Rice v Boxer, Day 2

January 13, 2007

Following up on yesterday’s thoroughly annoying news about Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) allegedly insulting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, I regret to note that the story is now in its second day.

In a truly shameless move, the White House has decided to jump on this nonsense, perhaps in the hopes of scoring a few cheap and meaningless points, but more likely to help distract attention away from its tragic policy in Iraq.

In an interview with The New York Times on Friday, Ms. Rice suggested that Ms. Boxer had set back feminism by suggesting during the hearing that the childless Ms. Rice had paid no price in the Iraq war.

“I thought it was O.K. to be single,” Ms. Rice said. “I thought it was O.K. to not have children, and I thought you could still make good decisions on behalf of the country if you were single and didn’t have children.” …

[T]he White House spokesman, Tony Snow, suggested earlier on Friday that Senator Boxer’s comments were antifeminist. “I don’t know if she was intentionally tacky,” Mr. Snow said in an interview on Fox News. “It’s a great leap backward for feminism.”

Yes, the Bush White House is lecturing a champion of women’s rights about feminism. Even by the Bush administration’s spectacularly inane standards, this is breathtaking.

At the time of the hearing on Thursday, when the exchange actually happened, no one even raised an eyebrow. Rice wasn’t offended, Senate Republicans raised no objections, and there were no gasps of outrage from the audience. It was a largely meaningless half-minute confrontation.

And then Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post had an idea, which was embraced by conservative blogs and talk radio (Rush Limbaugh, a champion of single African-American women, was all over the story). The White House looked at all of this and apparently concluded, “Wait, we can turn this nonsense into a controversy? And attack Boxer instead of defend our indefensible policy? Great idea!”

Once again, consider exactly what Boxer said:

“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, with an immediate family. So who pays the price? The American military and their families. And I just want to bring us back to that fact.”

During the hearing, Rice began to respond about her personal losses, saying, “I can never do anything to replace any of those lost men and women in uniform, or the diplomats, some of whom…” Boxer cut her off. “Madam Secretary, please, I know you feel terrible about it. That’s not the point. I was making the case as to who pays the price for your decisions.”

This wasn’t about Rice’s personal life. Rice knows it, Tony Snow knows it, anyone who actually bothers to read and/or listen to what was said knows it.

But desperate times call for desperate cynicism and dishonesty. I wish I could say I’m surprised.

Snow is utterly shameless, so I’m not surprised about him. But I’m sad that Rice would wallow in the mire with such losers; she’s really disgraced herself.

  • Basically, Laura Bush said similar things about Rice being “alone in the world, without close family” as a reason why she (Rice) would probably not run for President. This was in an interview a couple of weeks ago in People. And aside from being called a “cat”, no one condemmed Laura Bush.

    The hypocracy of the White House and the Right ring has no bounds.

  • Why would anyone be surprised that Rice would go along with this? Look at this witless woman’s career, and if there is anyone who has simultaneously set back both civil rights and feminism, this ignorant, incompetent idiot is the one. As the oneclosest to Bush she most displays his most dominant characteristics: incompetence and ignorance.

    As the the rest of the righties, there’s a reason the word “ignoranus” was invented – to describe them. “A person capable of simultaneously being both a moron and an asshole.”

  • “I thought it was O.K. to be single,” Ms. Rice said. “I thought it was O.K. to not have children…”

    Clearly she hasn’t been listening as her own administration and its supporters have insisted that the only way for people to live is to get married and raise a family. Plus, she’s just asking for someone to dig into her personal life. Someone like…Rupert “Shock! Horror!” Murdoch. It would not surprise me if The NY Piss tries to “help” poor Madame Secretary by running a front page expose on her love life. This guy doesn’t have any friends (unless you count dead presidents.)

    All of this is reminding me of when the GOP tried to claim going after Foley stemmed from homophobia.
    How did that work out for them? Right.

