Madame Secretary Finally Accepts an Invitation
Frankly, I’ve been holding my breath since I first saw this (tentatively) on Selise’s weekly hearing schedule. After all, Waxman has been trying to get Condi Rice to appear before the Oversight Committee since early spring. But they’ve now announced the hearing, so I’m breathing again.
The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will hold a hearingentitled, “The State Department and the Iraq War†on Thursday morning,October 25, 2007, in 2154 Rayburn House Office Building.
Thehearing will examine unanswered questions regarding the performance ofthe State Department on several significant issues relating to the Iraqwar, including the impact of the activities of Blackwater USA andcorruption within the Iraqi ministries on the prospects of politicalreconciliation in Iraq. The Committee may also discuss with theSecretary allegations of wrongdoing associated with the construction ofthe new U.S. Embassy Compound in Baghdad, as well as other mattersunder investigation by the Committee.
WHO: The Honorable Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State
That said, I imagine Condi’s neatest piece of diplomacy since taking over as Secretary of State was this hearing (granted, the competition isn’t all that stiff). The Crypt reports that Condi will face a wide range of questions.
Condoleezza Rice is scheduled to appear before the House Oversight andGoverment Reform Committee Thursday to answer questions aboutcorruption within the Iraqi government, the possibility of politicalreconciliation in that war-ravaged country and the department’scontroversial security contract with Blackwater USA, according to arelease from the committee.
Oversight Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) has been pressing Riceand other agency officials for months to testify about corruption andthe department’s contract with Blackwater. According to the release,committee members will also be asking about allegations of misconductin the construction of the U.S. embassy compound in Baghdad. [my emphasis]
Which is to say, don’t expect Condi to answer any questions about why her NSC put the Niger claims into the 2003 SOTU after having been forced to take it out of a speech three months earlier.
FWIW, I suspect Condi agreed to appear in a desperate attempt to pitch State’s recent attempts to exercise oversight over contractors as real progress. Consider: Congress has the ability to take much of the freedom on contracting out of the hands of State, which would devastate State’s initiatives in Iraq (not to mention the CIA’s). So if Condi wants to avoid ceding all of Iraq to DOD, she needs to convince Congress she has this under control and that her recent changes will work.
Too bad she always comes off so unconvincingly when she testifies before Congress.
Update: More evidence Condi is trying to arrive in front of Waxman to make assurances she has fixed everything at State:
The State Department’s security chief announced his resignation onWednesday in the wake of last month’s deadly Blackwater USA shootingincident in Baghdad and growing questions about the use of privatecontractors in Iraq.
Richard Griffin, the assistant secretary ofstate for diplomatic security, announced his decision to resign at aweekly staff meeting, according to an internal informational e-mailsent to colleagues.
Oh Condi, oh Condi,
What can you say?
Those chickens are comin’ home,
And the Palestinians won’t play.
Oh Condi, oh Condi,
What can you do?
Blackwater’s got your back,
But there ain’t no front to you.
Oh Condi, oh Condi,
How could you know?
Henry’s got your number,
And to Congress you must go.
Oh Condi, oh Condi,
Your future ain’t bright.
Junya’s irrelevant,
and they be turning out the light.
Oh Condi, oh Condi,
It must make your day,
when nobody believes you.
What can you say?
Oh Condi, oh Condi,
The Republican’s Pearl of the South.
Things were going swimmingly,
until you opened your mouth.
Oh Condi, oh Condi,
Now it’s all over.
Kissing Junya’s ass,
while sharing it with Rover.
Lantos just finished his committee hearing by thanking Rice for her appearance, commenting that he and all members of his committee stand in awe of the depth and breadth of her knowledge and expertise.
Pretty hard-hitting -don’t you think?
Let’s hope Waxman won’t disappoint.
Oh Christ, look you guys, Waxman is sitting in a Congress whose popularity is a rip-roaring 11%. It’s not as if Condi was dragged kicking and screaming to the hearing room.
Lantos virtually owed Condi an apology, given the piss-poor security arrangements that the Democrats run in that building these days. That Code Pink Moonbat got a tad too close for comfort. You can bet the security detail won’t let that happen again.
