Svelte, stylish, and perfectly coiffured, Condoleezza Rice came up to the Capitol to face the music in front of the Senate as Dubya’s dutiful right-wing stromtrooper and foreign minstrel. She has perfected the act of keeping calm under fire with a horrifying stepford wife precision.
Yesterday’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing featuring the Secretary of State and Aunt Jemima impersonator, was a coming out party for GOP Senators that had stopped imbibing the Administration Kool-Aid regarding Iraq. GOP Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska was most vociferous by saying “I think the speech given last night by this President represents the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam.”
Not to be outdone in the fashionable fury department, GOP Senator George Voinovich of Ohio told Secretary Jemima “I send letters out to families and tell them about how brave their sons were and that the work they’re doing there and the deaths were as important as what we had in the Second World War, but I have to rewrite the letter today.”
Secretary Jemima was left defenseless because her opening statement of passionless state-department-speak didn’t mollify anyone’s concerns or clarify a damn thing. “As I come before you today, America faces a crucial moment. We all know that the stakes in Iraq are enormous. And we share a belief that the situation in Iraq is unacceptable. On this we are united.”
Ineptly, the whole opening statement places the emphasis on the incompetent and divided Iraqi government to live up to its own rhetoric to quell the violence while U.S. forces play a secondary support function. “The new way forward President Bush outlined last night requires us to do things differently. Most Importantly, the Iraqis have devised their own strategy, and our efforts will support theirs.”
The rest is nothing more than the same old boilerplate we’ve heard before, dressed up as something new. The tough talk about Iraqi benchmarks is just that-talk. Its just more White House spin concocted to save face in light of the quaqmire we’re sinking in.
Her obvious lies and general fatuousness makes Barack Obama’s vote for her confirmation all the more galling. I don’t really know what is worse, watching Condi Rice lie, or listening to a ponderous blowhard like Committee Chairman Joe Biden, an Iraq war supporter, shamelessly campaign for President?
Skeptical Brotha 