the rice stuff

Susan Rice, America's ambassador to the UN, and the woman that Obama wants to succeed Hillary Clinton at State, is meeting with John McCain, at her request, to discuss what the fuck his problem is McCain's concerns over her response to the Benghazi attack.

If you need the background on McCain's opposition to Rice's appointment to Secretary of State, read this. It seems to me that while there may be people at fault over Benghazi, Rice isn't one of them (actually, the person with more to answer for is David Petraeus). She gave what proved to be a misleading characterisation of the attacks in the days after they happened, because she was reading from what proved to be a misleading CIA briefing note.

McCain knows this but is intent on shooting the messenger. Why? Well, the key to everything with John McCain is to understand that he views all of US politics through a singular prism: does this represent a slight to me or not? For McCain, the political is very personal. 

By opposing Rice, he can get back at Obama, who slighted him by winning the presidential race in 2008. He can also get back at Rice herself, who, as one of Obama's team during that campaign, made a catty comment about his tendency to grandstand:

As a campaign surrogate in 2008, Ms. Rice could be withering. When Mr. Obama made a trip to the Middle East, she mocked an earlier visit Mr. McCain had made to a market in Baghdad, during which he wore body armor. She said of her candidate, “I don’t think he’ll be strolling around the market in a flak jacket.”

So that's what this is all about.

I think Rice would make a good SoS. First, because she's obviously very close to Obama, which makes her instantly powerful in negotiations with other countries. Second, I like the fact that she's quite an undiplomatic diplomat, who believes strongly that foreign policy involves moral rights and wrongs, and that some people are simply assholes and ought to be addressed as such.

But let her get confirmed first. In this meeting, she needs to grit her teeth and sooth McCain's sensitive ego - to stroke his hair and tickle his belly (I am speaking figuratively).

UPDATE: So, uh, that went well.

Comments

[Arapaho415]

Love your blog. I'm constantly in awe of how well you cut to the core of the matter, clearly and succinctly.

This is one of my favorite posts. Thank you.

[ejoch]

History is not littered with successful 'undiplomatic diplomats'. It's all well and good saying 'so and so is evil' but if you're trying to reach an accommodation with the person - over some matter of common interest like a mutual enemy - it won't get you very far.

[SteveAR]

"It seems to me that while there may be people at fault over Benghazi, Rice isn't one of them..."

The "I was only following orders" defense is no defense, especially when Rice is being considered to replace the even more incompetent Hillary Clinton by the wholly incompetent Barack Obama. Rice is hip deep in the muck, and she willingly put herself there; she has as much blood on her hands as the rest of the regime because she willfully spewed the regime's lies. I noticed that Obama hasn't taken the time to fire the one person in the regime who runs the office responsible for changing the talking points to the misleading ones Rice regurgitated; that would be the old, white guy, DNI James Clapper. If Obama had any managerial skills whatsoever, he'd have gotten rid of Clinton, Clapper, and Petraeus, and he should have told the truth in the first place. Instead, he had his worthless AG hound and jail the one guy who truly had nothing to do with the Benghazi terrorist attack, the guy exercising his First Amendment rights, and left in place the Keystone Kops.

Since you mentioned Petraeus (who has already answered questions about the Benghazi terrorist attack under oath), Democrats continue to lie about why Bill Clinton was impeached; Democrats say it was because he had an affair, even though it was actually because he lied under oath about it (a crime the rest of us would have been convicted of and imprisoned for). Well, isn't that why Petraeus was fired, because he had an affair? And wouldn't it be more problematic for the top CIA guy's boss having an affair than the top CIA guy having one?

[Tom]

Congratulations Marbury! You've been trolled! I guess this means that, on some level, you have arrived.

[S Kriz]

Grandpa McCain is a vindictive, simple-minded war criminal with a 50 year unresolved case of PTSD. This Benghazi brouhaha is the most insignificant non-scandal since the Teatards tried to gin up Vince Foster's suicide into a murder rap against Hillary Clinton, or something. Why anyone with an IQ over room temperature would waste five seconds listening to this blather is beyond me.