Boxer vs Rice
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday criticized Sen. Barbara Boxer's suggestion that, because she does not have family in harm's way, she will pay no "personal price" in the Iraq war.
I saw the exchange in question, and I understood completely the point Senator Boxer was making -- that the decisions we make here don't hurt us directly, but do hurt others .. that it is easier to make plans like this when your loved ones aren't the ones being sent in to fight.
Boy, did the WH jump on it .. but here's what Boxer actually said:
"In the Thursday hearing, Boxer told Rice: “Who pays the price? I’m not going to pay a personal price. My kids are too old and my grandchild is too young. You’re not going to pay a particular price, as I understand it, with an immediate family. So who pays the price? The American military and their families. And I just want to bring us back to that fact.”
That they're spinning it as insulting single working women is laughable.
It's obvious that Boxer did not attack single women but actually hit on one of the main problems of this war -- that too few are being asked to sacrifice for our liberty and our way of life.
It was White House spokesman Tony Snow who started the spin, suggesting that Boxer’s comments were anti-feminist.
If Condi were sincerely upset, she would have said something when the exchange happened. More likely, she was given instruction to get as many miles out this as she can.
The WH has got to be desperate to try to make a mountain out of this ant hill. But they have to jump on this .. they have nothing else. They have to take the focus off the serious issues at hand.
BTW-- guess who almost agrees with Boxer? Rush Limbaugh, of all people. I read that he was ranting about how the liberal press always says that America is "tired of the war," that America is "war weary" .. he thinks it's because most Americans are not in a military family and war doesn't affect them personally .. that no American who is not a military family with someone in the war could really care about what's happening in Iraq.
That's another load of Limbaugh crap, because the three thousand-plus dead and tens of thousands wounded, maimed and disabled do deeply affect most Americans who have half a heart.
Poor Rush, he has to really reach for reasons that he's in the one-third minority .. for reasons why two-thirds of us are against this war.
