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Please Not Susan Rice for Secretary of State
Obama, please do not nominate Susan Rice for Secretary of State. It has nothing to do with her being a woman, or a sort-of African-American, or even the Benghazi mess (though that’s a symptom of the broader problem). It has nothing to do with John Kerry’s Senate seat. Susan Rice is all appetite, all in for only herself and the Department of State, and America, needs a leader in the job, not another person primping her resume for what comes next.
A Biography Fit for a Queen
Look at Rice’s biography: She was raised in a well-to-do Washington DC neighborhood by elite parents. Emmett Rice, was an economist who in 1979 became the second African American appointed to the Federal Reserve Board. Her mother, Lois Dickson Rice, was a corporate executive and a longtime member of the College Board. Rice attended fancy schools — Beauvoir and the National Cathedral School. Her parents’ friends were people such as Madeleine Albright, the future secretary of state, who served on school boards with Rice’s mother, and whose former husband played tennis with Rice’s father. Albright became a mentor, helping to elevate Rice to assistant secretary of state for African Affairs when Rice was 32. They have been so close that people assumed Rice was her godchild, Albright said in an interview. Peggy Cooper Cafritz, a wealthy D.C. art patron, was a kind of surrogate godmother. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton took Rice to lunch when she was deciding whether to attend law school. Inheritances from husband Cameron’s and Rice’s families are largely responsible for her $20 million-plus net worth.
Rice finished her schooling in 1990, and started work as an international management consultant at McKinsey & Company in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Rice took a job with the National Security Council in Washington, D.C., under Clinton in 1993. She became special assistant to the president and senior director for African affairs in 1995. Only two years later, in 1997, Madeleine Albright made Rice assistant secretary of state for African Affairs when Rice was 32. It was unclear if Rice had ever been to Africa absent a short trip or two or done anything significant related to Africa outside of academia, or what the hell she knew about Africa at age 32 only seven years in the job market. Rice moved into a think tank during the Bush years and then the Obama campaign in 2008+. She has never worked outside of Washington since a brief job stint right out of school.
The Buck Stops Elsewhere
She was one of the youngest assistant secretaries of state ever. Among her accomplishments in the position was to be the top diplomat for African issues during the 1998 terrorist embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya.
In a 2002 op-ed piece in the Washington Post, former Ambassador to Sudan Timothy M. Carney and news contributor Mansoor Ijaz implicated Rice in missing an opportunity to neutralize Osama bin Laden while he was still in Sudan in 1996. They wrote that Sudan and Secretary of State Albright were ready to cooperate on intelligence potentially leading to Bin Laden, but that Rice persuaded National Security Adviser Sandy Berger to overrule Albright. Similar allegations were made by Vanity Fair contributing editor David Rose and Richard Miniter, author of Losing Bin Laden, in a November 2003 interview with World.
Rice, as assistant secretary for African Affairs, also contributed to the bloodshed on the Continent, saying at one point “Museveni [of Uganda] and Kagame agree that the basic problem in the Great Lakes is the danger of a resurgence of genocide and they know how to deal with that. The only thing we [i.e., the United States] have to do is look the other way.”
Rice also famously said about the horrific genocide then unfolding in Rwanda “If we use the word ‘genocide’ and are seen as doing nothing, what will be the effect on the November [congressional midterm] election?”
Oh, and yes, Rice’s misstatements about Benghazi, when she claimed that the attack was based on that silly anti-Islam film no one knew about until she honked about it on the Sunday teevee talk shows. According to Obama:
If Senators McCain and Graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me… but for them to go after the U.N. ambassador? Who had nothing to do with Benghazi? And was simply making a presentation based on intelligence that she had received? To besmirch her reputation is outrageous.
Not Rice’s Fault
But none of that was her fault and she had nothing to do with any of that in any way whatsoever. The buck always stopped somewhere else for Susan Rice.
“She always reminds me of someone who’s had every drop of Kool-Aid, always espousing 1,000 percent of whatever point of view the administration is putting forward,” said Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
So here’s the money shot: Susan Rice is not qualified to be Secretary of State. Susan Rice would have (Spoiler Alert) told six year olds on the Sunday talk shows that Santa Claus isn’t real if Obama asked her to say that. Susan Rice for all her life has been about promoting Susan Rice, about hitching herself to a powerful person (Albright, Clinton, Obama) and then doing exactly what she was told to do in return for favorable promotions and bureaucratic protection. Susan Rice is always the handmaiden of failure without ever being tainted by accepting responsibility. Susan Rice is 100 percent a product of the slimy sad way Washington works nowadays, people who ignore the “service” portion of “public service” simply for self-advancement. Susan Rice cares not a jot for the Department of State as as organization, and little for the United States as a concept. Both exist only to serve the needs of Susan Rice. Her self-serving nature has left enough collateral damage blood on her hands for two lifetimes.
