Condoleezza Rice mocks Sadr as a coward.
“Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice mocked anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as a coward on Sunday, hours after the radical leader threatened to declare war unless U.S. and Iraqi forces end a military crackdown on his followers.” Spencer Ackerman remarks, “So Sadr is a coward for making threats from Iran… and Condoleezza Rice is a stateswoman for blustering Sadr into making a move that carries the potential of killing American soldiers.” And VetVoice’s Brandon Friedman comments that this echoes Bush’s “Bring ‘em on” declaration.
Rice: I’m ‘Offended’ By Diplomats Who Don’t Want To Serve In Iraq
Rice: I’m ‘Offended’ By Diplomats Who Don’t Want To Serve In Iraq
Today, the AP reports that U.S. foreign service officers may face compulsory duty in Iraq because of a lack of volunteers:
[T]he State Department is warning diplomats they may be forced to serve in Iraq next year and will soon identify prime candidates for upcoming vacancies in Baghdad and outlying provinces.
A cable sent to all foreign service officers says the department is facing a looming crisis to fill about 300 jobs that will come open in 2009 in Iraq and that it may not get enough qualified volunteers. If it doesn’t, the department will begin selecting diplomats for compulsory duty.
Similarly, last fall, the State Department came under intense criticism for its plan to make approximately 48 diplomats to take forced assignments to Iraq. It eventually dropped the plan when the spots were filled with volunteers.
The State Department’s “looming crisis” stands in stark contrast to statements made by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during a House Armed Services Committee hearing today, during which she took umbrage at the suggestion that foreign service officers don’t want to serve in Iraq. She said that comments by diplomats who protested the forced assignments last fall were “offen[sive]” and “cast a very bad light on the foreign service.” Watch it:
Rice tried to downplay a town hall meeting last November, during which a diplomat called serving in Iraq a “potential death sentence.” Rice said the remark “was a comment, from a person, who said that he felt in danger in the Green Zone.” But what she left out was that many of the several hundred foreign service officers at the meeting applauded the remarks.
A January poll found that 48 percent of diplomats opposed the war in Iraq, citing “disagreement” with the Bush administration’s policies. Just 18 percent said Rice was “doing a good job protecting their profession.”
Transcript: Read the rest of this entry »
Matalin: ‘This Brilliant Man’ — Dick Cheney — ‘Has Changed The Nature Of’ The Vice Presidency
Matalin: ‘This Brilliant Man’ — Dick Cheney — ‘Has Changed The Nature Of’ The Vice Presidency
In the span of 30 seconds on this morning’s Meet the Press, former Cheney adviser Mary Matalin offered a series of bewildering, eye-opening statements in defense of the Bush administration.
Asked who John McCain should pick as Vice President, Matalin offered that the candidate must have “good cred on having experience across the board.” She argued:
Dick Cheney has changed the nature of that office. This brilliant man has made that office completely relevant.
Indeed, Cheney — who has argued that his office is not “an entity within the executive branch” — has changed the nature of the office in many destructive ways, operating in secrecy and callously disregarding the views of the American public.
Host Tim Russert then asked whether Condoleezza Rice would make a suitable Vice President. Matalin said:
You know, people don’t know about Dr. Rice is that she weighed in on every domestic issue before the President.
Recall, Rice was the National Security Adviser to Bush in his first term before becoming Secretary of State. Despite having a very thin record on domestic policy issues, she was apparently one of Bush’s key domestic policy advisers, too.
When Russert noted that the selection of Rice would signify a “third Bush term,” Matalin responded, “People are sick of this Bush-bashing stuff.” In fact, as a recent Gallup poll shows, people are simply sick of Bush. Watch Matalin’s comments:
CNN Scrubs Dobbs’ Racially Charged Comment From Transcript
CNN Scrubs Dobbs’ Racially Charged Comment From Transcript
Referring to Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) recent speech on race while speaking with a group of journalists last week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the U.S. “still has trouble dealing with race because of a national ‘birth defect’ that denied black Americans the opportunities given to whites at the country’s very founding.” Rice added that this “birth defect” makes it “hard for us to talk about it, and hard for us to realize that it has continuing relevance for who we are today.”
When asked to respond to Rice’s remarks on the Situation Room last Friday, CNN host Lou Dobbs became agitated. TPM’s Josh Marshall noted that Dobbs explained “how he’s sick of ‘cotton pickin’ black leaders telling him how he can and can’t talk about race (he catches himself at the last minute — sorta).”
Watch it:
While it appears that Dobbs was about to say “cotton picking” (often used as a racially charged slur) in reference to Rice, he caught himself, only uttering the word “cotton.” Yet, the CNN transcript from Friday’s Situation Room has omitted the word “cotton” from Dobbs’ remarks:
DOBBS: We’ve got to be able to talk about it and I can guarantee you this, not a single one of these [the word “cotton” should appear here] — just ridiculous politicians should be the moderator on the issue of race. We have to have a far better discussion than that.
