The White House, which for months hung the beleaguered UN Ambassador Susan Rice out to dry, finally let her fall on her sword. Memo to her detractors: Be careful what you wish for.
By all accounts, Rice was President Obama’s first choice to replace Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But as politicians and press outlets from the right and the left competed to dig up damning details of her career, the White House neither made Rice’s nomination official nor pulled her name from consideration to blunt the attacks.
As a result, the president’s allies in Washington were in no hurry to jump to Rice’s defense: Why waste political capital on a candidate who may never be named as one? Obama’s detractors, meanwhile, went after her with guns blazing.
All along, Rice put on a brave face, telling guests in the traditional holiday party at her official residence Tuesday that, hey, she can take it. With friends crying “unfair,” however, it was clear she was unhappy.
But by week’s end she realized that fairness had little to do with it. By Thursday, with confirmation chances looking bleak to nonexistent, she asked the president to pull her name from consideration.
Now Obama is set to name a foreign-policy team headed by Sen. John Kerry at State and ex-Sen. Chuck Hagel at the Pentagon.
Ugh.
True, Rice isn’t the most polished of diplomats: This week, as the UN Security Council set to pass an obligatory condemnation of North Korea’s missile launch, Rice got into a heated discussion with the Chinese ambassador, Li Baodong. At one point, she said in front of the 15 council ambassadors and their aides that Li’s objection to some word in the toothless statement was “ridiculous.”
The statement passed, but a diplomat present in the closed-door discussion told me that Li was stunned and seemed really insulted. Another diplomat warned the episode won’t help in future negotiations about punishing Pyongyang.
That was classic Rice.
But remember: Obama isn’t about to name some imaginary super-diplomat to be his secretary of state. Instead, he’s likely to tap Kerry — a man whose vision of world affairs includes advocating Syria’s President Basahr al-Assad as a would-be “reformer” — just before Assad became known worldwide as the butcher of Damascus.
(PS: Obama is reportedly considering naming another recent Assad booster, Vogue editrix Anna Wintour, as his ambassador in London.)
With all his chums in the Senate, and an ill-deserved image as a sure-handed foreign-policy veteran, Kerry’s confirmation will presumably sail through.
Then there’s Hagel. The Republican former senator from Nebraska, part of Washington’s self-described foreign-policy “realist” crew, endorsed Obama in 2008 and 2012.
Always wary of America’s ties with Israel, Hagel once told former White House Mideast aide Aaron David Miller, “I take an oath of office to the Constitution of the United States. Not to a president, not to a party, not to Israel.” He has opposed tough sanctions on Iran and objected to calling Hezbollah a terrorist group.
No wonder Obama’s Jewish supporters reportedly told the president during a White House Hanukkah lighting on Thursday that they’d oppose Hagel’s nomination.
Add to this mix Obama aide Samantha Power, who (I’m told) is lobbying hard to take Rice’s place at the UN. A former academic, Power is favored by the same left-leaning human-rights crowd that in recent weeks attacked Rice’s record.
In short, as the grown-ups in the room, Clinton and current Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, give way, expect Obama’s new Cabinet to chase even harder after dreams of negotiated solutions with world thugs. Look for faster retreat from any global confrontation and even deeper cuts in Pentagon budgets.
Yes, presidents have the right and duty to staff their administration as they see fit. Yes, the commander-in-chief is responsible for national security. But who’ll be there to serve as a skeptical contrarian in Obama’s new team?
Perhaps his favorite, Susan Rice — who, according to some reports, is now eying the post of national security adviser (which requires no Senate confirmation).
Hmm: In that capacity, her now famously overly-blunt voice just may be a major asset.