engage in profuse flattery. At one point Biden cited various rationales for the war, saying "you danced around it, stuck to the party line." Which is an odd charge, given that frankly, "sticking to the [White House] line" was part of Dr. Rice's job as National Security Advisor. At another Biden told Rice that acknowledging mistakes - such as the claim that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and was poised to use them - should not be considered "a sign of weakness." But that wasn't a "mistake"; Saddam did have WMDs as recently as January of 2003, shipping them to Syria for safe-keeping before the invasion. Moreover, every Western intelligence agency plus their Russian counterparts believed that Saddam had biological and chemical warheads ready to launch when Coalition forces rolled across the border. And as Dr. Rice patiently pointed out yet again, Saddam had never accounted for his WMDs as required by a dozen and a half UNSCRs, and it would have been foolhardy in the extreme to "give him the benefit of the doubt."
When they weren't refighting the 2004 election, the panel minority appeared highly pissed that Dr. Rice wouldn't promise to implement John Kerry's foreign policy platform. The aforementioned California dimwit (i.e. not DiFi), whose manifest stupidity has been sufficiently documented elsewhere to spare me the cross of having to waste my ample brainwidth analyzing her blitherings, when she wasn't calling Dr. Rice a liar, tried to hang the "toll of American dead" and wounded around Dr. Rice's neck as being the "direct result" of Bush Administration "rigidness" and "misstatements." Why didn't she just chant, "Ho, ho, hey, hey, how many kids have ya killed today?"
This was presumeably, again, because Dr. Rice wouldn't give Babs the answers for which she was fishing, and wouldn't take the provocation bait either. "I want to be clearly understood - we are one Administration, with the President in the lead," she actually had to say, which is like saying that there's cream in whipped cream.
It was almost like Dr. Rice was teaching Civics for Dummies, only the students were in charge of the classroom.
At least Biden varied his cheap-shot tactics. He suggested Rice also advise the President "to read a little bit of history" and to inform him that in Iraq "it isn't going that well." The old "Bush is a moron" riff again. So original. Will J-Bi change his tune after the January 30th elections? Count on a case of burgeoning amnesia instead.
Chris Dodd, for his part, appeared to be under the misimpression that he was drilling Alberto Gonzalez:
What are your views on things like water boarding and nudity, what are your views on that?
If this had been Teddy Kennedy, I would have half suspected he was going to ask Dr. Rice for a date after the hearings concluded.
Is that torture? Let me just come back to the simple question, that water boarding of prisoners in Iraq, of nudity, is that torture? If you saw an American being treated like this, how would you react?
Well, it beats losing your head.
I'd like you to spend about 15 minutes with John McCain and talk to him about this stuff. I think you could get some good advice when it comes to this subject matter, someone who's been through this, about what the dangers are when we have sort of waffling answers about these questions, then Americans can be apprehended and what happens to them.
Does he mean like what happened to three thousand American civilians a little over three years ago?
No analysis of this five-knuckle-shuffling would be complete without Kerry's pre-vote statement, which was classic Lurch:
There isn't anybody in the United States of America who doesn't admire Dr. Rice for the journey she's made, for what she represents. And is she qualified for the job? Absolutely, of course she is, absolutely qualified. The President has a right to make a choice. [Flip]
I choose to vote my concerns, not to overlook them. I choose to vote my gut, not custom. I know what custom says, but the fact is that Dr. Rice is one of the principal architects, implementors, and defenders of a series of administration policies and choices that in my judgment have not made our country as secure as we ought to be in the aftermath of 9/11 – and that have alienated much of the world and certainly much needed allies in our effort to reduce the cost in lives and dollars to the American people. [Flop]
She is qualified, but she isn't qualified. No word on whether he voted for her confirmation before he voted against it.
And, in the spirit of bipartisanship, I must point out Linc Chaffee's (RINO-RI) urging Dr. Rice to consider "reconciliation with Iran," a piece of idiocy that she swatted away with the retort, "It is really hard to find common ground with a government that thinks Israel should be extinguished," supports terror groups and is undercutting U.S. peace efforts in the Middle East.
All I can say is that Dr. Rice has a great deal more patience than I would have had. But then I suppose that dealing with a rafter of such small, squabbling losers (who, to answer my initial question above are piteously embarked on the campaign to impeach President Bush) is a good test of her diplomatic capabilities.
If Condi could put up with this nonsense without rolling her eyes or blowing a gasket, she should do just fine over at Foggy Bottom, where her nonsense-putting-up-with-ing will be just beginning.
UPDATE: The Dems are delaying Dr. Rice's confirmation as long as procedurally possible. Ditto Attorney General designate Gonzalez. What childish spite.
Guess their filibusterer is in the shop, being serviced for the workout it's going to get when the President's appellate nominees make their second pass.
Given that Rice's nomination appears to have never been in doubt, it makes you wonder what Committee Dems thought they were accomplishing by their childish boorishness.
