I don’t usually comment on matters outside education, but I had to say something about the bullying of Susan Rice.
I don’t think I ever met Susan, but I knew her mother fairly well when I worked at the Brookings Institution, so I followed Susan’s remarkable career.
Susan Rice graduated from Stanford University, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She was a Rhodes Scholar with double degrees from Oxford University. She was on the staff of the National Security Council and an Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs in the Clinton administration. And now she is the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
After the attack on the American consulate in Libya, Rice went on the airwaves to explain what happened. She used talking points supplied by the CIA. Later, everyone learned that the talking points were wrong. Rice did not lie. She said what she knew at the time.
The Republicans in the Senate have attacked her savagely. Now she has withdrawn her name as a candidate for the job of Secretary of State.
This is an outrage. She is a highly qualified candidate for the job. She has been attacked by people who thought that Sarah Palin was well qualified to be Vice-President of the United States. Shame on them.
What a loss for the nation.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Diane,
I, too, am furious with the GOP echo chamber’s attacks on Rice, and I think she would have been a tremendous asset to the State Department. However, her financial interests, specifically in the Keystone Pipeline, may have kept a few Dems from offering their complete support.
Either way, it’s a loss.
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Here is why many progressives opposed her. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/11/susan-rice-benghazi-secretary-state
Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2012 22:22:20 +0000 To: levianthony@hotmail.com
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I wish more so-called progressives did oppose her. Sadly though, the minute the Republicans laid into her, most so-called progressives reflexively defended her.
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So what that she’s Phi Beta kappa and a former Rhodes Scholar? Greenwald provides a nice compendium of all the progressive critiques of Rice.
The careerist Cory Booker is a Rhodes scholar too.
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She’s a heckuva lot better qualified to be Secretary of State than Sarah Palin was to be one heartbeat away from the Presidency, don’t you think?
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I’m sorry, but I do not think this is any sort of argument to support her candidacy. I’m not sure why Sarah Palin is relevant here.
Shall I support Arne Duncan because he is not Sarah Palin?
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I think it may be about getting John Kerry out of the Senate and Scott Brown, or another surrogate, in. Or some other ridiculous GOP scheme. It clearly has nothing to do with Susan Rice, but is so well and so outrageously orchestrated that it’s obviously about strategy and power, not governing or representation. Wish that Obama and Rice would refuse to be bullied. John McCain should be ashamed for so many reasons — mostly that he would try to foist ridiculous Sarah Palin on us, yet assassinate the character of accomplished Susan Rice.
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Rice is no different from John McCain in her beliefs of how the United States should conduct itself in the world, which makes McCain’s criticism partisan hackery at the minimum. But Rice did lie about Libya for political purposes. Even if you want to believe she made an honest mistake, it was her job to know better and she failed at it.
More importantly, there’s no discussion of positions about foreign policy. Does having a degree from Oxford make it okay to sanction and facilitate the murder of millions of Congolese?
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REALLY? And your evidence for her lying?
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This is the crazy fascist world we now live in. Democrats, including Obama, have sold us out through the DNC and the DFER. These are right wing anti worker and due process organizations totally in line with ALEC and the Republicans. They are “Astroturf” Democrats by policy they support. As a friends grandfather taught him “I hear real good, but I see a whole lot better.” I also say “Do not listen to the silvery tongued devils, only watch what they do.” By policy Obama is really a privatizer corporatist for a long time. At least since 1995 when he becomes the president of the Annenburg Foundation for Chicago Public Schools. Annenburg puts about $160 million into the Chicago Public Schools over 6 years and even their own review shows that they accomplished nothing. Not only that Obama was deeply involved in Renaissance 2000 which is all about privatization and corporatization. Recently, in the Chicago Sun-Times, of the over 100 charter schools in Chicago only one did better than the regular public schools. So let us follow that failed, mayoral control and charter schools, methodology and not work for all students. America the divided is what that is. The slaves and the elite is what that produces by design not accident. Do not forget the recent DOE OIG report on the failure of accountability of charter schools and their legal overseers, the State, County and District responsible parties. This report is DOE-OIG/A02L0002. Why approve more charter schools when no one knows what is going on?????
This thing with Susan Rice is just foolishness. She said what the CIA, NSA, and the rest of the so called intelligence services told her. We know who the person at the State Dept. who refused the extra security personnel is. These naysayers do not?? It is ridiculous on its face. Something is really wrong when someone like Sarah Palin is put up for vice president by John McCain, who by the way is the #1 Keating 5 which cost the U.S. in dollars over $1 billion and someone who is doing their job fronting for all of these agencies and people does what she is told by the highest authorities is the best information and she is hammered.
WHAT HAVE WE BECOME???????
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Sad for our country and completely and utterly sickening.
