Wednesday, January 19, 2005
A Disgusting Display
I watched the confirmation hearings for Condi Rice off and on the last couple of days. I thought Joe Biden, in particular, put on a disgusting display.
This is a very important person, a senator, one of 100, saying another VIP, in fact the Secretary of Defense in a co-equal branch of our government, in a very dangerous time of war, doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. And not only that, his whole line of questioning 1) put down the Iraqis who have been trained and 2) put down our own, American forces by implying that a few weeks of training could turn anyone into an equal of our fine, dedicated, intelligent soldiers. I plan on calling Senator Biden's office and complaining.Biden later grilled Rice on the number of trained Iraqi forces, charging that the administration was exaggerating the number of police who have been trained.
"For God's sake, don't listen to (Defense Secretary Donald) Rumsfeld. He doesn't know what in the hell he's talking about on this," Biden said.
Rice insisted in her first day of testimony there are more than 120,000 trained Iraqi forces, while Biden said it was just over 4,000.
Senator Barbara Boxer, too, put on a show for the cameras, implying that Condi Rice lied to the American people and was a "yes-man" for President Bush. I kept asking myself, who would ever WANT a job if they have to sit and take abuse like this to be confirmed. Not me.
