Palin Picker says Rice “Not Very Bright”
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change. ~Charles Darwin
The reason Great Britain remains a top-tier international economic and political power today is because it did a great job adapting from one reality to another. Seeing the heads of monarchs rolling across Europe, our mother country decided to give this whole parliamentary democracy thing a go, while repurposing the House of Windsor as stately and impotent figureheads and turning Buckingham Palace into Disneyworld.
Apple Computer learned some tough lessons at the hands of Microsoft in the 80’s and 90’s, but learn them it did, and a company that almost went under in the late 90’s has since reinvented itself as a consumer products company whose moneymaking toys are platform-agnostic.
The point being that the survival and success of organizations depends upon their ability to adapt, and to utilize a feedback loop (be it holiday sales figures, election results, or war casualties) to prevent themselves from becoming the next New Coke, Todd Akin, or Gulf of Tonkin.
The lessons that today’s Republican Party has gleaned from political, economic, and scientific history, in that sense, are nothing short of mindboggling.
Apparently, the party believed it had insulted people of color with insufficient vigor, and immediately began explaining away its electoral shellacking via the “minorities voted for Democrats because they wanted free stuff” meme.
Nevermind that the vast majority of African-Americans aren’t on welfare, and the largest recipient group is white. And never mind that this community is more overrepresented than any other racial group serving our country in the military.
Nevermind that the one ethnicity economically outperforming whites (Asian-Americans out-earn caucasians and are statistically less likely to apply for government assistance or to require incarceration) also voted for the President by the same lopsided margin as other communities of color.
The fact that people of color may not feel welcome in a party which diligently promotes racist stereotypes and refers to real-live human beings as “illegals,” has apparently eluded the furiously misfiring synapses of the conservative commentariat.
Richard Viguerie, known by many as the “funding father” of conservative politics proudly displayed his tin ear on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered this week.
“We have the Marco Rubios, the Nikki Haley, governor of South Carolina, and now senator-elect Ted Cruz from Texas and Susana Martinez, governor of New Mexico. So we’re beginning to run these minorities. And I think you’ll see the Republican Party reach out and really kind of change the face of the Republican Party, so when people see the Republican Party they see themselves represented, nicely, throughout the elected officials.”
Despite the proud display of the GOP’s new showcase of “these minorities,” shoving Marco Rubio in front of the cameras, while all but exclaiming “look, we have one too!” is not going to save them. Human beings have an ability, regardless of their color, to know pandering when they see it.
And so what’s quite incredible about the establishment GOP lynch mob currently setting upon UN Ambassador Susan Rice is that they’re targeting in her person the two primary demographics—women, and people of color—who just handed them their behinds in the election.
“It takes brass,” as Bill Clinton would say.
Rice, of course, was dispatched to the Sunday talk show circuit the week of the Benghazi incident, and did what she was supposed to do. She conveyed the initial information provided to her by the CIA—some of which turned out to be untrue. The 9/11 Commission didn’t issue its findings until three years after the attacks on our own soil occurred, and it’s absurd to think we’d have locked down, within days, every detail about an attack we suffered on the other side of the globe.
Susan Rice was sharing with the citizens of her country the best, most current information she had received at that time. It was the same information the intelligence community provided to Congress and the White House at the time, and the CIA corroborates Rice’s account, but not everything the agency thought about the attacks in the hours and days immediately afterward turned out to be accurate. Go figure.
Opportunists who’ve been feasting on a banquet of sour grapes lately, like Senators McCain and Graham had no problem cheerleading a decade long war that cost this nation the lives of thousands of our troops, a cool trillion that could have gone toward rebuilding our decaying infrastructure or paying down debt, and destroyed countless families on both sides.
Even after a decade, those elusive WMDs never did turn up, public opinion turned heavily against the war, and the debacle has joined Vietnam and the Bay of Pigs in the pantheon of our all-time great foreign policy screw-ups.
But woe be unto an American UN Ambassador who repeated an initial CIA assessment that turned out to be inaccurate and was corrected within days, without getting us into a costly war, or welcoming thousands of young Americans home in body bags.
The sheer nerve of the Iraq War hawks attacking Susan Rice, who as UN Ambassador had nothing to do with Benghazi or compound security, because it took us a few days to get more clarity about the attackers and their motives is, as the President said today, outrageous.