Ranking Democrat Joe Biden challenged Dr. Rice this morning to acknowledge Bush Administration "mistakes" in Iraq, as though it were still the middle of last year's election campaign. When she didn't give him the answer for which he was fishing, he accused (falsely) the Bush Administration of giving "shifting reasons" to justify the war to oust Saddam Hussein even though the President set forth several reasons for Operation Iraqi Freedom beforehand, and every one of them enjoyed broad Democrat support going back to Bill Clinton's origination of the "regime-change" policy in 1998.
To call some of this rhetoric mental masturbation is to engage in profuse flattery. At one point Biden cited various rationales for the war, saying "you danced around it, stuck to the party line." Which is an odd charge, given that frankly, "sticking to the [White House] line" was part of Dr. Rice's job as National Security Advisor. At another Biden told Rice that acknowledging mistakes - such as the claim that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and was poised to use them - should not be considered "a sign of weakness." But that wasn't a "mistake"; Saddam did have WMDs as recently as January of 2003, shipping them to Syria for safe-keeping before the invasion. Moreover, every Western intelligence agency plus their Russian counterparts believed that Saddam had biological and chemical warheads ready to launch when Coalition forces rolled across the border. And as Dr. Rice patiently pointed out yet again, Saddam had never accounted for his WMDs as required by a dozen and a half UNSCRs, and it would have been foolhardy in the extreme to "give him the benefit of the doubt."
When they weren't refighting the 2004 election, the panel minority appeared highly pissed that Dr. Rice wouldn't promise to implement John Kerry's foreign policy platform. The aforementioned California dimwit (i.e. not DiFi), whose manifest stupidity has been sufficiently documented elsewhere to spare me the cross of having to waste my ample brainwidth analyzing her blitherings, when she wasn't calling Dr. Rice a liar, tried to hang the "toll of American dead" and wounded around Dr. Rice's neck as being the "direct result" of Bush Administration "rigidness" and "misstatements." Why didn't she just chant, "Ho, ho, hey, hey, how many kids have ya killed today?"
This was presumeably, again, because Dr. Rice wouldn't give Babs the answers for which she was fishing, and wouldn't take the provocation bait either. "I want to be clearly understood - we are one Administration, with the President in the lead," she actually had to say, which is like saying that there's cream in whipped cream.
It was almost like Dr. Rice was teaching Civics for Dummies, only the students were in charge of the classroom.
At least Biden varied his cheap-shot tactics. He suggested Rice also advise the President "to read a little bit of history" and to inform him that in Iraq "it isn't going that well." The old "Bush is a moron" riff again. So original. Will J-Bi change his tune after the January 30th elections? Count on a case of burgeoning amnesia instead.
Chris Dodd, for his part, appeared to be under the misimpression that he was drilling Alberto Gonzalez:
What are your views on things like water boarding and nudity, what are your views on that?
If this had been Teddy Kennedy, I would have half suspected he was going to ask Dr. Rice for a date after the hearings concluded.
Is that torture? Let me just come back to the simple question, that water boarding of prisoners in Iraq, of nudity, is that torture? If you saw an American being treated like this, how would you react?
Well, it beats losing your head.
I'd like you to spend about 15 minutes with John McCain and talk to him about this stuff. I think you could get some good advice when it comes to this subject matter, someone who's been through this, about what the dangers are when we have sort of waffling answers about these questions, then Americans can be apprehended and what happens to them.
Does he mean like what happened to three thousand American civilians a little over three years ago?
No analysis of this five-knuckle-shuffling would be complete without Kerry's pre-vote statement, which was classic Lurch:
There isn't anybody in the United States of America who doesn't admire Dr. Rice for the journey she's made, for what she represents. And is she qualified for the job? Absolutely, of course she is, absolutely qualified. The President has a right to make a choice. [Flip]
I choose to vote my concerns, not to overlook them. I choose to vote my gut, not custom. I know what custom says, but the fact is that Dr. Rice is one of the principal architects, implementors, and defenders of a series of administration policies and choices that in my judgment have not made our country as secure as we ought to be in the aftermath of 9/11 – and that have alienated much of the world and certainly much needed allies in our effort to reduce the cost in lives and dollars to the American people. [Flop]
She is qualified, but she isn't qualified. No word on whether he voted for her confirmation before he voted against it.
And, in the spirit of bipartisanship, I must point out Linc Chaffee's (RINO-RI) urging Dr. Rice to consider "reconciliation with Iran," a piece of idiocy that she swatted away with the retort, "It is really hard to find common ground with a government that thinks Israel should be extinguished," supports terror groups and is undercutting U.S. peace efforts in the Middle East.
All I can say is that Dr. Rice has a great deal more patience than I would have had. But then I suppose that dealing with a rafter of such small, squabbling losers (who, to answer my initial question above are piteously embarked on the campaign to impeach President Bush) is a good test of her diplomatic capabilities.
If Condi could put up with this nonsense without rolling her eyes or blowing a gasket, she should do just fine over at Foggy Bottom, where her nonsense-putting-up-with-ing will be just beginning.
UPDATE: The Dems are delaying Dr. Rice's confirmation as long as procedurally possible. Ditto Attorney General designate Gonzalez. What childish spite.
Guess their filibusterer is in the shop, being serviced for the workout it's going to get when the President's appellate nominees make their second pass.
posted by JASmius at 5:45 PM
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