Condi Rice Wants to be Vice President?

by D. Cupples |  According to ABC News, a Republican strategist thinks Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is actively courting John McCain in hopes of being chosen as his running mate.  Two words keep looping like computer code in my mind: "mushroom" and "cloud."

Secretary Rice did, after all, make a (false) case for invading Iraq.  When arguing back in 2002 that Saddam Hussein really did have strong nuclear-weapons capabilities, Rice made this now-infamous statement:

"'The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.'" (CNN)

I can't help remembering Source Watch's very linky write up on Rice:  how she ignored warnings before 9/11 about terrorist activity, how she helped President Bush sell the Iraq war to the public (questionable reasons and all), how she insisted that Iraq really did have WMDs....

I can't help remembering Rice's  performance as a witness before the House Oversight committee in October about her department's terrible troubles with (and failure to monitor) private contractors -- e.g., Blackwater and the Iraq embassy contractors.  During the hearing, Sec. Rice was downright evasive.

A  few days ago, we learned that Sec. Rice's department plans to renew Blackwater's contracts, despite multiple ongoing investigations into the company's potentially illegal acts.
 

I can't help remembering how troubled her Department is and has been -- or the high-level people who have left after committing questionable (and possibly illegal) acts.

To be sure, Sec. Rice would be great at making campaign speeches.  She has a pleasant voice and loads of poise. 

But if Sen. McCain is seriously considering Sec. Rice as a running mate, then he must think that those Dems and Independents whose votes he will need in November are either forgetful or dumb.

Memeorandum has commentary.

Related BN-Politics Posts:

* Inspector General Blocked Investigations re: Waste and Fraud?

* State Dept.'s Odd & Untimely Reactions to Blackwater Scandals

* State Dept. Staff Threatened for Cooperating with Congress

 

* Oversight Hearing: Rice Evasive, Republicans Don't Want Probe

* Karen Hughes Leaves State Dept. Amid Iffy Performance

.

Comments

[Adam]

McCain picking Rice is all about cutting his losses. The people who realize how corrupt and dishonest the administration has been are not voting for McCain anyway - particularly given the way he's increasingly appealing to the Bush faithful.

Rice has a great reputation among the Republican base. And obviously, as a black female intellectual, she takes some of the identity politics off the board. If McCain decides that his best strategy is to run for Bush's third term, then Rice makes a great pick for him. Her biggest drawback in that context is that she doesn't deliver a battleground state.

The other major alternate option for McCain is to re-embrace the maverick image and go for Lieberman. That would bring Lieberman's bizarre political journey of the last eight years to its logical conclusion.