Posted on 01/24/2005 11:55:01 AM PST by Mark
Boxer's anti-Rice bombast backfires
By Chris Weinkopf Columnist
Sunday, January 23, 2005 - With an air of resignation, Sen. Barbara Boxer began last week's headline-grabbing outburst at Condoleezza Rice's confirmation hearings with an all-too brief nod to reality. "You no doubt will be confirmed," the senator told the secretary of state-designate, thereby conceding that the ensuing performance would serve no practical purpose. Her harangue would be little more than an exercise in self-serving futility, one that would ultimately prove embarrassing - not for Rice, but for Boxer, her party and the state she represents.
Boxer's much-touted "grilling" - which consisted of more than 2,000 words, or nearly four single-spaced pages of written text, and took a full 12 minutes to deliver - didn't include a single question. This wasn't about subjecting a would-be Cabinet secretary to the customary scrutiny. It was about Boxer's attempt to become the public face of the Democratic Party's moonbat wing, an effort that began in earnest a week earlier, when she was the only U.S. senator to vote against certifying President Bush's Electoral College victory.
This was Boxer's moment to shine, or so she thought. That's why her staff hyped the planned attack to the media several days beforehand.
Boxer began her speech by blasting Rice for a remark that the devastating tsunami in South Asia "was a wonderful opportunity for us." No, the senator hectored, "The tsunami was one of the worst tragedies of our lifetime - one of the worst. I was very disappointed in your statement."
Now, no fair-minded person could have possibly concluded that Rice was speaking in favor of tsunamis. Her comment, that America's relief efforts may help to improve the nation's image in that part of the world, came in response to Ohio Sen. George Voinovich's remark that "I think what we're doing in the tsunami right now is wonderful." But Boxer took the phrase grotesquely out of context and assigned it the worst possible meaning - a tactic she would employ throughout the hearings.
So when Boxer accused Rice of saying, in the run-up to the liberation of Iraq, that Saddam Hussein would have nuclear weapons within a year, then later backtracking from that claim, it was up to Rice to politely set the record straight. No, Rice said, she had merely observed that it was possible - although the evidence was sketchy - that he could develop nukes within a year. After all, he had come perilously close once before.
And when Boxer disparaged Rice's credibility for saying al-Qaida's territory had shrunk since the beginning of the War on Terror, even though it now operates in more countries than before, Rice had to explain further: The terrorist network no longer has anywhere to operate freely, as it once did in Afghanistan, as well as in parts of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
All in all, Boxer's assault - her grand plot to demonstrate that Rice's mission "to sell this war overwhelmed (her) respect for the truth" - amounted to little more than a rather petty parsing of words. To make matters worse, when Rice asked Boxer to "refrain from impugning my integrity," Boxer fired back "I'm not" - this after repeatedly portraying the nominee as an unprincipled liar on national TV.
In stark contrast to Boxer's bluster was the genteel statement that fellow California Sen. Dianne Feinstein delivered when introducing Rice to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Feinstein, a Democrat representing the party's civil and responsible wing, acknowledged that she might not agree with Rice on all matters of policy, but could respect her intelligence and sincerity. "The problems we face abroad are complex and sizable," said Feinstein. "If Dr. Rice's past performance is any indication, though, we can rest easy."
Unlike Boxer, Feinstein appreciates that neither side of the aisle has a monopoly on goodwill or decent intentions, and that there's a world of difference between spirited debate and mean-spirited grandstanding.
In the end, among the bipartisan committee's 16 members, Boxer and only one other senator voted against Rice's confirmation. That one other senator, of course, was John Kerry.
This was no banner day for the Democrats. At a time when cooler heads in the party are trying to lay claim to moderation and move away from the Michael Moore crowd, the biggest Moore groupie in all the Senate was stealing the show and the publicity. And it would be hard to dismiss Boxer as the party's black sheep when the very man the party tried to put in the White House just two months earlier was there bah-ing beside her.
But at least Kerry has an excuse. He's embittered, defeated, and still can't figure out whom he needs to be to win. Boxer has no excuse, other than that she hails from a state that's far too tolerant of her foolishness, and where the Republican Party is far too inept to oust her from office.
Chris Weinkopf is the Daily News' editorial-page editor. Write to him by e-mail at chris.weinkopf@dailynews.com.
Now that's going to leave a mark!
Did a Freeper write this? Chris, what's your pseudonym?
I agree with the other Freeper(s) on this tread, who noted the comment about Republican ineptness at not being able to remove Boxer.
While I disagree with nearly all Democrat Senators, I don't know of any that are less intelligent than Boxer. Putting politics aside, she doesn't even seem capable of putting forth a reasoned arguement to support whatever it is she's trying to prove.
When you go up against someone like Condi Rice, you better damn well know your stuff. If you don't, the contrast is going to be overwhelming. Senator Boxer simply contributed to the further deminishment of her own credibility.
"She turned and attacked me," sounds like something a stupid kid would say after he's been hitting a dog with a stick.
She did go on didn't she, I would have laughed my head off if Dr. Rice started making phone calls during Boxers tirade.
"I would have laughed my head off if Dr. Rice started making phone calls during Boxers tirade."
The good Doctor has way too much class to do something like that. It would have been funny, though.
Barbie better keep away from gasoline and boxes of matches because she is putting herself on a path to self-immolation.
Look, Boxer is a margret snager clone, thru and thru and thru.
or Meathead for Governor!
I suggest you go and read the authorizing resolution allowing military action against Iraq. Contrary to the Lyin' RAT media's assertions there were NINE specific reasons given requiring this action. None were trumped up, none were exaggerations and none were lies.
Every country in the world believed what President Bush believed and told the country. Thus, your belief that we were not told the whole truth or that the President was not up front wrt this matter has no solid basis.
Don't fall for the crap spewed by the RAT media. It lies as a matter of course especially if that will damage conservatism.
as in the American Eugenics Society? (after Hitler they changed the name to Planned Parenthood)
Thanks. here's a link:
The Iraq War Resolution For Dummies
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1242280/posts
Yes, she has, or atleast her voting record indicates, a real bias against anyone not white holding high public office. That would include Judges.
By then we had had months of the administration going before the Ameican public and talking about Iraq. I look back at the things said by various members of the administration - Powell, Cheney, and Rumsfied especially in the months and weeks leading up to the war resolution. The primary topic was the danger to us posed by wmds. And the possibility of Saddam being involved with 9/11. I look back and have to say that there was a concerted effort to make us feel that there was an imminent threat posed that did not in fact exist.
Heck, let's be honest - did you think there were huge stockpiles of illegal weapons? I know I did. Most Americans did. Why did we believe that? Because we had been hearing about them for months from this administration. HUGE STOCKPILES. TONS. But they only found a few scattered ones. Nowhere near what we were lead to believe existed from listenning to officials claims in interviews and statements in the months preceding the war. By the time the war resolution appeared, the American public had been sold the war on WMDs.
Then, where are they(wmd)?
Denny Crane: "I look to two things: First to God and then to Fox News."
Thanks for your link. It is important to counter the Lyin' RAT media's claim wrt the Iraq invasion.
Boxer ranks right up there with another infamous liberal of the past: Joycelyn Elders, Bubba's surgeon general. She was always worth a laugh as foolishness seemed to be her "stock and trade." However, when she recommended the teaching of masturbation in the public schools, even Bubba's tolerance for stupidity and perversion was exceeded and he reluctantly let her go. When will the voters of California do the same with Barbara?
Probably never, they need this Box(er) for their "fruits and nuts."
glamorous Babs, following retirement from Senate, plans to teach FISTING 101 at Cal State San Francisco
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