Scalp hunting

Susan Rice apparently decided that she was sick of being subject to silly conspiracy theories because someone at the CIA gave her misleading talking points about what had happened in Libya. Of course, it never had anything to do with Rice or Libya or Terrorism, it had to do with weakening Obama.

So the Kabuki dance went on and on, Obama defending her but pretending he had not decided who he wanted for the Secretary of State position since Hilary Clinton said no thanks to another 4 years. Of course he wanted Rice.

This is the reason no one wants to go into public service. There lives get put on hold while some fools in Congress, their staffers and idiots on cable TV nitpick everything the person ever did as well as what they didn't do.

The whole art of scalp hunting, as the racist term is know as, has become a sport in Washington. Democrats did it to George W. Bush because Republicans did it to Clinton, so Republicans did it to Obama (see Tom Daschle and Bill Richardson).

If the nominee were unqualified (see Harriet Myers) unethical (see Tom Daschle and Bill Richardson) or antithetical to the position the president nominates the person to (see John Bolton) or just plain way too radical (see Bork, John Ashcroft, John Yoo) that is one thing, but if there is really do good reason to make someone's life miserable (see Peter Diamond, Goodwin Lieu, and Susan Rice) then scalp hunting serves no other purpose other than partisanship and actually does a disservice to the job a Senator is supposed to do in hearings and deciding how to vote on a nominee. Not to mention the country, which deprived of that person's service.

In the case of judges, justice delayed is often times justice denied. People accused of crimes will sit in Jail longer waiting for their case to be heard, civil litigants will have to wait even longer to get their hearing, in the meantime their lives can be ruined. There must be an end to this quest to weaken a president through sullying a nominee's reputation forever. It is doubtful most Americans even knew who our UN Ambassador was until Fox News accused her of a cover up. A few nominees, like Alberto Gonzales, deserve this treatment, most do not.