As for Waxman, Condi has handled ambulance chasers before. She sent ben Veniste packing, she’ll deal with Waxman rather well. The notion that Waxman is going to unearth the secrets of Joe Wilson’s Niger scam is a fantasy that you guys have been peddling, well, since Joe published his book. Time to give it a rest.
â€Consider: Congress has the ability to take much of the freedom on contracting out of the hands of State, which would devastate State’s initiatives in Iraq (not to mention the CIA’s).â€
Do we really think they would exercise that power?
Who let the unauthorized troll in?
There’s a report out that says that the State Department can’t provide security for its diplomats. DHinMI is on it at dKos. They might want to ask her questions about that.
Oooh. Watch out Fifth Avenue. Cause, you know, the Iron Maiden is going to need a new outfit for the gala event of the Waxman social season. EW, you have about the right tone here. You have to ask â€Exactly what shit does the Administration self servingly have in mind pitching if they are suddenly desirous of sending the elusive Dr. Rice up the Hillâ€? I agree that maintaining the State Dept. program status quo, and the DOD at a safe distance, is part of it; but I wonder if there is not more. The Administration has shown their ability to prohibit unwanted legislation through minority strangulation of the Congressional parliamentary process; so they don’t necessarily have to send Rice-A-Phony up. So what are the other reasons?
Lantos has some sort of musical connection with Rice.
Somewhere, a village is missing it’s idiot. This morning, we are graced by the inanity of Section 8. These two concurrent events are not coincidental.
Well, Leslie Southwick, another mediocre or lower legal intellect. but chock full of right wing racist ideals, has been confirmed to the 5th CCA. Thanks DiFi, for all you do.
I am with bmaz… Either the administration wants something and they are using this as a means to show its cooperation, or Condi is just going to claim â€I don’t remember†or â€I’ll have to get back to you on that…â€
Don’t get too excited. Rice is famous for her talent at answering a question at such length as to preclude any possiblity, due to the resulting time constraints, of being asked another. Even if the Dems managed to grow spines, they’ll still be reduced to silent spectators at their own show.
If Rice insists on rambling at length in her answers, how about this for a simple question: Secretary Rice: What has the State Department done to bring our occupation of Iraq to an end?
How infuriating, bmaz. And I’ll be DiFi gets nothing in return except the self satisfaction that she helped out the NeoCons.
be=’bet’
Anyone want odds on whether Condi will invoke the phrase â€No one ever imagined…†during the hearing?
Her effectiveness as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State aside, she may be one of the advisors standing in the way between 70 million Iranians and the bunker buster bombs Bush and Cheney want to drop to ignite WWIII.
bmaz, agree that Condi will need to wear something very snazzy to her appointment on the Hill; shoes must match. Definitely.
dolphy, I also dread Rice-A-Phoney’s ability to stall for time with b.s. digressions and finely minced crapola. The way around that would be for any well-prepared, smart Congresscritter to phrase their questions so that Rice’s ONLY options in responding would be one of the following, single word responses only. And limit her to ONLY one word in response to each question. Here’s the list of six acceptable Condi responses:
yes
no
before
after
more than
less than
Single word responses work well in a variety of diagnostic situations — but policy types hate and fear them, due to their aversion to ever being pinned down. Condi and the WH would hate it, but the Dems might get somewhere.
execrable, the problem with posing an ’open ended’ question to Rice is that it appears those are her favorites. They give her far more latitude to waste time and allow her to use her own talking points. In that sense, any Dem who pitches her one of those softballs is a defeatest who’d be smarter to stay home and watch old ’I Love Lucy’ reruns.
Why do the Progressives build themselves up to such high expectation over the Congressional Hearings? Waxman talks a big game, but is a dreary performer.
It is a good thing that the nutcase that appeared today, didn’t put her bloody hands on Condi. She might have gotten put into a head lock or got a Kung Fu throw.
Condi works out!
â€Crimestop means the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments if they are inimical to Ingsoc, and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction. Crimestop, in short, means protective stupidity.†– Orwell