The Washington Post reports on the latest in the Republican jihad against Susan Rice:
Even moderate Republican and onetime Rice supporter Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) declined to offer her backing after their 75-minute private session Wednesday….Collins told reporters she was “troubled” that Rice had “decided to play what was essentially a political role at the height of a contentious presidential election campaign” by appearing on five political talk shows to present the administration’s position.
Et tu, Susan? It’s deeply depressing that even Susan Collins is endorsing this idiocy, and doing it with such transparent BS. I mean, her complaint is that Rice’s mere appearance on the Sunday talk shows was somehow inappropriate? Seriously? She couldn’t be bothered to invent anything more plausible than that?
The Post story suggests that nominating Rice “could cost the White House valuable goodwill with Republicans,” but honestly, it’s hard to see how. If you actually parse what they’re saying about Rice, there’s literally nothing there. They’re simply rephrasing perfectly ordinary actions to make them sound somehow sinister. If even the moderates have decided to go along with this shabby travesty, it means there’s not currently even a shred of goodwill among Republicans on this issue. It’s hard to see how nominating Rice could reduce that any further.