There are some seven billion people on earth, and almost any one of them would be a better choice for Secretary of State than Susan Rice. We need better. Please?
Bonus: Additional blah blah blah on Rice from the New York Times and a significant contribution to hagiography by the Washington Post, polishing Hillary’s reputation.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
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John Poole said...
1I maintain that Obama would not have been elected in 2008 if he had had a white spouse (unless he had run as a Republican). In that case the “halfrican” comment by Limbaugh would have been a compliment. Michele gave Obama credibility with the black community. So if Rice runs in 2016 -after a possible stint as Sec of State- will her white husband be an asset or liability? Just a poll- no racial rants please.
12/3/12 1:25 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
2Rice-erroni’s role in the CIA’s Benghazi cover-up talking points is a textbook example of the “McGurk effect” (not the one about that clown caught with his pants down) but an illusion that occurs when the auditory component of one sound is paired with the visual component of another sound, leading to the perception of a third sound.
In this example, the sight of clueless Rice’s inexplicable appearance on the Sunday talks shows played into the public’s perception that State was its usual bumbling self and covered the fact it was a CIA operation gone bad.
Of course, this in itself qualifies her to be Secretary of State.
12/3/12 2:50 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
3Plus, Rice-erroni took one for the “Hillary 2016” team.
While Hillary says she was responsible for security at Benghazi, a Swift Boat video of her giving the Benghazi CIA cover-up talking points on the Sunday talk shows would sink her chances.
12/3/12 3:01 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
4quote: “Susan Rice is 100 percent a product of the slimy sad way Washington works nowadays, people who ignore the “service” portion of “public service” simply for self-advancement. Susan Rice cares not a jot for the Department of State as as organization, ” unquote
Well then, that settles it. Perfect fit. Exact qualifications satisfied.
Yeah..right.
Next
12/3/12 7:11 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
5OK then, we have agreed that Rice is a very apt fit for the position Obama might offer her. Where I think most on this forum differ is in assuming Hillary the Hag will run in 2016. I’ll take all bets. Her moral dementia will be in full bloom by then and she’d have to run on a third party platform. Any takers?
12/3/12 9:38 PM | Comment Link
wemeantwell said...
6I’ll take the bet– beverage of your choice under $5– that Hillary will run in 2016. Exception: if the election is canceled and she is simply anointed as a dear leader. In that instance, you have to share half your rations from the labor camp we’ll both be imprisoned in. Deal?
12/3/12 10:33 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
7OK, the bet is on. I say she will not “run” in 2016 but I don’t want it to be because of calamitous health issues. Spontaneous Anointing could indeed occur under horrific circumstances and if we end up in the the same Stalag my wooden bowl’s watery gruel will be shared.
12/4/12 12:50 AM | Comment Link
Meloveconsullongtime said...
8Imagining a White House Aide under the desk sucking Hillary’s strap-on.
12/4/12 4:48 AM | Comment Link
Lafcadio said...
9No surprise here – Ms. Rice is also a well known practitioner of the kiss up/kick down school of management. Why talk to the “help” when yoou can scream at them.
12/4/12 10:17 AM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
10Poor Barry- The Rice appointment decision has to be very upsetting. His second term might do him in and then PVB’s Spontaneous Anointment of Hillary as warrior leader scenario could happen. She’d love to rule during the fiery Apocalypse of empire. It’s in her DNA.
12/4/12 2:06 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
11Surprised that Dick Cheney hasn’t offered his support for Rice-erroni, given her climate-change-denial stock portfolio.
12/4/12 2:38 PM | Comment Link
Question said...
12You said she worked in Toronto for 3 years, then immediately said she never worked outside of Washington but for a stint after hs? Can you clarify that?
12/4/12 3:32 PM | Comment Link
wemeantwell said...
13Rice worked as a consultant in Toronto for three years after leaving university. As best I can tell, this was her only employment outside of the Washington DC world.
12/4/12 4:14 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
14wemeantwell said…
quote:”Rice worked as a consultant in Toronto for three years after leaving university.”unquote
Didn’t I mention ..perfect fit. I just recieved an email from RootsAction….
quote:
This story just broke.
“Susan Rice, the candidate believed to be favored by President Obama to become the next Secretary of State, holds significant investments in more than a dozen Canadian oil companies and banks that would stand to benefit from expansion of the North American tar sands industry and construction of the proposed $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline,” OnEarth Magazine reports. “If confirmed by the Senate, one of Rice’s first duties likely would be consideration, and potentially approval, of the controversial mega-project.”