Which gets us back to the GOP’s “outreach initiative” to communities of color and women. A row of pissy old white guys in suits going after a smart, accomplished woman of color with the facts on her side in nationally televised confirmation hearings, can only make progressives shake their heads. Like a skewered dog that seeks out that damn porcupine again, because this time he’ll get it right, the GOP licks its wounds and lashes out at the very groups it has alienated. Well played.
The angry old white guys didn’t fare so well against a bright young law student named Sandra Fluke. It’s unlikely they’ll do better against a Clinton Administration veteran with serious policy chops who is far more experienced at DC knife fights than Miss Fluke was.
Take the justification to disqualify Ms. Rice because, in addition to being “unqualified,” “she’s not very bright,” coming from the man who nominated Sarah Palin to be first in line to the Presidency under his would-be administration. In McCain’s defense, he may not have known that Palin was neither qualified nor bright- he didn’t vet her.
They say that those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. And while the usual suspects in the old guard of the Republican Party are busy proving that nothing has penetrated their thick elephantine crania, it does appear as if the voters actually get it. Score one for us.
palin gave mcain a helecpter ride in ak,a whole posse of washington hags,she gave them a blow over the north star,they are forever under her nose
I read that article…. JUST STUNNING….
Excellent job Jeanne. So good I posted it on F.B.
Everyone should read the devastating 2008 Rolling Stone article “Make Believe Maverick”:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/make-believe-maverick-20081016
Says it all.
STILL STAGGERING..!
Says McCain the class dummy who rated 894 out of 899 in his Annapolis class, even with his Admiral Dad’s help. The bottom few percent of a class don’t get to jet flight school, unless of course Dad is an Admiral.
Who’s not very bright?
Grumpier old men…I heard that Palin was financing this “tape of hate” and that is why the “ownership” was bewildering to the “actress”? yawn…Pimping Palins crimes have got so out of hand – McCain has to cover this up with a story of the President covering up the incident…when video shows like waves on the ocean, pull back, empty beaches, slam, water, or in this case, violence…it was METICULOUSLY planned…put all the pieces together already…what about that separation of states from the US? timeline on that now? Investments down…
Rice just happens to be handy…I hope the FBI keeps up the investigations…little digging find HUGE rewards…
I doubt this is really about Senator McCain being “old”. Remember this is the same fellow who years ago publicly joked that Chelsea Clinton was “so ugly” because “Janet Reno was her father.” and who parodied a Beach Boys’ song by substituting the lyrics, “Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran.” McCain has always been erratic and subject to fits of temper and otherwise inappropriate behavior, the apogee of which was likely his still-astounding Palin pick. Personally, I think he’s doing the President a favor. The picture of McCain, Graham, and a bunch of other old white guys calling the Rhodes-scholar, career diplomat black woman “not very bright” and “unqualified” is such a glaring illustration of prejudice that any moderates still out there “undecided” will just keep tipping over into the Democratic side. Like most anyone who has served in high diplomatic posts for a decade, Rice has made some questionable calls and statements in the past that are legitimate subjects of debate but the actions of McCain and Graham will just call out to everyone what is the real root of the opposition – they say that President Obama picked her, so they are automatically against her, period.
One can add another name to “Grumpy” men . Dana rohrabacher (R-Calif)
He showed his A$$ today
Wonder what he did sitting on that plane in Dubai, while the rest of the delegation were in Afganistan. He was not allowed to enter the country.
Senator McCain is admiral of USS Cranky, and the ship has left the harbor- full steam ahead.
Keep on going, Admiral- soon you’ll be able see Russia from the bridge. Bon voyage!
I think they’ve got their Rices mixed up. Condoleezza messed up, big time, and led us into a costly, disastrous war and occupation.
McShame keeps harping on how ‘four people died’ in Benghazi — conveniently omitting that tens of thousands of Americans and Iraqies died in Condi Rice’s war, of which she had a direct hand in policy. But that’s ok cuz she’s a Republican! McStain is turning into a doddering fool and it’s time he retired.
A press conference to complain he wasn’t getting enpugh info about Benghazt. Oh the irony.
