Wow! Barbara Boxer just bucked the trend of brownnose, wussy Democrats and tore Condoleeza Rice a new one on C-SPAN. Once the archive is up, check it out. It's in the last half hour of the morning session.
Babs covered all the bases -- the memo talking about not introducing new products in August, the mushroom cloud warnings, the whole thing:
Boxer (referring to Condi reciting the Bush Talking Points about Saddam being a Very Bad Man): You should read what we voted on when we voted on war - we voted on WMDs
Condi sounded shaky, but in this exchange, we all know perfectly well what the only sound bite that will appear on MSGOP's site is:
Boxer:If you can't admit to this mistake...
Condi: I hope that you will not impugn my integrity...
Boxer: I am not, I am just quoting to you what you have said.
When Condi said that the South Asian tsunami presented a "wonderful opportunity" for the United States to reach out to countries in the Muslim world and build goodwill, Boxer bitchslapped her for being insensitive to the widespread death toll and devastation. Nice. (I wonder how Condi feels about Christians kidnapping Muslim orphans to indoctrinate them into Christianity. Probably in favor, if it benefits her husba---I mean, the President.)
What Boxer is doing is called being the loyal opposition. There's plenty about Condoleeza Rice that's incompetent, and it's not racist to call her out for the many botches she's made of national security policy. (See also: "I believe it said....Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.") The other Dems could take a page from her book.