    What Snowflake has forgetten is Das Base does think there is something wrong with women (and men) who don’t settle down and raise a mess o’ sprogs. Who gave us the word “Feminazi”? It sure as fuck wasn’t the liberals. To Das Base “Feminism” means abortions at 8 3/4 months, state-sponsored lesbianism, public orgies, mixed gender bathrooms, burnt Bibles, dogs and cats living together, you name it. To Das Base, calling Boxer anti-Feminist is a compliment on par with calling her homophobic. To defend feminism just turns them off and likely raises more grumbling about the whole Marriage Protection Amendment.

    As for the feminists (and liberals and anyone with a brain), it is enough to know who is bleating about women’s rights to break the dial on the disbelief-o-meter. Frankly, I’m glad the WH is dragging this out. It makes them look dumber to people who already know they are dumb and it repulses more of their supporters.

    You’re doing a heckuva job Snowy & Condi!

  • Fake news. Fake insults. Keep the focus on the fake and maybe viewers won’t notice how many more have been killed in Iraq. Expect volumes of fake news in the next two years.

  • This is why I hate the incompetence dodge for the MSM. Every reporter in Washington knew Kerry was shot and Abramoff was a Republican. Every. Single. One. No one, most especially the Republican noise pieces spewing it, thought Kerry actually meant only stupid people join the military.

    The only people, and I mean the ONLY people meant to actually believe this are the viewers. So when the media critics on the left portray them as dupes, it comes off to me as an inability to admit how much the MSM has become willing, pro-active shills for conservatives.

    The people I hold most responsible are not Limbaugh, but Friedman, Lieberman, Broder, Klien… it’s CNN and ABC that deserve our ire.

  • Ms. Boxer should have one comment for her critics. ” Ya’ll Go To Hell!!”
    Nuff said.

  • Considering exactly what Boxer said, I conclude that it was irrelevant , insensitive thing to say. The right’s disingenuous, hypocrtical response doesnt make it any less so. But I’m a single, non-breeder so I guess my opinion can only be invalid.

  • Bush has been spewing forth about sacrifice. What Boxer pointed out is that most of us, both single and families, are not sacrificing ANYTHING while others sacrifice daily. I don’t think that’s irrelevant.

  • Do Tony Snow and company really want to go there with Barbara Boxer and the homophobia nonsense???

    …according to friends of mine in DC who oughta know, Condi really is gay (not that there’s anything wrong with that…lol), and her girlfriend is often there in her apartment.

    Is Snow ready to acknowledge this and make Condi a lightning rod for whatever crazy backlash their wingnut base might offer???

  • #10

    You are correct, imho, about Boxer’s larger point, but there was no reason for her to personalize with regard to Rice. The fact that Boxer pointed out her own lack of price doesnt give her carte blanche. You made her larger point better than she did. It is a tempest in a teapot, I must admit.

  • This “controversy” is out of the same right-wing playbook as the flubbed a joke that Sen. Kerry alleged meant as an insult to the troops. If supporters of the administration’s policy want to hyperventilate over something, the least they could do is to pick something more than a meaningless 30-second exchange.

    But perhaps the real reason conservatives are agitated is because they don’t want to face the obscene fact that none other than the troops and their families are bearing any sacrifice in this war, and that the loudest cheerleaders of this president’s policy do so from the comfort of a home-life that is the farthest removed from any harm whatsoever.

    Americans will soon realize that supporting the troops means removing them from harm, not throwing more of them and their buddies into a Middle Eastern meat grinder.

  • What’s the difference in telling a man that he has no kids in the war and telling a woman she has no kids in the war?

  • What’s the difference in telling a man that he has no kids in the war and telling a woman she has no kids in the war?

    Oh come on [scoff]. How can you even ask…? You know a broad might start to cry. And if it’s that time of the month, look out! Sheesh. You liberals… You should try to be sensitive to women’s issues.

  • This fake controversy is intended to push the spotlight off the fact that the Bush twins, Jenna and non-Jenna, are not signing up to “sacrifice” or take part in the surge.

