A month ago today I posted a piece entitled "There goes another great career, courtesy the GOP's character-assassination squad," because once the GOP's predatory, McCarthyite bastards get their malicious teeth into you, there's sure to be blood everywhere, and soon.
That is by now so axiomatic as to render Susan Rice's motivation--whether genuinely hers, or more tactically the White House's--behind her withdrawal irrelevant. And that's what saddens most. Any way you cut it--even should Ms. Rice move on to the national security council's directorship--the bastards won.
I truly believe this was her choice. I think the current version of Obama welcomes any fight with the Republicans right now. Plus, his statement accepting her decision was, although subtle, a very sharp blast at the GOP.
This is different from in the past when I do think he found it expedient to "throw people under the bus." I always hated that term and it doesn't truly apply.
I think he was looking forward to a fight over her nomination, assuming that he had planned all along to do so.
Posted by: japa21 | December 13, 2012 at 03:23 PM
Maybe. Sounds vaguely like what happened to another strong woman about a year ago. Whatever happened to Elizabeth Warren, anyway?
Posted by: DerFarm | December 13, 2012 at 04:20 PM
I was as disgusted by what the Republicans were trying to do to Rice, but after I learned that she's a multimillionaire with unusually heavy investment in the Keystone Pipeline, I kind of lost my enthusiasm for her as Secretary of State. Needless to say, Keystone is not why the Republicans were against her.
Posted by: priscianus jr | December 13, 2012 at 09:39 PM
I think this was her choice too. I feared this was a cave a la Van Jones or Shirley Sherrod, but I think she concluded fight wasn't worth it. I hope Obama makes a public statement blasting the idiotic circus the GOP has turned Benghazi into, because he needs to, and they deserve it.
Posted by: thecommodore | December 14, 2012 at 03:15 AM
Once the Keystone element started to get more play, I think the support from the left would have been rather soft. She may have done Obama a favor by stepping aside.
Posted by: MinneapolisPipe | December 14, 2012 at 12:21 PM