I think the reason it would be big news would be due to the RNC's crop of CURRENT Klansmen.

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I don't think this is an issue of race. It is an issue of competence. How well do you think Rice will handle the role of diplomat after she dropped the ball on post-war Iraq planning?

Even if what you say is true, I thought we were supposed to overlook Dr. Rice's shortcomings?

"In order to cultivate a set of leaders with legitimacy in the eyes of the citizenry, it is necessary that the path to leadership be visibly open to talented and qualified individuals of every race and ethnicity." -- Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, writing for the majority in the decision upholding affirmative action policies at the University of Michigan’s law school.

Just because he is/was (more likely "is") a biggot doesn't make it a racial issue. There's so many other reasons to oppose her appointment. If he didn't do it, hopefully someone else would have.

Ravenwood, are you suggesting that Dr. Rice has NOT had every opportunity to show her leadership skills to the nation and world at large? She had the chance in her current post and failed miserably.

So, yes. Go ahead and reward her failures with an even bigger leadership opportunity. That's how this Administration operates. Reward failure. Dismiss those with an alternate view.

No. I am suggesting that she did not fail miserably. War is hell, and history has shown that it cannot be waged free of mistakes. But then the anti-war crowd is never happy with war, successful or otherwise.

And those with an alternate view should be dismissed. It's one thing if the people who work for you suggest a better way of doing something. But when they start opposing your mission, it's time for them to go. Bush is the boss and what he says goes. As is how it should be.

"Bush is the boss and what he says goes. As is how it should be."

Hmmmm, last I checked, this country was founded with a government that was about checks and balances. That's one of the main points of this government, but when you get a concentration of power throughout the branches, like now, bad things happen. Such as, going to war when diplomatic avenues were working but were stopped in favor of war. Bush is NOT the boss, he's part of the government. You might want to study a little more on how our government works ;-)

Faith,

Checks and balances work across the branches of government, not within them. The cabinet is part of the executive branch, and thus should toe the line of the Chief Executive. When it comes to the executive branch, Bush IS the boss. That is why cabinet members are appointed and not elected.

The same can be said of Congressional staffers. Congressmen don't hire staffers who publically rebut their points of view. The staffers are a mouthpiece for their employer. If they don't toe the line, they get canned too.

As for Iraq, diplomatic avenues were most certainly NOT working. We screwed around with diplomatic avenues for 12 long years. The result was that Saddam kicked out the U.N. inspectors, and the U.N. never did anything about it. He only agreed to allow inspectors back in after war was inevitable. In fact it was the imminent threat of war that made Saddam suddenly become interested in diplomacy again. By then he had already covered his tracks pretty well. (Hid or moved out all the WMD, buried his warplanes in the desert, silenced his nuclear scientists.)

"Hid or moved out all the WMD, buried his warplanes in the desert, silenced his nuclear scientists."

Wow, and still it's the left that's full of tin foil hat conspiracy theorists right? Yikes. I suppose he managed to bury all factories, he would have needed for the "stockpiles" of chemical and massively destructive weapons, just in the nick of time. I'm sure we didn't use any sort of radar to check for "buried" planes and WMDs. We just don't understand technology here in the US, I guess. We can "find" some truck that's for sure some sort of roving lab before we invade, but no real trace of any of the offensive weapons just after we invade. Interesting. That Saddam was amazing in your eyes.

Oops, also wanted to point out that the NOMINEES for the cabinet positions have to be approved by the Congress. Checks and Balances.

Faith,

It's called "advice and consent", not approval.

Moved WMD:
David Kay, the former head of the coalition's hunt for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, yesterday claimed that part of Saddam Hussein's secret weapons programme was hidden in Syria.

Buried warplanes:
Some of Iraqi's missing air force has turned up down below.

Search teams, some hunting for Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, found dozens of fighter jets from Iraq's air force buried beneath the sands, U.S. officials say.

Here is a photo of a buried warplane:
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/f/foxbat.htm
These were modern warplanes, not holdovers from Gulf War I.

Silenced nuclear scientists:
...reports now filtering out from Iraqi exiles in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Geneva, and London indicate reported disappearances of about eleven scientists and their families.

Uh, no, it's approval. Without them the appointees will not take eoffice.

Losing Faith wrote:

"Without them the appointees will not take eoffice."

Perhaps it's only called eoffice when a Democrat is appointed.

The party of Eeyore seems to have nothing better to do than whine about everything this administration does.

Steve, why even...-oh nevermind.

I've been researching the buried planes. Interesting stuff. After hours of searching I finally found a credible source for the story and it appears much different than the Fox story and all the other places I found it on the web. The original article, from what I can tell, was on the DoD website:

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Aug2003/n08062003_200308063.html

Every other article I've seen doesn't really name their source. Fox says military officials and Porter Goss. So here we have an actual name, but I really feel he's very partisan. Even though the DoD MAY debatably have some partisan things going on, I'm very willing to accept their account as a truer eyewitness. What's interesting to me is they don't mention a real quantity in this accounting of the story. I'm still not sure where it went from Rumsfeld's more than "one or two" to 30 - 40. So I feel like this story IS true, but quite exagerrated in many places and in what's generally accepted. Still very interesting. Thanks for sourcing those comments!

As for the Moved WMDs, as much as I hate using Fox as a source, you don't seem to mind them:

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,144623,00.html

So that's pretty interesting too. I had another article on it that actually mentions they did move something like aluminum tubing or old salvaged plane motors. I can't remember which and I can't find that article right now, so it's not fair trying to really use it. That's why I use the Fox one.

Wasn't this about Condi in the beginning? hehehe.

Actually, my point was never really very much about Condi. It was more about the media.

If this had been a Republican blocking a black Democrat, there would be hooting and howling of racism. (Regardless of whether or not there was any.)

Here you have a Democrat and former KLANSMAN blocking a black Republican, and you hardly hear a peep about it.

To further R.'s point. ....

A white member of congress was canned when he was promoting the passing of another white congressman in his same party for racism. When a white ex-KKK member attacks a black nominee, the media doesn't even mention it. I wonder why?

Well, the MSM just really sucks and not completely in one political direction. They suck more for the lack of investigation. They've become lazy. Greedy little punk asses. It is interesting though in that I felt they were more driven by sensation, but the Klan is a sensational angle. Maybe they just haven't seen that angle. Maybe they're trying to be safe. I don't really think it has to do with a left lean. Stoopid Media!

(AP) - The Senate overrode Democratic critics of the Iraq war Wednesday and handily confirmed Condoleezza Rice, a chief architect of U.S. policy, to be secretary of state. The vote was 85-13.

:^)

Byrd & Co. can try and "tree another one" elsewhere!

...and I mean no disrespect to Dr. Rice by using Klan language to put Byrd in his place.