  • Can’t you all see what a slam it was at Rice’s parents?!!! Boxer was CLEARLY making a point about Rice not having a brother serving in the military. That dig about “immediate family”? Clearly, since Rice is unmarried, she’s talking about the birth family, right? So it’s all about how her parents never gave birth to a son, or any other sibling who could be serving. How DARE they insult Ms. Rice’s late mother that way?!!!

    Gee, this game of inventing interpretations in order to provide a pretext for faux outrage is fun. Let’s all play. Extra points to the first person who can turn this into a slight at Jenna and Barbara for not having yet given Laura grandchildren like Pelosi’s.

    I saw Tony Blankley on McLaughlin last night, and he was all hot about this, just like it was something real, instead of acknowledging Boxer’s point, which is that the people who are dying ARE real. But not to Condi, or Shrub, or Dick. But it did manage to eat up airtime that might otherwise have gone to talking about our war with Iran, so Tony won.

    Scum.

    I thought Boxer showed remarkable bipartisanship by acknowledging that neither Rice, nor she, a Democrat, had any ‘skin in the game’, so to speak. Why are the Republicans making this a partisan issue? (hee-hee)

  • Wow. Rice is even more spiritually and intellectually bankrupt than I imagined (and I can imagine quite a lot). I watched the exchange in question, and my take on it was Senator Boxer was trying to remind all of us – and Rice in particular – that the men and women of the military are not just chess pieces. For them, this decision goes way beyond an intellectual exercise. To me, Boxer was making the point that no matter how saddened, touched, dimininished we SAY we are when an American gives his./her life on the battlefield, we will never FEEL it the way their families do. We well never know the pain and sorrow of debilitating and disfiguring injuries – no matter how many tears we shed over the morning paper or the keyboard when we read those wrenching stories. The sacrifice of blood is narrowly borne. The sacrifice of treasure is on the credit card whose statement is in the mail.

    If Boxer had really wanted to “dis” Condi’s marital status, she could have said that Rice would not “personally feel the sacrifice that the policies of your husband – oops did I say that(?!) – I mean President Bush exact from real people every day.”

    Rice’s performance in Bush’s cabinet had been weak and incompetent. That is all I need to know. The rest of her CV is irrelevant.

  • Extra points to the first person who can turn this into a slight at Jenna and Barbara for not having yet given Laura grandchildren like Pelosi’s.

    LOL. I’m sure that’s on the way. Along with claims that Boxer was taking a shot at the Vice President and Mary Cheney because M.C. is having a baby AND she isn’t legally married AND she can’t serve in the military because she is a lesbian.

    OK. Now I have to go wash my brain out.

  • “It’s a great leap backward for feminism.”

    Who should know better about that than Republicans?

  • Twist, twist, twist…

    This is horrible that … Ms. Rice’s feelings are hurt …

    Twist, twist, twist…

    21,500 get a lottery ticket for a political “augmentation”, how many projected casualties?

    All for the President’s vanity?

    Twist, twist, twist…

    It’s too bad all these folks that spin this BS cannot apply this energy to actually fighting or winning anything real. Oh, I keep forgetting, it’s NOT REALLY about protecting America, it’s about bashing your political opponents while you auger the country into the ground with your stupidity…

  • So why the heck aren’t democrats going on the offensive about this? If they want to say that Boxer’s comments are about Rice, we should be putting out familis who have paid the ultimate price to ask Rice what price she has paid. Shoot, the DNC should be running ads with the families asking Cheney what price he has paid, Bush what price he has paid, Rumsfeld what price he has paid, etc., etc. We need to REINFORCE the fact that a bunch of chickenhawks are running this war and continue to send our brave men and women into harms way because they just can’t stand to admit their wrong about anything ever (unless of course it’s done in a conditional way). Get some balls dems and go on the offense with this…it works for us.

  • Following up on yesterday’s thoroughly annoying news about Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) allegedly insulting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, I regret to note that the story is now in its second day.

