From Transcript of remarks between Senator Boxer and Doctor Strangel..., sorry, Rice....
Fried Rice in November, 2002 (with mushrooms):
Sen. Boxer: "Now, perhaps the most well-known statement you've made was the one about Saddam Hussein launching a nuclear weapon on America with the image of, quote, quoting you, "a mushroom cloud." That image had to frighten every American into believing that Saddam Hussein was on the verge of annihilating them if he was not stopped."
Bush in November, 2002:
"If the Iraqi regime is able to produce, buy or steal an amount of highly-enriched uranium a little larger than a single softball, it could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year."
Fried Rice on July 30th, 2003:
"It was a case that said he was trying to reconstitute. He's trying to acquire nuclear weapons. Nobody ever said that it was going to be the next year."
Fried Rice on October 10th, 2004:
"The intelligence assessment was that he was reconstituting his nuclear program; that, left unchecked, he would have a nuclear weapon by the end of the year."
Now Dr. Rice didn't like all this veracity:
Senator, I have to say that I have never, ever lost respect for the truth in the service of anything. It is not my nature. It is not my character. And I would hope that we can have this conversation and discuss what happened before and what went on before and what I said without impugning my credibility or my integrity.
I'm sorry Dr. Rice, you clearly have no credibility or integrity to impugn. But, you got confirmed anyway. So, I guess we've got four more years of you and General Tso's Chicken.
And Senator Boxer, You Go Girl!
1 comment:
Amen on the props to Senator Boxer. You would think that an academic like Condi would know that one can be questioned on the veracity of one's statements or the cogency of one's arguments without having one's integrity impugned. Basic rules of rhetoric say that you should defend your statements if they are questioned, and that if your arguments are deemed spurious, you should restate them or elaborate upon them, not complain about being attacked unfairly. If you are in the marketplace of ideas, then all day, every day, expect to be challenged and if your ideas are better, they will prevail. Otherwise you're just a coward or a huckster or both.
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