Sen. Barbara Boxer Owes Condoleezza Rice An Apology
Robert Paul Reyes
January 12, 2007
President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the other prime architects of the ill-fated, illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq have a lot to answer for.
Dubya and Cheney won’t have to answer for their disastrous Iraq policy (at least not before Congress), but this week it was Condoleezza Rice’s turn to sit on the hot seat during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Iraq.
What a prime opportunity, with the cameras rolling, for Democrats to make the Secretary of State squirm, as tries to justify and explain the unjustifiable and unexplainable.
But the hapless Democrats blew their golden opportunity, because of the insensitivity and stupidity of Sen. Barbara Boxer.
Transcript of Sen. Barbara Boxer’s comments addressed to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
From the New York Times:
SENATOR BARBARA BOXER: The Military Times published a poll which found that only 35 percent of military members approved of the way President Bush is handling this war, and only 38 percent thought there should be more troops.
So from where I sit, Madame Secretary, you are not listening to the American people. You are not listening to the military. You are not listening to the bipartisan voices from the Senate. You are not listening to the Iraq Study Group. Only you know who you are listening to, and you wonder why there is a dark cloud of skepticism and pessimism over this nation. I think people are right to be skeptical after listening to some of the things that have been said by your administration.
Now, the issue is who pays the price, who pays the price? I’m not going to pay a personal price. My kids are too old, and my grandchild is too young. You’re not going to pay a particular price, as I understand it, within immediate family. So who pays the price? The American military and their families, and I just want to bring us back to that fact.”
It was unconscionable and unforgivable for Sen. Barbara Boxer to imply that because Ms Rice doesn’t have children that she can’t empathize with those families who have lost loved ones in Iraq.
Let me digress and explain that I actually wrote “lost loved ones in Vietnam”, it took me a couple of minutes to realize my mistake.
Sen. Barbara Boxer was dead-wrong to play the “mother card”, you don’t have to be a mother, only a human being, to sympathize with the families of our heroes who have died in Iraq.
Mothers are put on a pedestal; Motherhood is a “get out of jail free card” — literally. How many “abused” women have used that ploy to avoid prison for killing their boyfriends or spouses?
Cindy Sheehan, who is loonier than a bat, is given a platform because she is a mother who lost a son in Iraq. Mind you, that is her only “qualification”, she doesn’t possess any educational or intellectual abilities that would make her an expert on the Iraq war.
Is Barbara Boxer saying that gays and lesbians, most of whom are childless, don’t have a right to express their opinion about the Iraq war?
The talk is all about how poor Condi was abused by Boxer, instead of how the Secretary of State was unable to give clear and lucid answers.
Boxer should pay penance by keeping her big mouth shut, and letting the other members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee do all the interviewing of the gang that couldn’t shoot straight.
And she also owes the Secretary of State an apology.
Dubya and Cheney won’t have to answer for their disastrous Iraq policy (at least not before Congress), but this week it was Condoleezza Rice’s turn to sit on the hot seat during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Iraq.
What a prime opportunity, with the cameras rolling, for Democrats to make the Secretary of State squirm, as tries to justify and explain the unjustifiable and unexplainable.
But the hapless Democrats blew their golden opportunity, because of the insensitivity and stupidity of Sen. Barbara Boxer.
Transcript of Sen. Barbara Boxer’s comments addressed to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
From the New York Times:
SENATOR BARBARA BOXER: The Military Times published a poll which found that only 35 percent of military members approved of the way President Bush is handling this war, and only 38 percent thought there should be more troops.
So from where I sit, Madame Secretary, you are not listening to the American people. You are not listening to the military. You are not listening to the bipartisan voices from the Senate. You are not listening to the Iraq Study Group. Only you know who you are listening to, and you wonder why there is a dark cloud of skepticism and pessimism over this nation. I think people are right to be skeptical after listening to some of the things that have been said by your administration.
Now, the issue is who pays the price, who pays the price? I’m not going to pay a personal price. My kids are too old, and my grandchild is too young. You’re not going to pay a particular price, as I understand it, within immediate family. So who pays the price? The American military and their families, and I just want to bring us back to that fact.”
It was unconscionable and unforgivable for Sen. Barbara Boxer to imply that because Ms Rice doesn’t have children that she can’t empathize with those families who have lost loved ones in Iraq.
Let me digress and explain that I actually wrote “lost loved ones in Vietnam”, it took me a couple of minutes to realize my mistake.
Sen. Barbara Boxer was dead-wrong to play the “mother card”, you don’t have to be a mother, only a human being, to sympathize with the families of our heroes who have died in Iraq.
Mothers are put on a pedestal; Motherhood is a “get out of jail free card” — literally. How many “abused” women have used that ploy to avoid prison for killing their boyfriends or spouses?
Cindy Sheehan, who is loonier than a bat, is given a platform because she is a mother who lost a son in Iraq. Mind you, that is her only “qualification”, she doesn’t possess any educational or intellectual abilities that would make her an expert on the Iraq war.
Is Barbara Boxer saying that gays and lesbians, most of whom are childless, don’t have a right to express their opinion about the Iraq war?
The talk is all about how poor Condi was abused by Boxer, instead of how the Secretary of State was unable to give clear and lucid answers.
Boxer should pay penance by keeping her big mouth shut, and letting the other members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee do all the interviewing of the gang that couldn’t shoot straight.
And she also owes the Secretary of State an apology.
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