    Thoroughly annoying is right. I can’t believe I found myself reflexively arguing this with the resident troll at another blog I read a lot. There’s no election coming up, Barbara Boxer is only a little more powerful or prominent than an average Congressman, nobody-but-nobody would care about this if the shoe had been on the other foot, it’s not even like anyone was bothered by it at the time… mindless, partisan squabbling is not the province of some fever swamps or particular trolls, but the general rule of political blogs. I hate to sound like *lthouse, but really, this is nuts.

  • Funny, I bet no real feminist is finding fault with what Barbara Boxer said. The administration ploy is really a stretch. And Rice is no feminist, nor is she for affirmative action (though she has profited from it personally) and civil rights. I am reminded of her hypocritical performance on 60 Minutes a couple of months ago when she tried to portray herself as being good friends with the four murdered little girls in Birmingham in 1963. We just watched Spike Lee’s documentary on that episode a week ago, and not only was Rice not cited in the film, but her minister father was not mentioned as being part of the SCLC. She dares to bring up these movements!

  • Anyone familiar with Eric Alterman knows that this is a prime example of what he calls “working the ref”. We’re one week into what we anticipated was richly needed Democratic Congressional oversight of the Executive Branch, and specifically its conduct of the war – and the Administration and its right wing media defenders have served notice that this will be about Democrats being mean and nasty and unfairly personal. The lesson that they want to be taken away from this is that for the next 2 years, the Democrats better tread softly and carefully otherwise they will bring down the full weight of the right wing media sturm und drang upon themselves.
    Notice that the media discussion isn’t about Boxer’s point, but what a terrible person she was to say such nasty things about poor Condi. No one could have imagined such a thing, surely!

  • naschkatze (#24) brings up a very important point.

    Rice may have known the girls, but she wasn’t part of any of that. Her father wasn’t part of the SCLC because he was opposed to Martin Luthr King as a radical. Condi herself has said the civil rights movement was unneccessary because African-Americans would eventually have gotten all this as “the old generations died out” in the South. No! I’m not kidding! She said it! Her cousin Connie Rice, a leading civil rights attorney in Los Angeles and nationwide for the past 30 years, is constantly embarassed having to defend her and that statement.

    She’s one of thouse “house n – – – – – -.”

  • Nobody cares about any of that – what I want to know is, what was Ms. Rice wearing? Oh, and say, did she express her pique by playing an expressively appropriate show tune on the piano? I just can’t get enough of Ms. Rice’s snappy sense of style and well-rounded entertainment portfolio! Really the White House these days is politics as theatre, so she fits perfectly the triumphant ascendancy of style over substance – flash over dull, plodding accomplishment.

    As you’ll likely recall, the media had a brief fling with Ms. Rice’s clothing, reporting breathlessly on her costumes and accessories, and dabbled in her musical mastery regardless of the ongoing current events that screamed for attention. Perhaps they took a look at her disastrous performance as Secretary of State, and decided that was a subject best avoided.

  • Hey, if Boxer’s comments set back feminism and are anti-feminist then shouldn’t the GOP be applauding her? I mean I’m surprised they’re not asking her to switch parties.

  • Funny, I bet no real feminist is finding fault with what Barbara Boxer said.

    No multi-celled organism with two brain cells to rub together is bothered by Boxer’s comments. People like Snowjob and Rice only have one brain cell so…

    The administration ploy is really a stretch. And Rice is no feminist, nor is she for affirmative action (though she has profited from it personally)…

    Did she? It always fascinates me when people (even well intentioned one) say things like this because they so often have not clue one what the fuck they’re talking about. And since no one who ever makes such a statement can ever point to a administration official/employer who has said “Oh yes, we admitted or hired so-and-so because he/she was black/female/gay etc” I’ve come to the conclusion that even well intentioned people can have their heads stuck up their arseholes.

    Tom, put down the bottle and STFU.

  • The Answer is Orange, I think you meant to tell me to STFU not Tom. Rice has made a lot of hay being the house ______ for the Bushes. Her claim to fame, the paper she wrote on the fall of the Soviet Union, could have been written by any of us. She took the reasons the Roman Empire fell and applied them to the Soviet Union. BTW, I did read it. It was nothing special, and my opinion is that her being black helped sell it.

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