14 | December | 2012 | Existential Ennui

Tags

John McCain, Politics, Susan Rice, teabaggers

Susan-Rice_2427562b There is not a lot to say that hasn’t been said.

I am simply sickened about losing what would have been a brilliant Secretary of State to the evil machinations of an old angry man who cannot get past the fact that the country rejected him and his silly girl Sarah to run the country back in 2008.

They say when John McCain decides against you, you have an enemy for life, and truth, facts, logic and common sense be damned.

A huge part of all this is in my estimation nothing more than pay back by McCain for the 2008 loss and his inability no matter how hard he tries, to cast dirt upon the President. He finally settled on an easier target–Susan Rice. Some will suggest that it is because Rice is African-American. There are claims that Rice took a few shots at McCain during the 2008 race, mostly to do with his criticisms of Obama’s lack of foreign policy experience. Rice claimed that McCain “shot from the hip, and fired first and asked questions later”. She certainly pulled no punches in indicating that his knee-jerk reactions were not the measured thoughtful response expected and need in the Chief Executive of the United States.

In the crisis in Georgia (Russia), in 2008, Rice had this to say about McCain:

SUSAN RICE: Here’s the thing David, we cannot shoot from the hip. We cannot act on the basis of ideology or preconceived notions. When this crisis began, Barack Obama, the administration indeed and all of our NATO allies took a measured and reasoned approach because we were dealing with the facts as we knew them. John McCain shot from the hip, very aggressive, very belligerent statement. He may or may not have complicated the situation.

As I said, once angered, McCain never forgives or forgets.

In addition, there is this history: I believe, that McCain doesn’t respond well to women who are opinionated and out-spoken, something Rice certainly is. A man McCain’s age and white to boot, has difficulty dealing with a woman of color who chooses to go nose-to-nose with him. This I think resulted in the extremely nasty remarks that McCain lodged against Rice, referring to her as “not very bright” and sycophant Lindsey Graham’s remark, “I just don’t trust her.” These are white men who are not used to being set back on their heels by women in general, let alone a Black woman.

But, in the end, Susan Rice is merely the vehicle used to stick it to Obama. That has been the almost constant activity of one John Sidney McCain since 2008. Before that, his attention was focused on making George Bush look back, hence his “maverick” status. One should recall that the whole mavericky thing did not start until after the 2000 election after Bush and his Rovian campaign machine had implied that McCain had fathered an illegitimate black child.

I could let a good deal of this go as “politics” were it not for the meanness, and outright villany laid at Rice’s door. For a man who graduated nearly at the rock bottom of his class as the Naval Academy to call a Rhode’s Scholar “not very bright” is a slap in the face that is both ludicrous and laughable at the same time. It is beneath the dignity of the office of Senator.

The trouble is, nothing much seems below the dignity of a whole lot of Republicans these days, as they threaten the country with hateful legislation and dubious economic “red lines”. We hear that old Turtle, Mitch McConnell is even claiming that the recent PPP poll that found him having the lowest approval rating of any senator in Congress, to be nothing more than a “put-up-job” by the White House to make him look bad.

Meanwhile, in state houses across the country that are Republican controlled, at least until January, every attempt is being made to make life more difficult for women, unions and God knows what else. The fact is that the only base the GOP has are white folks, and that is a shrinking demographic if there ever was one. The only way that Republicans have maintained their majority in the House is because far too many of their districts have been gerrymandered to the point that no Democrat could ever win in them.

For all that has happened, it seems that the GOP is determined to, in large part, learn not a damn thing from the fiasco they fell victim to in 2012. The crazy right seems fully in control at this point and dictates the same crazy responses to every rational proposal. The grifting GOP media operation continues to reap millions praying upon and exploiting the fears of people who frankly just aren’t very bright as noted by any number of studies.

It’s an awful mess, and it is to the credit of the Administration that they have been able to do as much as they have. While John Kerry will make a great Secretary of State, Rice has been greatly maligned for no good reason other than that an old white man and his brown-nosing “boy” wanted to do a hit and run on Barack Obama.

I rather think that when the definitive history is written, Mr. Obama will find himself standing head and shoulders above the likes the of very very senior and very marginalized senator from Arizona.