James Lileks, one of the funniest guys around, has some choice words on Barbara Boxer’s verbal attack on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice:
“When people say they’re ‘speaking truth to power,’ you can assume they haven’t had an original thought since the Beatles broke up. But that was how Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., characterized her interrogation of Condi Rice.
“While chastising the Bush administration for its plan to send more helpless American waifs into Iraq, Boxer said: ‘Who pays the price? I’m not going to pay a personal price. My kids are too old, and my grandchild is too young.’
“These are pertinent details; ever since 9/11, analysts have insisted that the fight against militant global Islamic jihadis hinges on the demographic nature of Barbara Boxer’s offspring.
“But then she addressed Rice in a personal fashion:
“‘You’re not going to pay a particular price, as I understand it, with an immediate family.’
“Meow! Zing! Oh, you had a good laugh, but then the doubts crept in. Attacking a career women for being childless — for not having gut soldat boys fur das Vaterland, in other words — doesn’t seem very progressive. Is there any possible defense? Of course. It’s really quite simple.”
Lileks goes on to pillory the reasons by which the attack on
Rice can be justified.