In his Washington Post column, Jonathan Capehart sums up Susan Rice's withdrawal from consideration for nomination as secretary of state as yet another sorry episode in the politics of personal destruction in Washington, D.C.
Somewhere on Capitol Hill, Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte must be smiling now that UN Ambassador Susan Rice has withdrawn her name from consideration for plum post of Secretary of State. Their ignoble hounding of Rice is another sorry episode in the politics of personal destruction in Washington.
The Senators belittled her experience, questioned her competence and wondered about her temperament for a job that she was only rumored to be considered for. Their manufactured hysteria swirled around comments Rice made on the Sunday talk shows on Sept. 16 about the events in Benghazi, Libya, that led up to the murder of four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador, on Sept. 11. Yet, the senators' meandering quest for "the truth" never led them to asking legitimate questions about failures in protecting the consulate in Benghazi by the State Department, Pentagon and the CIA.
"If nominated, I am now convinced that the confirmation process would be lengthy, disruptive and costly — to you and to our most pressing national and international priorities," Rice wrote in her withdrawal letter to the president. "That trade-off is simply not worth it to our country."
Read Jonathan Capehart's entire piece at the Washington Post.
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