One could perhaps wonder then if CNN has a habit of doctoring Lou Dobbs’ statements for its official transcripts.
Rice Has Let Her ‘Interest’ In Running For VP ‘Be Known Discreetly Within Top GOP Circles’
Rice Has Let Her ‘Interest’ In Running For VP ‘Be Known Discreetly Within Top GOP Circles’
Earlier this week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice attended Grover Norquist’s weekly “powerhouse gathering.” One GOP operative noted that the only reason high-ranking officials go to the right-wing meeting is to “secure” their political futures. At that meeting, Rice never publicly stated whether she was interested in the vice presidential spot.
But Newsmax reports that privately, Rice has indicated to prominent conservatives that she is very interested:
Despite saying she wants to return to Stanford University, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has let it be known in Republican circles that she would consider running for vice president if asked.
One source told Newsmax that she expressed interest in the possibility when Rudy Giuliani was running for president. Another source said she has more recently let her interest be known discreetly within top Republican circles, presumably including John McCain’s camp.
Is Rice actually interested in running for vice president, or is this just a stunt to grab the media’s attention? After all, the media have largely lost interest in Rice’s activities lately. In 2005, an “unprecedented 19 reporters” accompanied Rice on her first overseas trip as Secretary of State. But on her most recent trip to the Middle East, just three wire services and three newspapers joined her. None of the networks even sent a camera crew.
This wouldn’t be the first time that Rice has embarked on a PR campaign to improve her public image. Washington Post reporter Glenn Kessler reported that shortly after Rice became Secretary of State, she directed an aide to “plant a question” asking if she would run for president in order to help “negate American memories of her very direct role” in invading Iraq. The move was intended to give Rice the “aura of someone who might have presidential aspirations” and “make her seem more powerful than she was.”
Rice Concedes She Didn’t Think Iraq ‘Would Be This Tough,’ Blames Iraqis For Continued Violence
Rice Concedes She Didn’t Think Iraq ‘Would Be This Tough,’ Blames Iraqis For Continued Violence
Speaking to a group of journalists yesterday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice admitted that she didn’t think the war in Iraq would be as “this tough“:
Looking back on the last five years and the war in Iraq, Rice admitted: “I thought it would be tough, but I didn’t think it would be this tough.” She added, “It’s a society that’s only now beginning to emerge.”
But just like any other good Iraq war supporter, Rice deflected blame for the “long, hard slog” in Iraq away from the Bush administration and onto other pre-war factors. Rice said the United Nations sanctions killed Iraq’s agricultural sector and the “structural problem” of Saddam Hussein’s regime is dissuading Iraqis from making political progress:
– On the continuing struggle in Iraq Rice said she thought it was more of a “structural problem.” […] The secretary warned that “authoritarian regimes are not going to create the condition for the emergence of moderate parties [in the Middle East].”
– “What we didn’t know was how truly broken the society was,” she said. Although Saddam Hussein’s regime was mostly to blame for that, she said that U.N. sanctions contributed as well, because as a result of them, “agriculture is virtually dead in Iraq.”
Apparently, the “shock and awe” bombing campaign had little responsibility for “breaking” Iraqi society. Blaming Iraqis for the continued violence in Iraq is a fairly common strategy for those who advocated for the invasion of Iraq and are now trying to distance themselves from the disaster that ensued.
War hawk and AEI fellow Danielle Pletka recently wrote in the New York Times that she “was wrong” to think that “once free,” the Iraqis “would use it well” adding that “[t]here is no freedom gene, no inner guide that understands the virtues of civil society, of secret ballots, of political parties.” Like Rice, Pletka also blamed Saddam, saying he “conditioned Iraqis to accept unearned leadership, to embrace sect and tribe over ideas, and to tolerate unbridled corruption.”
Perhaps one casualty of the Iraq war has been the conservative belief in personal responsibility.
Rice considering VP run?
Steve Clemons reports that this morning, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice attended Grover Norquist’s weekly conservative “powerhouse gathering” at Americans for Tax Reform. Although Rice denied running for office was part of her “political future,” one GOP operative was skeptical, noting that the only reason high-ranking officials go to the right-wing meeting is to “secure” their political positions:
Someone like Condi Rice doesn’t go to Grover Norquist’s den to talk about the Annapolis Middle East peace process. She’s going to secure her future in Republican politics and to position herself as a ‘potential’ VP candidate on the McCain ticket.
Conservative activists spur ‘Think Condi’ campaign.
Reporting from the Conservative Political Action Conference, the Wall Street Journal notes that conservative activists Crystal Dueker and Rich Holt are attempting to build support for their 527 group Think Condi, “a grassroots movement to get the secretary of state on the presidential ticket as vice president. Dueker and Holter said “they believe Rice is the best running mate for McCain in part because she can bring Bush supporters into the fold who may be wary of his one-time electoral foe.”
UPDATE: Condi didn’t make the Weekly Standard’s VP list.