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Agreed. The attacks against Susan Rice have been irrational and often remarkably savage. Does anyone honestly believe that such attacks would have been launched at her from the Right, had she been a REPUBLICAN appointee? Utterly, inexcusably partisan.
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I’m afraid I have to go with Glenn Greenwald on this one: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/11/susan-rice-benghazi-secretary-state
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I’m with Dienne on this one. Diane, you can’t judge a child by her (or his) parent. From what I’ve read or seen of Ms. Rice, and ignoring the babble about the Benghazi attack, she’s just another egotistical, spoiled, arrogant, elitist who travels with the neocons on too many issues. Academic achievements do not make Secretaries of State; you can’t judge a book by its gilt edging. Rice lacks the maturity and wisdom for this job. And I have yet to hear anything of real intelligence from her; showing yet again that fancy degrees and academic honors don’t seem to mean much any more.
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Here’s another reason:
Money – (Pink Floyd) Listen and read.
I’m curious about her fortune and how it was acquired. It is estimated to be around $23-45M. I ‘m not a regular reader of The Weekly Standard, but they had this on her financial investments. There are links to financial disclosure forms and a report from the Center for Responsive Politics.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/susan-rices-investments-business-dealing-iran_664227.html
This from Media Matters
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/11/30/wash-post-reports-on-susan-rices-investments-wi/191611
This from Slate:
Susan Rice’s Investments Have Ties to Iran. So Do John McCain’s.
David Weigel
http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2012/11/30/susan_rice_s_investments_have_ties_to_iran_so_do_john_mccain_s.html
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I don’t know about her finances, only about her experience.
If you start disqualifying people with money from political office, that would clear out most of our elected officials.
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It’s the conflicts like the Keystone Pipeline and indirect/direct dealings with Iran. With her I’m conflicted. I dislike the fact Obama rolled/caved on this and allowed three Senators to dictate his nominee for State. I also feel that she got burned for following the talking points she was given ( by Defense, NSA and the company) and sort of thrust onto the national scene because Sec Clinton didn’t want to talk about it.On the other hand, her investments would have presented some conflicts and may have caused her to be flagged by some who may have supported her otherwise.
I wouldn’t disqualify anyone based on money and wealth. I would only do so based on positions and ethics.
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This post is an exemplum of your absolute vacuity, broad ignorance and partisan opportunism.
Here’s some more on Rice.
http://blackagendareport.com/content/shameless-vacuity-susan-rices-black-boosters
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It’s very bad form to speak in such vicious language. Didn’t your mother teach you manners? Didn’t your teachers correct you when you insulted others? It’s never too late to learn.
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A world in which the very well-heeled continue to force and manipulate the mass of humans into believing their noble lies can do with less “good form.” The learned and decorous might advise one that he may speak in cant but only if he not think in cant. This blog, and your “good form” in all its guises, encourages the worst sort of equivocations and fulfills the good progressive dream of compromise. Of course, 99% of us compromise very politely while the rest of you take and take in as offensive a manner as possible. It’s your world, I just live here.
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Amen. This is a very disappointing post. Rice is not an individual to admire (especially if you care about children outside our borders too). I’m sure the replacement won’t be much better.
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Rice was a war hawk, and there are far better professionals Obama could have tapped for the position. I agree that the Republican arguments against her were vapid and hypocritical, but that doesn’t excuse her, frankly, terrible record in the realm of human rights.
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I am shocked by Rice withdrawing her name from consideration. I agree with your assessment of the situation and could not agree more.
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Perhaps Thomas Friedman’s recommendation for SoS will now come true: Arne Duncan!
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I think if that came true, it would confirm that I’m not actually awake, this is all just some crazy dream.
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Then I seriously want out of your dream. My own dreams can be plenty bizarre, but never that terrifying.
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I mean if countries fail, they will be turned over to technocrats from Goldman Sucks? Oh wait, ain’t it happening in Europe already?
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Sorry Diane, there is more than meets the eye in the case of Susan Rice, Besides the excellent pieces from Guardian (by Glenn Greenwald) and Black Agenda Report mentioned above, here is another one – an interview with Ray McGovern on Democracy Now !
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/12/12/beyond_benghazi_partisan_rift_over_susan
That said, we can rightfully condemn the racist/sexist attacks on Susan Rice without defending her warmongering record. To me, she is the Democratic party equivalent of Condoleeza Rice. She was among the 3 supposedly “strong” (read warmongering) females (as the lamestream media deemed her then) in the admin besides Hillary Clinton and Samantha Power pushing for the Libyan war. I am ashamed as a woman that this hawk is being touted as an exemplary strong female.
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Sorry to hijack this thread, but on a more upbeat and positive note.
NYC teachers’ fund pledges $1 billion in Sandy Aid
http://news.msn.com/us/nyc-teachers-fund-pledges-dollar1-billion-in-sandy-aid
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