In the passive-aggressive tradition of women journalists like Tina Brown who casts herself as a Hillary Clinton supporter while charging in 2009 that Obama was keeping her in the shadows and that her famous *snap* in Democratic Republic of Congo happened because she was hot and “feeling fat,” Maureen Dowd cast Hillary as a Hitchcock blonde of the Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly “survivor” type in an editorial, Spellbound by Blondes, Hot and Icy, in yesterday’s New York Times.
The piece is a kind of left-handed compliment dubbing Hillary “America’s blonde obsession” while a sub-theme plays out of Hillary neatly escaping blame for Benghazi while Republicans jump all over Susan Rice whom MoDo characterizes as “rough-elbowed” compared to the “smooth Hillary.” She goes as far as speculating that Hillary is secretly enjoying watching Rice “walk the plank.”
Judge Judy would call all of that “a lot of who shot John,” but one charge is a shot across the bow and requires an answer.
While Republicans continue their full-cry pursuit of Susan Rice, the actual secretary of state has eluded blame, even though Benghazi is her responsibility. The assault happened on Hillary’s watch, at her consulate, with her ambassador. Given that we figured out a while ago that the Arab Spring could be perilous as well as promising, why hadn’t the State Department developed new norms for security in that part of the world? After 200 years of expecting host countries to protect our diplomats, Hillary et al. didn’t make the adjustment when countries were dissolving.
I guess MoDo missed this: Aftermath … Benghazi, The Great Debate, and Hurricane Hillary. I have repeatedly countered such charges here in the nearly three months since the assault on the consulate using Victoria Nuland’s concise explanation of how all embassy security for all countries in all countries works: Clearing The Air On How Embassy Security Works. The truth is that Hillary et al. did make adjustments by evacuating personnel, closing embassies and consulates as necessary when revolutions were hot, and reinstating personnel and reopening as situations cooled. What Dowd is expecting is very unrealistic. Countries exchange diplomats according to The Vienna Convention. Host countries are responsible for the security of diplomats and staff outside embassy walls.
While the fighting was ongoing in Libya and we were participating in a No Fly Zone, many friends were betting that in the end we would have boots on the ground. We did not. But now some of those same people are implying that we should have when the fighting was over, a new government was installed, and we reopened our missions. You cannot have it both ways. Boots on the ground on foreign soil is invasion, so MoDo is dead wrong on this.
One thing I think we all would agree about is that Hillary Clinton is cool in all the right ways.
