Milbank's contract hit

It looks as though either the Clinton or Kerry camp got to Milbank. What a partisan-fed hit job on Susan Rice.

"[S]he appalled colleagues by flipping her middle finger at Richard Holbrooke during a meeting with senior staff at the State Department"? Yeah? And? Everybody, at some point, once told the overbearing Holbrooke to go fuck himself. So what?

Rice also had the temerity, Milbank reminds us, to defect from Clinton to Obama in '08. Shocking. And to question Clinton's insane support of the Iraq war. Atrocious. And to call John McCain "reckless." Ghastly. And to openly scrutinize the G.W. Bush/Europe-aligned policy on Iran's weapons program. Oh dear the smelling salts, please.

Maybe Rice isn't Obama's top choice for State. Maybe Rice shouldn't be Obama's top choice for State. Maybe the manufactured Benghazi controversy has done its work and poisoned her nomination beyond cure. I don't know. What I do know is that Susan Rice's career should not be judged by some vulgar, schoolyard defamation campaign led by a Beltway Walter Winchell.

Comments

[Robert Lipscomb]

This strategy might have worked with Obama 1.0 - but not with the beta-tested 2.0. Post-election Obama seems to be a man steeped in the courage of his convictions. One of these convictions is the smallness of his adversaries - including Bill Clinton.

One person stands astride Washington D.C., President Barak Obama.

[Ladysuzy]

I too smell a fish in Milbank's column. Susan Rice is very close to Barack Obama and would be a big ally for him in the State Department. I have a lot of respect for John Kerry, but he seems more conservative than Susan Rice when it comes to foreign policy.

For example, during the rebellion in Lybia, many people in the Washington establishment pushed for a No Fly Zone, a false solution that they KNEW wouldn't prevent a massacre. They just wanted to appear to do something and didn't dare to take sa riskier, more difficult approach and REALLY make a difference. And if I'm not mistaken, Kerry was pushing for the No Fly Zone. While President Obama, and Susan Rice, worked to find, and implement, a REAL solution.

I have NO DOUBT that there are many powerful forces in Washington who don't want Susan Rice at the State Department. They don't want a big ally of President Obama's bold agendas. They prefer a more "careful" candidate, a candidate less inclined to confront the establishment.

I have a feeling that President Obama wants Kerry at Defense and Rice at State. Kerry would be a good SoD, conservative enough to please the Pentagon, yet a man of integrity and a man who is NOT a warmonger. While Rice would be a bold, and GREAT choice for State.

I hope President Obama prevails in this. He will need help from the grassroots I think.