Did she think we wouldn’t find out?
It’s indefensible that Rice has millions of dollars invested in oil companies and banks that will make huge profits if the State Department gives approval to the XL pipeline.” unquote
Now do you understand? Of course she’s a perfect fit for Sec of State. After all..here is the list of qualifications for it…
hypocritical, greedy, violent, malevolent, vengeful, cowardly, deadly, mendacious, meretricious, loathsome, despicable, belligerent, opportunistic, barratrous, contemptible, criminal, fascistic, bigoted, racist, sexist, avaricious, tasteless, idiotic, brain-damaged, imbecilic, insane, arrogant, deceitful, demented, lame, self-righteous, byzantine, conspiratorial, satanic, fraudulent, libelous, bilious, splenetic, spastic, ignorant, clueless, illegitimate, harmful, destructive, dumb, evasive, double-talking, devious, revisionist, narrow, manipulative, paternalistic, dogmatic, idolatrous, unethical, cultic, diseased, suppressive, controlling, restrictive, malignant, deceptive, dim, crazy, weird, dystopic, stifling, uncaring, plantigrade, grim, unsympathetic, jargon-spouting, censorious, secretive, aggressive, mind-numbing, abrasive, poisonous, flagrant, self-destructive, abusive, socially-retarded, puerile, clueless, and on a good day.. a dancing dimwit.
Now you see why Clinton made it.
12/4/12 5:41 PM | Comment Link
wemeantwell said...
15Her husband is also Canadian, so no possible conflicts of interest. What shiny turds these people are.
12/4/12 5:48 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
16Rice-erroni’s oily portfolio indicates she is more qualified to lead the Depts of Interior or Energy – not that she would have any conflict of self-interest.
Question for Rice’s confirmation hearings: Do you believe tar sands are the dirtiest fuel source and contribute to global warming, the greatest threat facing the world?
http://www.foxbusiness.com/industries/2012/11/15/us-oil-sands-release-more-greenhouse-gasses-than-other-crudes/
12/4/12 6:23 PM | Comment Link
jo6pac said...
17Well thanks to all but just another know nothing cycle-0-path in a govt. job. I’m not sure why I should care about this other than it’s news.
12/4/12 6:43 PM | Comment Link
Helen Marshall said...
18Recalling the days when I was working in DRL (Democracy, Human Rights and Labor…DHL was already taken) and the “we can’t call it genocide” episode, that alone should disqualify this woman from becoming SecState. But given the apparent moral vacuum at the heart of this administration, I imagine it will be seen as an asset in her CV.
So glad I am not a serving diplomat now…
12/4/12 7:18 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
19Peter said:
quote “What shiny turds these people are.” unquote
Fucking succinct.
12/4/12 7:40 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
20Meloveconsullongtime: We think the same way about Hag Hillary and of course her strange “spouse” Bubba. Was their marriage presided over by Beelzebub?
12/4/12 8:31 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
21Rice-erroni should read the CIA talking points on global warming before it’s too late for US.
Oh, it’s too late:
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/20/c-i-a-closes-its-climate-change-office
12/4/12 9:10 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
22For Rich Bauer: Whew! Now we can concentrate on boogie men with beards. The economics of climate change and how they might affect national security have been put to rest.
12/4/12 9:32 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
23Rice’s talking point on Global Warming: Tar sands = genocide for Africa
http://www.forbes.com/sites/mfonobongnsehe/2012/10/22/global-warming-and-africas-future/
12/4/12 9:46 PM | Comment Link
Meloveconsullongtime said...
24John Poole asked:
“Meloveconsullongtime: We think the same way about Hag Hillary and of course her strange “spouse” Bubba. Was their marriage presided over by Beelzebub?”
That woman alone is sufficient incentive for me to take my salvation seriously so that I don’t end up in Hell with her.
12/5/12 8:14 AM | Comment Link
Susan Conspiracy: “Cover-Up” Now Extends to the 1998 East Africa Bombings? Why Not Just Add the Fake Moon Landing, too? | Diplopundit said...
25[…] Please Not Susan Rice for Secretary of State (wemeantwell.com) […]
12/6/12 7:36 AM | Comment Link
Bob said...
26Agree with you 100%. Perhaps she can ask Condi Rice for lessons on how to wave hello and good by at the steps to her government aircraft – she was good at waving (check the photos) but not much else.
We do need a strong back-boned individual who will provide leadership in the world. We currently look like a plate of jello @90 degrees – have since Bush the junior was elected so this is a bi-partisan disease.
12/10/12 4:09 PM | Comment Link