Sen. Barbara Boxer Should Apologize To Condoleezza Rice
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.
I write a weekly column for a small town newspaper in Virginia, and I also write for several Web sites. Please leave a comment or send me an email at: rreyes4966@aol.com | More from Robert Paul Reyes
Stumble It!
January 13th, 2007 at 6:14 am
Robert, when I saw the title of your piece, I thought you just might deserve some kudos for once. I opened the page ready to applaud, and the first thing I see is ill-fated, illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq. Just because you disagree with something doesn’t make it ill-fated, illegal and immoral. You take a legitimate scolding and turn it into a hate-filled diatribe.
Get over your bitterness, or your heart will explode.
January 13th, 2007 at 6:51 am
I’m sure you can find one good thing to say about my essay, for a change.
Eccles. 6:5. A sweet word multiplieth friends, and appeaseth enemies, and a gracious tongue in a good man aboundeth.
January 13th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
The problem with Democrats is that they are used to spewing out hate-filled venom at their political opponents (nazi, fascist,racist,islamophobe,homophobe etc,etc, you know Rob because you do the same thing) because the so-called “mainstream” news media i.e. the NYTimes, the WashingtonPost,ABC,NBC,CBS etc give them a free ride constantly. So, Boxers ugliness in not surprising. But, if this had been a Republican and, gasp, a male Republican at that, he would have been crucified by the same media that now stays silent when it’s a female Democrat doing the slimeing.
January 13th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
I did say one nice thing – your title. And if you were able to stay on subject (and for once kept your hatred bottled up) I could have praised the article. But I guess you can’t change your spots.
January 13th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
TheRanger is right on.
Mr. Reyes has some good things to say in this one, but they are sandwiched between some typical liberal stuff where opinions are cited as fact.
If the clean topic of the title was addressed in this essay I would be clapping.
January 14th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
Interesting definition of “illegal, immoral, invasion” you Liberals have. Is that anything like the mission in Bosnia? Where, incidently, we still have troops. Interesting definition of “6 months” as well.
As for making Secretary Rice “squirm,” not even close. Condi ate their lunches. She made Chris Dodd look as dumb as he actually is. All you Liberals can do is take cheap shots because you have no answers, even now.
Hateful Harry said as much when he said it wasn’t his job to make policy. If you are going to be critical of the government’s policies, you better be prepared to offer your own. But of course we already know that the Democrats only answer is to cut and run like the cowards they have been for the past 50 years.
“Run away! Run Away!” Democrats always run away from the “vicious killer rabbits.”
Thank God your ilk weren’t around during WWII, we’d have baled the first time Marines his a Pacific Island because we were taking too many casualties.
January 15th, 2007 at 11:02 pm
Robert,
Obviously if the members of the “Senate Foreign Relations Committee” were, or had been doing their job as most Americans would initially interpret the title of the committe’s name to imply, then “RELATIONS” would be established to the embarassment of the White House. Unfortunately, to the members of the Senate, this most likely refers implies and suggests something entirely different and something that they appear to do a good job living up to…Having “relations” that are “foreign” to one another…
and that’s the news from Wake Low beGone…where are the Senators are bought and paid for(just like the pages), the electorate is taken for granted and the Constitution is troden upon..