Maureen Dowd, "Is Rice Cooked?": Awakening to the Benghazi Cover-Up

Who would believe? More than two months late, a New York Times columnist has finally gotten around to acknowledging the Benghazi cover-up.

In her latest Times op-ed entitled "Is Rice Cooked?" (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/opinion/sunday/is-rice-cooked.html), Maureen Dowd writes:

"Some have wondered if Rice, who has a bull-in-a-china-shop reputation, is diplomatic enough for the top diplomatic job. But she would have been wise to be more bull-in-a-china-shop and vet her talking points, given that members of the intelligence and diplomatic communities and sources in news accounts considered it a terrorist attack days before Rice went on the shows. (The president and his spokesman also clung to the video story for too long.)"

Hold on a moment, Maureen, what's that information tucked away between the parenthesis? The president also clung to the cock-and-bull video story too long? Oh, really?

And where is President Obama as the furor, following Petraeus's congressional testimony, mounts? Answer: He has made himself scarce in Thailand, Burma and Cambodia. A trip to Jerusalem and Cairo to help negotiate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas? No way. Notwithstanding my personal invitation to travel to the beleaguered Middle East (see: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.co.il/2012/11/a-personal-invitation-to-president.html), the nobel peace prize winner has flown west rather than east.

But back to darling Susan, whom Obama is so intent upon protecting. As even Dana Milbank of The Washington Post conceded yesterday in an opinion piece entitled "Susan Rice’s tarnished resume" (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-susan-rices-tarnished-resume/2012/11/16/55ec3382-3012-11e2-a30e-5ca76eeec857_story.html):

"She is ill-equipped to be the nation’s top diplomat for reasons that have little to do with Libya.

Even in a town that rewards sharp elbows and brusque personalities, Rice has managed to make an impressive array of enemies — on Capitol Hill, in Foggy Bottom and abroad.

. . . .

Back when she was an assistant secretary of state during the Clinton administration, she appalled colleagues by flipping her middle finger at Richard Holbrooke during a meeting with senior staff at the State Department, according to witnesses. Colleagues talk of shouting matches and insults."

Rice is not fit to continue in her current role as America's UN ambassador, let alone assume the mantle of Secretary of State; however, sacking her would give lie to claims regarding the brilliance of Obama's foreign policy record.

Is Rice cooked? My question is whether she is even half-baked.