Though the discussion appears to be moot now that Susan Rice has apparently withdrawn her name from consideration to be secretary of state, I agree with Max that the criticism of Rice’s undiplomatic style would seem to be complements when coming from conservatives. But I fear an important point is being lost: this criticism was not coming from the right, by and large. The attacks on Rice’s disposition have been driven by the left. Indeed, what is remarkable about the controversy over Rice is how thoroughly the left took command of it–and greatly expanded the effort to prevent her nomination.
As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, Republicans on the Hill had basically limited their critique of Rice to her misleading statements following the Benghazi attack. Liberals, on the other hand, made it personal. Dana Milbank suggested Rice had an attitude problem. Maureen Dowd said Rice was too ambitious and unprincipled for her own good–or the country’s. Yesterday at the Daily Beast, Lloyd Grove launched a bizarre attack on Rice that accused her of having a personality disorder. The left has also been driving the less personal attacks as well. Howard French said Rice’s Africa legacy is the further empowerment of dictators. Human Rights Watch’s Tom Malinowski knocked Rice for essentially enabling atrocities in Congo.
Meanwhile, it should not go unnoticed that Hillary Clinton made her opposition to Rice clear to officials in Washington, which may explain the avalanche of leaks and criticism and personal sniping that came from the left as soon as the battle commenced. All of which makes Ben Smith’s piece at Buzzfeed today, headlined “Why The Republican War On Susan Rice Is A Terrible Idea,” so strange. Smith, usually more politically astute than this, allowed himself to be spun by Rice’s few allies to attack the right just as criticism of Rice from the left is everywhere (the Atlantic, for example, can’t seem to stop bashing Rice).
The lack of quotes of actual Republicans criticizing Rice in Smith’s article should be a clue that the GOP had not led this fight for quite some time now. Smith even mentions Dowd’s column as evidence of shifting GOP tactics, knocking the right for “circulating” Dowd’s piece. (Welcome to the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, Maureen Dowd!)
In any event, Max is right that conservatives would have found more to like about Rice than most would-be Obama nominees, and that her confrontational style would have been even more needed in an Obama administration promising “flexibility” to Russia. Here at COMMENTARY, we’ve defended Rice from both the left and the right. You won’t find the same evenhandedness at the Atlantic, the Daily Beast, the Washington Post, the New York Times, or the countless other liberal outlets that just killed Rice’s nomination.
I suspect Clinton's attacks had more to do with Clinton's own culpability.
…and yet, despite the avalance of lefty criticism, the narrative tonight and tomorrow throughout the MSM will be how the GOP killed her nomination, with not-so-subtlle implications of racism from the usual suspects. *sigh*
I suppose Mandel includes Bret Stephens, who launched two withering attacks against Rice on the pages of the Wall Street Journal, as among the paladins of the left targeting poor affirmation action candidate Susan Rice. Just because Mandel can name leftists who wanted to block Rice's nomination is no reason to pretend that Rice deserved to be nominated or to minimize the powerful arguments mounted against her that had nothing to do with any John Bolton-like idiosyncrasies and everything to do with her visceral hostility to Israel displayed last year at the UN and this year by boycotting Netanyahu's speech, her sympathy for the Muslim Brotherhood narrative that terrorists are just angry movie critics provoked by anti-Muslim cinema, and her general indifference to genocide. I think the Republicans should proudly take credit for her demise.
I think what people have failed to notice is that there are two wings of the DNC, you have the old Clinton wing of the DNC and their allies and the Obama radicals. This Obama administration is filled with a bunch of radicals, its a conga line of miscreants, buffoons and undesirables. I don't think that history is going to judge Obumble very well. n nI think we're going to see a distancing of the Clinton Allies from the Obama radicals/buffoons. Rice is an Obama radical but she's also a political hack. n nI think as Obama's second term plays out it's going to be rats jumping off a sinking ship.
The writer of this piece is a candidate for the Lewis Carol award of the year. This is "through the looking glass" commentary where down is up and left is right. Ambassador Rice was "Borked" by the Republicans in the Senate. I do not think that a single Democrat in the Senate opposed her nomination.
Choosing between Rice and Kerry is like being up to your neck in manure and having it thrown at your face! n nFrankly, between those two I prefer Rice!
I truly wonder if Seth and Max paid attention to Rice's public (and private) comments regarding israel. What is the extent of their support for Israel. I believe that each of them should tell us their ages, and that each of them should explain to us their entire, complete vision of an "agreement" between the Jews and the arabs – it is not about Israel vs. "palestine" – and they should include the topics of borders, refugees. settlements, and Jerusalem. Presently, until I know their positions on these issues, I do not view their columns on Israel topics to be credible, or to be written with integrity.
I second your request for these to provide their readers a bill of particulars. Dissecting their posts I assume the two are convinced two-staters.
Well, Rice has gone, she has gone. She made a mistake and the left made her pay for it.
Nobody mentions Rice's ties to Canadian oil companies, one of the main sources of her personal wealth and a disqualification to those on the environmental Left. n nYou know, had she been confirmed, her portfolio would have been a clear conflict of interest, especially in these days of the Canadian oil pipeline. n nObama didn't desert Rice because of Republican opposition to her. Obama just finished a successful campaign demonizing the GOP as racists conducting a "war on women." Having won with that strategy it is inconceivable that he has now become afraid to fight for a black woman on the same battleground with less well-financed and formidable foes.
…. The Daily Beast's Lloyd Grove noted Rice's personality disorder …. n nThat to those of us used to getting it Right, is as obvious as is the nose on her face. n nFascissocialism's a psychosis but at the Daily Beast it's the norm and Mr Grove is both surrounded by its sufferers — Kirsten Powers — and is blinded by that fact!