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Susan Rice's 'worst week' could derail Secretary of State bid

As critics go after her comments on the Benghazi terrorist attack, Susan Rice's race, gender, and personality have become part of the debate over whether she should be the next Secretary of State. Even those who might have supported her are floating other names.

Should President Obama nominate Susan Rice to be the next Secretary of State 鈥� and her loyal boss may have been pushed into doing so by the clatter of Senate Republicans eager to prevent that 鈥� Ambassador Rice already will have undergone a blistering public vetting.

Her race, her gender, her personality, and her personal investments 鈥� none of which have anything to do with her now-controversial comments shortly after the terrorist attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in September 鈥� have been raised and chewed over by advocates and commentators.

The Washington Post鈥檚 waggish Chris Cillizza has declared Rice鈥檚 latest week 鈥渢he worst in Washington 鈥� A weekly award honoring inhabitants of Planet Beltway.鈥�

We have learned, for example (courtesy of聽 Scott Dodd, editor of OnEarth.org), that Rice 鈥渉olds significant investments in more than a dozen Canadian oil companies and banks that would stand to benefit from expansion of the North American tar sands industry and construction of the proposed $7 billion聽Keystone XL pipeline.鈥�

鈥淚f confirmed by the Senate,鈥� Mr. Dodd notes, 鈥渙ne of Rice鈥檚 first duties likely would be consideration, and potentially approval, of the controversial mega-project.鈥�

搁贰颁翱惭惭贰狈顿贰顿:听Five ways events overseas could shape Obama's second term

Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports, Rice and her husband 鈥渙wn modest stakes in companies that have until recently done business with Iran,鈥� including oil companies. (So has Sen. John McCain, Rice鈥檚 chief inquisitor, by the way.)

Rice, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, is one of the richest members of the Obama Cabinet. (Her father owned a lumber company in British Columbia, and her husband is a former television producer.) She and her husband were worth between $23.5 million and $43.5 million in 2009, the Post reports.

Starting with columnist Dana Milbank two weeks ago, a growing number of pundits 鈥� including some who otherwise support her 鈥� have cited Rice鈥檚 frequently undiplomatic demeanor and abrasive temperament as problematic. It is noted that she once gave the late diplomat Richard Holbrook (he of no small ego) a rude, middle-digit gesture 鈥� 鈥渨hich suggests, if nothing else, moxie,鈥� writes the Atlantic magazine鈥檚 Jeffrey Goldberg.

But all this talk about Rice鈥檚 prickliness and sharp elbows smacks of sexism to many.

鈥淲hy is she called abrasive, when clearly, similar toughness was hailed in our most powerful and respected secretaries of state 鈥� from Henry Kissinger to George Shultz to James Baker?鈥� writes David Rothkopf, CEO and Editor-at-Large of聽Foreign Policy magazine. 鈥淎ll had their battles. Even reputedly smooth diplomats like Cyrus Vance and Warren Christopher could be all elbows behind the scenes.鈥�

Then there鈥檚 the piling on over Benghazi 鈥� which seems to be largely a 鈥渟hoot-the-messenger鈥� flap, as Rothkopf puts it, and in which others find more than a hint of racism.

鈥淚f I didn鈥檛 know any better, I鈥檇 think it was聽the summer of 2008 again, when the angry white men of Fox News and conservative talk radio were attacking an accomplished, smart, well-educated black woman for not being 鈥榩atriotic鈥� and 鈥榣oving her country鈥�,鈥� writes political columnist Sophia Nelson, author of 鈥淏lack Woman Redefined: Dispelling Myths and Discovering Fulfillment in the Age of Michelle Obama.鈥�

鈥淥nly this time, the punching bag is not First Lady Michelle Obama,鈥� Ms. Nelson writes in the Daily Beast. 鈥淚t鈥檚 U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice.鈥�

How can this be, protest Rice鈥檚 conservative critics, when another highly accomplished African-American woman 鈥� Condoleezza Rice 鈥� served as Secretary of State in a Republican administration?

Things do get a little complicated here.

Charles Krauthammer, the conservative Washington Post columnist, has gone after Susan Rice for saying that her early comments on Benghazi were based on talking points provided by US intelligence agencies. And yet in 2005, when Democrats were raising questions about Condoleezza Rice鈥檚 nomination to be Secretary of State in the Bush administration based on her erroneous statements about Saddam Hussein鈥檚 鈥渨eapons of mass destruction,鈥� Krauthammer defended that Rice by writing that she 鈥渨as not a generator of intelligence 鈥� [but] a consumer 鈥� of a highly defective product.鈥�

In this case, at least, a double standard seems to apply.

Everybody has suggestions for a non-Rice Secretary of State nominee 鈥� from Education Secretary Arne Duncan (the Atlantic鈥檚 Goldberg and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman) to US Senator John Kerry. Senate Republicans would love to have it be their Senate colleague, if only to give Scott Brown (sent packing by Elizabeth Warren) or some other Republican a shot at the Massachusetts seat Kerry would have to vacate.

Assuming Obama sticks with Rice as his first-choice nominee, her record at the UN presumably will come into play.

鈥淪he has gained tremendous, even unparalleled experience, at the United Nations,鈥� argues Jeffrey Goldberg in the Atlantic. 鈥淪he has learned how to parry the Russians and the Chinese; she has figured out the snakepit ways of the international system; she has seen up-close the hypocrisy of totalitarian and anti-democratic states (states that still make up a good portion of the UN membership).鈥�

鈥淎t the UN, Rice has become an eloquent voice for human rights, and she has done an able job of arguing against the wildly disproportionate criticism leveled at Israel in the General Assembly and in putative UN human rights forums,鈥� Goldberg writes. 鈥淪he has been far from perfect in the job, but she has generally been solid.鈥�

搁贰颁翱惭惭贰狈顿贰顿:听Five ways events overseas could shape Obama's second term