It will be interesting as to what Gen. Petrais has to say tomorrow. I get the feeling he will defend the Admin. Just my gut feeling! He owes the President this one!
Oops… Senator McCain missed the Senate briefing on Benghazi due to a scheduling error- his staff booked a press conference.
He wouldn’t get enough “floor” time! He likes to blow his big mouth on the tube!
When Anderson Cooper interviewed two Senators tonight—-after they had attended the hearings today,, they both came out of the meeting with a different “take” on what they heard.
So it is no wonder this story is in disarray
Yes, but by missing the hours long, in depth hearings McShame can stick to repeating his tired, misinformed tirade against Rice and Obama! As with $creech Paylin and Mitt Romney, McStain just doesn’t get it that the more he talks, the worse he comes across. Delusional, all …. I bet Pearce Morgan will put it to him and McPalin will stomp off the set in another fit of temper. Ha!
I think that Sen. Palin Picker is well beyond his prime. He is behaving in an increasingly senile manner. Lindsay Graham seems to have been appointed by someone (Mitch McConnell perhaps?) to be Sen. Palin Picker’s nurse and bodyguard, possibly always present to prevent a rip-roaring tantrum. This country really dodged a bullet in 2008: imagine Sen. Palin Picker as president and Sarah Palin as his vice president . . . . The image is genuinely frightening.
The real irony of Sen. Palin Picker’s criticism of Susan Rice is that it really applies to Condaleezza (?sp) Rice who was national security advisor when 9/11 happened. Now she actually was responsible and should have been required to answer for her failures. Susan Rice, as ambassador to the UN, had no role in what unfolded in Libya on that unfortunate night in October. But Sen. Palin Picker just loved C. Rice but cannot abide S. Rice. In a certain light, the whole thing is funny. Except that it’s not.
And the Palin Picker will be on the Pierce Morgan show tonight. (CNN)
CNN—–The Other FAUX news channel
The current urge of the Republican party is to ‘splain their shellacking in the presidential election in terms of the Dems getting the “Female” vote, the “urban” vote. the “Latino” vote, the “Black” vote, the “young” vote, the “gay” vote… Apparently implying that the “Real ‘Mer-i-cun” vote (read “old white hetero male”) vote was all for Romney/Ryan … Well, perhaps the GOP should go outside of their insular white male world and actually observe the electorate. We are women, we are urban, we are Latino, we are Black, we are immigrants, we are young, we are LGBT, and we are sick and tired of being sidelined, marginalized, discounted, demonized, talked down to, and, yes, shat upon by the Republican party. That Romney/Ryan thought a couple of Spanish-language ads and a stutter step to the “middle” at the end of the election would erase the hateful, xenophobic, racist, patronizing stench of the primary and most of the general election cycle shows how little regard they have for those who they do not consider “real ‘mer-i-cuns”… The current debate within the GOP about whether it is really necessary to actually change their core platform or just “reframe” the same old bullcrap in a way that “those people” can unnerstand further illustrates the fact that they don’t have a stinking clue. The view from head-in-the-sandville looks pretty beige, and digging in deeper isn’t going to get them any closer to reality.
Sandra Fluke, not Susan 🙂
Thanks! Had Susan Rice on the brain. Clearly I am unqualified for this position… 😉
The Palin Picker, indeed, spaced out Benghazi hearings while talking to press about “lack of information”.
Nice one, Jeanne.
On the Viguerie comment about seeing themselves represented in the GOP, doesn’t it sound familiar? Like that brilliant tactic that lasted all of three days to suggest Palin might siphon off Hillary supporters in 2008?
Not that I care whether the Republican party gets its act together, but I feel quite sure they really only want to *appear* more reasonable.
Gotta admit it, I’m loving the liberal win, have to wallow in it a while longer because it can’t last.
They crucify those they cannot forget…
When I saw McCain talking defiantly about Susan Rice, I shuddered. This, coming from a man who cheered us into a war in which thousands of American lives were lost, now seem to care about 4 American lives! There is no evidence that he ever cared, period.
It’s madness…. I think McCain is suffering from dementia….
Shameful old man demonstrates his ignorance…..
Another Clint Eastwood moment for the Republican Party. Angry old white guys who don’t get it . . .