Not a good sign

Bits from Rice's confirmation hearing today...

Having just returned from a trip to Iraq, [Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware] said he had deep doubts about how many Iraqi soldiers and policemen were really being trained and were able to take over the law enforcement burden from U.S. troops.

[...]

Biden reported that he had inspected the training facility for Iraqi police in neighboring Jordan and asked the American officer in charge there, “Is this training program worth a darn?”

“The answer was ‘no’ — from our own trainer,” said Biden.

Rice conceded that among the newly trained Iraqi soldiers and police officers, lackluster morale, weak leadership and desertion were problems. She said there were more than 120,000 trained personnel in the Iraqi security forces. But Biden said his U.S. military sources said the number in fact “no more than 4,000.”

[...]

And then, to make the case that things were not quite so bad in Iraq, [Rice] added an oddly personal and historic note, “So far I have not seen the Iraqis or for that matter the Afghans make compromises as bad as the one in 1789 that declared my ancestors to be three-fifths of a man.”
  MSNBC article

Is she bad-mouthing America? Is she a Muslim-lover or something?

Get off the Ambien, Condi. Geez.

Nutjobs have taken over the country.

On a positive note, Barbara Boxer, the only Senator with the guts to back an investigation into the Ohio voting scams, has apparently found her voice.

“Your loyalty to the mission you were given overwhelmed your respect for the truth,” Boxer told Rice.

For once Rice showed a hint of emotion, saying angrily, “I have never, ever lost respect for the truth. ... We can have this discussion in any way that you would like, but I really hope that you will refrain from impugning my integrity.”

They hate it when you call them by name.

President Lover Boy will make sure Ms. Boxer's career is ruined.


Update 8:40pm:USA Today has a slightly different transcript:

"Your loyalty to your mission you were given overwhelmed your respect for the truth, and I don't say it lightly," Boxer said.

"I have never, ever lost respect for the truth in service of anything," Rice replied coolly. "It is not my nature, it is not my character. And I would hope that we can have this conversation ... without impugning my credibility or my integrity."

And adds....

[Rice also said] that the Dec. 26 Asian tsunami presented a "wonderful opportunity" for the United States to reach out to countries in the Muslim world and build good will, a remark that Boxer branded as insensitive to the widespread deaths and destruction.