Burnt Orange Report

Boxer said to Rice: "I personally believe -- this is my personal view -- that your loyalty to the mission you were given, to sell the war, overwhelmed your respect for the truth." Loyalty to the mission you were given, to sell the war. Ponder the weight of that statement. It comes close, at least in spirit, to the picture of Rice sketched by political cartoonist Pat Oliphant a few weeks ago. In case you missed it, Oliphant drew a big-lipped, bucktooth Rice perched like a parrot on President Bush's arm. Bush was speaking to Rice in baby talk, with Rice replying: "Awwrk!! OK Chief. Anything you say, Chief. You Bet, Chief. You're my HERO, Chief."

It's hard to imagine a more demeaning and offensive caricature of a prospective secretary of state, let alone the most senior official on the national security staff. It's equally difficult to understand what prompted Boxer to imply that Rice is little more than a diligent echo of Bush's thoughts. There's nothing in Rice's background or in her performance to suggest that she is a mindless follower of presidential orders. In fact, Rice comes across as just the opposite.

As I was leaving a Post dining room after participating in my first off-the-record session with Rice and other Post editors and reporters a couple of years ago, it struck me that Rice could be where Bush gets it from. Subsequent meetings only have reinforced that supposition. Rice's notions of preemption, unilateralism and America's responsibilities as the dominant power in the world are not hand-me-downs from Bush. They strike me as very much her own.

Wonder why Rice stayed close to Bush's policies in her hearings? Consider the possibility that the administration's policies happen to be hers too. Consider too the likelihood that years of study and work in foreign affairs, both as an academic and as a senior foreign policy wonk, are what inform her views -- not George W. Bush.

As Sen. Dianne Feinstein said when she formally introduced her fellow Californian at the hearing, Rice has "the deep personal trust and confidence of the president. . . . She's been by his side for every crucial national security decision in the last four years." Bush, Feinstein noted, considers Rice to be brilliant.

What prompts Rice's critics to portray her -- a former Stanford University provost who managed a $1.5 billion budget, 1,400 faculty members and 14,000 students -- as a flunky who, when ordered, simply salutes and runs out to play huckster?

But slurring her as a hollow-headed marionette controlled by Bush? What's that all about? It calls to mind John Sylvester, a white radio talk show host in Madison, Wis., who recently went Boxer and Oliphant one better -- or worse. "Sly," as he calls himself, went on the air and caricatured Rice as a servile black, laboring slavishly for the Bush White House. He called her, of all things, an "Aunt Jemima."

The Boxer-Oliphant-Sylvester take on Condoleezza Rice stands in sharp contrast to the assessment offered by Dorothy Height, chair and president emerita of the National Council of Negro Women, who wrote in a letter to The Post this week: "Despite the challenges she will face, Ms. Rice's appointment is a time for women of color to smile."

Excerps from a WashPost article written by Colbert King (A27818-2005jan21.html)

During Dr. Rice's Senate confirmation hearing today, Boxer said, "I personally believe - this is my personal view - that your loyalty to the mission you were given, to sell this war, overwhelmed your respect for the truth"
The California Democrat insisted that the Iraq war "was based on what everyone now says, including your own administration, were falsehoods about WMDs, weapons of mass destruction."

In December 1998, however, after Clinton launched four days of air strikes on Iraq's suspected WMD targets, the California Democrat had a different reaction.

"The president had no choice but to act today," she said in a statement issued by her office. "Anyone who questions the timing of his decision ignores the fact that we committed a month ago to act if [chief U.N. weapons inspector] Richard Butler reported that Saddam was not cooperating."

"These critics are blinded by political considerations," Boxer added.

Credit: Newsmax

Who are being blinded by political considerations now? Remember President Clinton was impeached a few days later to the 1998 quotes referenced.

"Ms. Rice's appointment is a time for women of color to smile." Do y'all really want to open this door again? The more attention you give this person, the greater her visability will be in 2008.

She answered your questions, y'all didn't want to listen to her answers.

My apologies for being off topic, I thought the reference was for Dr. Rice. I missed the gender reference. Again sorry.

Not a problem. I agree with your assessment that many of the policies in the administration. I also think that her years studying the Cold War are why we decided to go blow up surplus Soviet tanks in the desert instead of dealing with the problem at hand, namely Islamic radicals. Not nation-states. We can go into that at another time.