Posted by
on Saturday, January 13, 2007 9:01:58 PM
I would really prefer to take the high road on this particular issue, but I am sick and tired of the self-righteousness, faux-patriot Left in this nation with regard to the war. What precisely am I referring to? Sen. Boxer's confrontation with Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. This reaches new lows I never though the senator was really capable of. But I am surprisingly astonished at the chutzpah of this woman:
Boxer, defending herself against critics from the right, said Friday that she was "speaking truth to power" at a Senate hearing Thursday when she confronted the secretary of state -- who is unmarried and childless -- noting that neither she nor Rice will "pay a price" personally for sending more American troops to war.
"I was just saying what I felt,'' the California Democrat said in an interview with The Chronicle. She said she would not apologize for the exchange because "I delivered a very strong message and tried to find common ground with her ... and I tried to draw us together, and not apart.''
The exchange occurred when Rice appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to support President Bush's proposal to increase U.S. troop levels in Iraq by 21,500.
Boxer, during her questioning of Rice, said she wanted to focus attention on the human consequences of the decision.
"Who pays the price? I'm not going to pay a personal price. My kids are too old, and my grandchild is too young," to serve, Boxer told Rice. "You're not going to pay a price, as I understand it, within immediate family. So who pays the price? The American military and their families.''
Boxer was denounced Friday on the New York Post editorial page, which called the comments "a low blow." The exchange generated a firestorm among conservative bloggers and cable news commentators.
"I think it was more than cheap -- it was degrading," Fox News commentator Karen Hanretty said in an interview. "There's nothing more vicious than feminine politics, and Boxer proved herself a shrill harpy.''
White House spokesman Tony Snow -- a former Fox commentator -- called the comments "outrageous" and opined that Boxer had made "a great leap backward for feminism.''
Fox News ran headlines all day Friday on the topic, such as, "Will Boxer Apologize?'' and "Boxer Slimes Rice,'' and some conservative critics charged that Boxer inappropriately raised questions about Rice's personal life.
Rice, speaking Friday to Fox News, suggested the comments were unduly personal.
"I guess that means I don't have kids. Was that the purpose of that?'' Rice said. "Well, at the time I just found it a bit confusing, frankly. But in retrospect, gee, I thought single women had come further than that. That the only question is, 'Are you making good decisions because you have kids?' "
First let me state that as someone who does have a loved one in this war, it was his choice to sign up. He did not choose to go where he is. He goes where he is sent, and he does his duty to this nation regardless of how tough things are. Is being away from his family and loved ones easy? No. Would he rather be home than in some godforsaken country halfway around the world? Yes. But he does not get to make those choices. I love my brother deeply, and I miss him dearly. And when I see a shrew like Boxer come out and take swipes at Secretary of State Rice--making demnading questions the answers of which are none of her damn business, and making her questioning extremely personal--it makes my blood boil.
Does Boxer think that the decision to go to war was easy? Does she think the president leapt int he air for joy that he had to commit American soldiers to the battlefield? Does she think that members of the administration are cold, callous human beings that relish the possibility of a war? If she does, that senile b***h needs to be handed a loss during her next reelection bid. She may buy the Kos Kiddie mindset that the president is a monster, and his administration is nothing more than mindless, blood-lusting animals, but America does not think that.
Certainly the families who have their husbands, sons, brothers, sisters, daughters, and mothers in harm's way do not think this way. If they do, then they are as deranged as Boxer is. But I doubt that any real feel that way, and if they admit to it, it is their emotion speaking, and hardly logic and common sense.
She needs to issue an apology to Conmdi Rice for the accusations and statement. She owes an apology to her constituents in California, as well. And most of all--before ANY apology is uttered to a single soul--she owes one to the families who have loved ones serving abraod. Her comments did not simply attack an individual. They directly attacked an administration that did not want this war, but responded to it by deploying its military to destroy an enemy of this nation. We do not hide under our desks like some of previous presidents, and pray that the bad dream will go away.
Animals like those we are fighting now do not go away. They only continue to come--bolstered by their bloody ideology--and they will not stop until they are either dead, or they have achieved victory. I would much rather we take the fight to them than sit back and watch more Americans die in attacks similar to those of 9/11, and the previous decade. Our enemy put us on notice then, and we ignored it. They got our attention on 9/11, and we have made them pay for that day over and over again.
Do we want to send more troops into Iraq? No. Absolutely not. But if we are actually going to win this fight, we need to. Boxer should know that, and she likely does. The problem with her and her ilk is that they are so blinded by partisan politics that they will NEVER see the forest through the trees.
Marcie