Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today, and, among other things, managed to try to ignore the fact she was called a liar by a protestor being dragged out by uniformed Capitol Police officers. She also didn't fair well in an exchange with Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) (see the update to the previous post). Part of the exchange between the Secretary and Sen. Hagel consisted of a disagreement concerning what to call what the President is planning to do in Iraq. Thanks to Think Progress.org we have the exchange in detail. Rice objected to Hagel's use of the word "escalation", wanting to call it an "augmentation", instead. According to Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language Students Edition (NY:Simon & Schuster, 1976, 1981; this was the dictionary that my parents gave me as I went off to college, and has served me well since Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union the Evil Empire), "augment" means increase. "Escalate" on the other hand means to increase rapidly. Does anyone see the difference? Is this attempt at semantic confusion mean anything to anyone? After five years, is Rice's Golden Girl reputation actually tarnished, and is the honeymoon between Congress and the Secretary finally over? After this nonsensical attempt to try and change the subject, one hopes so.
Just in time for today's hearing, consummate insider and Valerie Plame-leaker Robert Novak (why does he still have a column?) cut Rice's feet out from under her in this column, in which, attributing unnamed Senate personnel, he claims the State Department is "a mess", which is one of the reasons John Negroponte is returning to Foggy Bottom. An excellent manager, Negroponte has apparently been sent to clear up the problems Rice has been unable to fix.
One of the problems Negroponte might want to address is the fact that the office of Counterterrorism Coordinator is currently empty. I mean, since we are supposedly engaged in a global war on terror, it might be nice to have someone at the State Department co-ordianting our diplomatic efforts in this regard.
Who do we have running our country, monkeys? Did they think no one would notice the Office of Counterterrorism Coordinator was not filled if no one looked?
Rice is clearly not suited for her current job. Which means she fits right in with the rest of this bunch in the Bush Administration.
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