Condi the Candid

This morning I meandered over to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to hear Condoleezza Rice testify. If I had really felt like it, I could have wandered across the hill to listen to Roger Clemens instead. But, as a political science nerd, Condi is cooler. And Clemens was doubtless surrounded by crazy press. I suppose I would have enjoyed meeting writers for ESPN…but yeah, Condi is still cooler.

The first interesting thing at foreign relations happened when I, and a handful of other interns, sat down. I was wearing a pink sweater, and thought nothing of it as I sat at the edge of the group. But then, a few minutes later, several representatives of CodePink walked in. This is more famously known as the group that successfully got the military banned from Berkley last week, to much controversy. In they waltz, in the most outlandish outfits – neon pink and black shirts, depicting a “chain gain” of Bush, Gates, Rice, and Cheney, with insane hats – you know, the type you make for high school projects? – covered in random pink and black stickers and other paraphernalia. And they sit down right next to me. Suddenly, in my pink sweater and black slacks, I look associated with them. Desperate, I try to convince my colleagues to switch me places – but they thought the entire situation was hysterical and refused. As the hearing started, the CodePink ladies held up signs right behind the photo-ops, muttering snide remarks about “ruining the pictures.” As the hearing progressed, they were remarkably well-behaved – aside from the outlandish costumes and ever-present signs – but I have to admit, I don’t quite understand their logic. Everytime ANYTHING was mentioned about troops – adding 1000 here, or subtracting 5000 there, convincing NATO to take over some of the burden – these ladies expressed their discontent. It readily became apparent that their top goal was extreme isolationism. They blame all civilian deaths in these provinces on the American military, and then insist on us abandoning every post in every country, and bringing the troops home. In their mind, this will bring about “peace.” While I certainly think America has exasperated problems in some area where they don’t belong, in many others it is exactly because of American and/or U.N intervention that peace has come about. Would these women, so horrified by death, also encourage us to stay out of Darfur? It seems to me their policy is to bring back the Kellogg-Briand pact. If we simply announce that war doesn’t exist, by means of some non-binding treaty, then obviously it will globally disappear.

Strange protestors aside, I was immensely impressed with Secretary Rice. (Much more so than others in her department who testified two weeks ago about Afghanistan.) Rice was confident, poised, and eloquent. More importantly, she was completely grounded in reality. She identified the failures of the administration and the weaknesses of current policy candidly, without hesitation. My favorite point of hers was a subtle bashing of the Defense Department. She mentioned how the strategy for reconstruction in Afghanistan had bee to assign every country a different ministry to rebuild, and that had resulted in all sorts of communication conflicts. So, thinking they were learning from that, the US had decided to conduct all reconstruction in Iraq through Defense. Then Condi noted “though I think State is better equipped with resources to handle many of those tasks.”

Something else I noticed was how cordial and bi-partisan the committee seemed to be to her, and to each other. Maybe this is more typical than I realize, or maybe it was just out of respect for her position, but I developed a theory that could be something more. As far as foreign relations are concerned, I think it must be a lot easier (outside of many of the problems in Iraq) to form bipartisan support. In the world, it’s not nearly as much an issue of “democrats” vs. “republicans” – America in many ways is perceived as a unified front. It’s in the best interest of the committee to project and protect that image across the globe – particularly in such self-evident diplomatic problems as nuclear weapons and energy supplies in the emerging Far East.

I left my notes at the office, or I might have had a few more insightful things to say. But as it is, it’s bedtime! So, I’m going to go sleep, wake up in the morning, and treat it like a perfectly normal day.