The victim card was officially pulled out by President Obama at a press conference earlier this week when he told reporters that Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham (he left female Senator Kelly Ayotte out of the list despite Ayotte being a strong critic of Susan Rice) shouldn't be going after U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice for her comments about Libya. Earlier this week McCain, Graham and Ayotte requested a select committee to look into what happened in Benghazi and all three suggested a Rice nomination for Secretary of State should be blocked.
“If Senator McCain and Senator Graham want to go after somebody, they should go after me,” Obama said. “But to go after the UN Ambassador who had nothing to do with Benghazi?”
Democrat Kirsten Powers berated Obama yesterday for treating Rice like a damsel in distress during the press conference, calling his defense of her "silly and sexist."
It's absurd and chauvinistic for Obama to talk about the woman he thinks should be Secretary of State of the United States as if she needs the big strong man to come to her defense because a couple of Senators are criticizing her.
Believe it or not, Rice isn't the first potential Cabinet nominee to be opposed by members of Congress up on the Hill. Obama also left out the inconvenient detail that there is another senator who has Rice in the crosshairs: Sen. Kelly Ayotte. But perhaps a female Senator holding Rice accountable didn't sound menacing enough in the era of the "War on Women."
Now, the victim card is being pulled on behalf of Rice by liberal women in the House.
The House women, a majority of them Africa-American, lashed out at McCain and Graham and demanded that they retract their criticism.
"To batter this woman because they don't feel they have the ability to batter President Obama is something we the women are not going to stand by and watch," said Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis. "Their feckless and reckless speculation is unworthy of their offices as senators."
Said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C.: "We will not allow a brilliant public servant's record to be mugged to cut off her consideration to be secretary of state."
"It is a shame that anytime something goes wrong, they pick on women and minorities," Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, the next chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, told reporters Friday at a Capitol Hill news conference.
When something goes wrong, they pick on women and minorities? Really? I'm sorry, is this Washington? Or a middle school playground?
What went wrong is that four Americans were killed in a terrorist attack on 9/11 in Benghazi. What went wrong is that Susan Rice deliberately misled the country about what really happened in Benghazi. She went on five Sunday shows and told the world the 9/11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was a result of a spontaneous YouTube video protest, which was a lie. There was never a protest. As we learned today, General Petraeus and the White House knew "almost immediately" the attack was a planned terrorist attack. Rice lied under instruction from the White House to do so.
In this latest defense of Rice by female House members, Fudge and others are using sexism as an excuse for Rice's lies and incompetence. Senators McCain, Graham and Ayotte aren't ganging up on or "battering" Rice because she's a minority or a woman, they're simply holding her accountable for her own statements. McCain, Graham and Ayotte are engaging in the novel concept of judging someone by their actions and character, rather than by their skin color and lady parts. Liberals are constantly screaming about treating men and women equally, yet in this situation when Republicans (including Ayotte, who is a woman!) dare hold Rice accountable for the words that came out of her mouth, they cry sexism and racism.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member