The Republic of T. Archives

I can’t take it anymore. I just can’t. First all but two of the Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted for Rice’s confirmation to be passed on to the Senate. (Including Obama. So much for the great Black blue hope.) And they seem to be proud that they extracted promises from Rice before voting for her.

Trying to make their mark on President Bush’s strategy in Iraq, Senate Democrats extracted a promise from Condoleezza Rice to level with them when she takes over as secretary of state.

And Rice seems agreeable, to a point.

“We can certainly have, I think, a healthy debate about the course that we should take going forward,” she said Wednesday in response to Democrats who criticized Bush’s rationale for overthrowing Saddam Hussein and his handling of a postwar insurgency that is taking a growing toll of American soldiers in Iraq.

“I will be candid,” Rice promised. “My assessments may not always be ones that you want to hear. They may not always be the ones with which you agree. But I will tell you what I think.”

And that, she said, “is a promise that I make to you today.”

Rice coupled the promise with an admission that some Bush administration decisions in Iraq were bad ones, but she did not elaborate or give ground on the principal elements of the administration’s policy there.

What exactly do they think they’ve accomplished here? What did Rice promise that was worth anything? Sure, she came close to admiting that the administration might have made a mistake or two in the execution of the war in Iraq, but she didn’t seem to be all that sorry about it. And it sounds like all she promised what that they would have a healthy debate before she went off and did whatever she wanted to anyway as Secretary of State. I don’t know what the Dems think they accomplished here, but I’m willing to bet Condi had a great chuckle over it once she was safely out of the hearing, and probably muttered something along the lines of “I can’t believe they bought it.”

And speaking of buying it, as if the above wasn’t enough, I get this email from John Kerry (I’ve got to get off his email list) explaining his “No” vote on Rice.

On Iraq, on North Korea, on Iran, to name just a few of the most critical challenges, it seems to be more of the same. I hope I am proven wrong. I hope the course will change. And I hope that the Administration will recognize the strength of a foreign policy that has bipartisan support.

I am prepared to work with Dr. Rice and others in the Administration to try to reach agreement on policies that will truly strengthen our security and restore America’s credibility on the world stage. And I am confident colleagues on both sides of the aisle are prepared to do so as well.

But, we’ve got to remain firm in our insistence that those who create policies that don’t work have the courage to admit their mistakes and the wisdom to change course. Our johnkerry.com community has been expressing that determination in huge numbers.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Deep Breath.

OK, now I can talk about this. Where the hell was Kerry’s “No” vote when it came to launching this debacle of a war in Iraq in the first place? It’s no surprise that he seems to have bought the administration’s particular line of bullshit now, since he bought it then. What gives him the idea that the administration plans to listen any more in the second term than it did in the first term, or that Bush plans to do anything differently than he did before is beyond me. He must be reading news that I’m missing. Everything I’ve seen, from appointing an entire cabinet of yes-men (and yes-women) to handing out the Medal of Freedom to the very architects of the mess in Iraq, indicates that this administration intends to stay the course, even if that course leads right over the edge of a cliff.

And Kerry wants to work with the administration “try to reach agreement on policies.” Great, John. Good luck with that.

John Kerry is past it; beaten, tired, and past it. If he has any notions of running in 2008, he needs to be taken into a back room and have them smacked out of him.

It’s going to be a long four years, folks, if the Democratic performance thus far is any indication.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 20th, 2005 at 7:48 am and is filed under Current Events, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.