Condi on ice

The Senate Democrats are holding up the confirmation of Condoleezza Rice: no, nix that — Senator Robert Byrd is holding up the confirmation vote until Thursday on the magnificently combative grounds, as explained by the Senator’s spokesman, that

“Senator Byrd and others believe that the Senate’s advice-and-consent Constitutional responsibilities are not a rubber stamp.”

This is a slap in the face to one of the core principles of red-state fascism: unanimity. The lies that sustain this regime — the lies that led us into war, and are leading us into another — are so fragile that a loud defiant voice could shatter them. That’s why the neocons defame all dissenters as “anti-American.”

Speaking of loud dissent, Senator Barbara Boxer made me proud to be a Californian when she pretty much called Condi a liar at the Senate hearing:

“And I personally believe — this is my personal view — that your loyalty to the mission you were given, to sell this war, overwhelmed your respect for the truth. And I don’t say it lightly, and I’m going to go into the documents that show your statements and the facts at the time.”

The pinched scowl on Condi’s face was priceless: we got a good look at the inside of her nostrils. (I could’ve sworn I saw daylight at end of that tunnel). As Boxer went through the long litany of untruths uttered by Ms. Rice in the run-up to war — those sinister aluminum tubes, the imminent danger from nonexistent Iraqi WMD and Saddam’s equally illusory links to Al Qaeda — Condi sat there twitching. Now maybe some people in the Bush administration will come around to the right view of torture.

The Peter Bergen quote was a master stroke. As a policy analyst whose specialty was East European and Soviet affairs, and who never made any great waves in that now moribund area of study, Rice had to sit there and listen to the clear cold voice of a real expert succinctly summing up the truly extraordinary failure of this administration:

“What we have done in Iraq is what bin Laden could not have hoped for in his wildest dreams: We invaded an oil-rich Muslim nation in the heart of the Middle East, the very type of imperial adventure bin Laden has long predicted was the U.S.’s long-term goal in the region. We deposed the secular socialist Saddam, whom bin Laden has long despised, ignited Sunni and Shi’a fundamentalist fervor in Iraq, and have now provoked a defensive jihad that has galvanized jihad- minded Muslims around the world. It’s hard to imagine a set of policies better designed to sabotage the war on terror.”

When Rice spluttered her petulant denial, for the first time a note of whininess crept into her voice:

“Senator, I have to say that I have never,ever lost respect for the truth in the service of anything. It is not my nature. It is not my character. And I would hope that we can have this conversation and discuss what happened before and what went on before and what I said without impugning my credibility or my integrity.”

As with any skilled liar, it is necessary to look at Rice’s exact wording to get the gist of what she’s really saying. Given that, one notices at once the odd formulation: after all, isn’t it possible to respect the truth without necessarily telling the truth? It is like having great respect for, say, the Roman Catholic Church, without actually becoming a priest, or even a practicing Catholic. Every liar respects the truth in the sense that he or she fears it greatly. One can also have great respect for one’s enemies, without going over to their side.

As for Dr. Rice’s credibility, she impugned it herself — as Boxer showed to devastating effect in simply quoting her own contradictory statements back to her.

The undoubtedly partisan cast of these hearings is beside the point: I would only note that not one Republican came to Condi’s rescue. What’s important is that somebody is finally speaking up. That it happens to be Barbara Boxer, a politician with whom I agree on little else, is also beside the point.

The point being this horrific, futile, and increasingly costly war — and I mean costly in terms of far more than money. Better that Condi’s integrity and credibility should be challenged than to cede America’s moral integrity and international credibility to a clique of scheming warmongers.