Boxer's Outrageous Attack on Condi Rice

By Robert B. Bluey
January 12, 2007

Sen. Barbara Boxer's personal attack on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday at a Senate hearing is prompting calls for an apology today. The White House is leading the charge, calling the remarks "outrageous."

Boxer's statement to Rice came during testimony about President Bush's new plan for Iraq. Boxer, according to the Fox News, said this to Rice:

Who pays the price? I'm not going to pay a personal price. My kids are too old and my grandchild is too young. You're not going to pay a particular price, as I understand it, with an immediate family. So who pays the price? The American military and their families.

My colleagues Ivy Sellers and Amanda Carpenter tell me that during an event at The Heritage Foundation today, Heritage vice president Becky Norton Dunlop spoke to the audience about Boxer's audacity. Rebecca Hagelin, a vice president of The Heritage Foundation, summed it up for me this way:

If you can't attack on substance, attack the person -- it's been a staple of liberal tactics. But Barbara Boxer's outrageous attack on Condi Rice hit a new low - even for Boxer. What does Condoleezza Rice's personal life have to do with the war in Iraq? Nothing. The unmistakable message Boxer sent all Americans is that if you are single or childless, you have no stake in public policy -- that you're something less than fully American. Boxer owes an apology -- not just to Secretary Rice -- but to the millions of other singles and adults in this nation who don't have children.

Word around Washington is that other conservatives will soon be offering their own denunciations of Boxer -- and demands for an apology.

UPDATE -- 4:34 p.m.: The Independent Women's Forum is all over the Boxer story. Writing on IWF's InkWell blog, Carrie Lukas says this:

This is a tactic often employed by the Left and particularly radical feminists: men are often demeaned unfit to comment on issues such as reproduction issues or childcare that most directly affect women. It’s simple prejudice, of course, and as is often the case, the media let’s such inappropriate remarks slide when they come from Democrats. The New York Post suggests imagining the uproar that would have ensured if it was a Republican -- or even worse, a male Republican -- making such snide remarks to a Democrat. It would be page one news.

Candace de Russy, also writing at InkWell, says the National Organization for Women isn't responding to its calls seeking a comment.

UPDATE -- 5:03 p.m.: The Independent Women's Forum is keeping the heat on Boxer. Here's a press release that just went out:

For Immediate Release:
January 12, 2007
Contact: Kate Pomeroy
202-631-6704 or kate.pomeroy@iwf.org

The Independent Women's Forum Calls on Senator Barbara Boxer to Issue an Apology to Secretary Rice and Single, Childless Women Everywhere

( Washington, DC ) – Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) levied a thinly disguised insult to Secretary Rice yesterday as Rice appeared before the Senate to defend the President's new plan for Iraq.

"Who pays the price? I'm not going to pay a personal price," Boxer said. "My kids are too old, and my grandchild is too young."
Then, to Rice: "You're not going to pay a particular price, as I understand it, with an immediate family.". . .

Even though Condoleeza Rice is a seasoned diplomat, a renowned scholar and an advisor to two presidents, does Senator Boxer believe that Secretary Rice is not qualified to make high level decisions because she is a single, childless woman?

"The statements of Senator Barbara Boxer toward Secretary Condoleeza Rice demonstrate the utter hypocrisy of a democratic party which time and time again holds itself to be the party that represents all of America – African Americans, Hispanics, the middle class, the poor, married women, single women etc." said Michelle D. Bernard, President & CEO of the Independent Women's Forum.

"What Senator Boxer has so aptly shown us is that the Democratic Party is the party of some, not all. I would submit as a descendent of the slave labor upon which this nation was built, Secretary Rice, is keenly aware of the price we as a nation pay for freedom and democracy at home and abroad" said Bernard.

The Independent Women's Forum calls on Senator Barbara Boxer to issue an apology to Secretary Rice and single, childless women everywhere.

To schedule an interview with Michelle Bernard, Carrie Lukas, Charlotte Hays or Allison Kasic, please call Kate Pomeroy at 202-631-6704 or kate.pomeroy@iwf.org.

UPDATE -- 5:14 p.m.: Apparently, NOW isn't ready to comment on Boxer's harsh words, according to Amanda Carpenter, who just spoke to someone there.