The lack of Decorum

On Thursday, my Senator (Lord, but how I hate saying that) from the great state of California, Barbara Boxer, made a statement to Secretary of State Condi Rice that exemplifies something that has been ongoing in American politics for the better part of 20 years. From Thursday's hearing:

Rice appeared before the Senate in defense of President Bush's tactical change in Iraq, and quickly encountered Boxer.

"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."

On the surface it might appear unimportant and just a nifty way to score political points. However, it was a wholly unnecessary personal swipe at the Secretary, almost the Chickenhawk argument for Women.

The NY Post had much to say about it yesterday:

We scarcely know where to begin.

The junior senator from California apparently believes that an accomplished, seasoned diplomat, a renowned scholar and an adviser to two presidents like Condoleezza Rice is not fully qualified to make policy at the highest levels of the American government because she is a single, childless woman.

It's hard to imagine the firestorm that similar comments would have ignited, coming from a Republican to a Democrat, or from a man to a woman, in the United States Senate. (Surely the Associated Press would have put the observation a bit higher than the 18th paragraph of a routine dispatch from Washington.)

...

It would take a truly hard heart not to be touched, deeply, by the sacrifices made by the young men and women now wearing their country's uniform.

And one can only imagine the pain felt by the families of those killed and cruelly wounded in service to America. Just as it was hard to imagine the agony of the loved ones left behind on 9/11.

But even to suggest that Condoleezza Rice is not fit to serve her country because she is childless is beyond bizarre.

It is perverse.

There was the usual chorus of criticisms on the Right and the usual indifference on the Left. The additional day between this post and the writings linked in it has cooled my opinion.

I'm not a fan of Barbara Boxer. I was not one when she was elected in 1992 and I have not become one at any point in her 14 years in the Senate. Quite frankly, I don't think she exhibits the intellectual firepower necessary to be successful there (in that she is not alone, unfortunately).

This incident simply confirms two things for me. As Robert George's post stated, Babs is not particularly politically savvy. Her seeming reluctance to apologize only underscores that point for me.

Moreso however, it points yet again to the ongoing bleed-out of civility and decorum in American politics that has been going on for years but accelerated in the past six. It's what allows sitting Senators and Congressmen to call a sitting President a liar in veiled and not-so-veiled terms. It's whats helped create the kind of partisan bottleknecking that leads to a 23% approval rating for Congress, a body that has become more interested in fighting with each other than accomplishing anything.

Boxer's comments were better suited for message-board grandstanding than the hallowed halls of the United States Senate. And that's just sad.