Friday, January 12, 2007
White House, Rice Hit Back at Boxer
White House spokesman Tony Snow and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have fired back at Sen. Barbara Boxer over the California Democrat’s comments about Rice’s family life.
When Rice appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday to discuss U.S. policy in Iraq, Boxer noted that Rice has no children of her own to lose overseas.
"Who pays the price?” for the war, Boxer demanded. "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.”
Rice commented on the exchange during an interview Friday with Fox News Channel's Jim Angle.
"I guess that means I don't have kids. Was that the purpose of that?" Rice said. "Well, at the time I just found it a bit confusing frankly. But in retrospect, gee, I thought single women had come further than that. That the only question is are you making good decisions because you have kids?"
Earlier Friday, Snow responded to Boxer’s remarks.
"I don’t know if she was intentionally tacky, but I do think it’s outrageous. Here you have a professional woman, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Barbara Boxer is sort of throwing little jabs because Condi doesn’t have children, as if that means that she doesn’t understand the concerns of parents,” he told FOX News Talk. "Great leap backward for feminism.”
A spokeswoman for the Family Research Council, Charmaine Yoest, also took issue with Boxer’s comments.
"I think it’s offensive to the millions of Americans who don’t have a direct relative serving overseas to suggest that somehow they’re not connected to the men and women in our military who are putting their lives on the line,” she said.
Boxer, in a statement provided to Fox News, stood by her original comments:
"I spoke the truth at the committee hearing, which is that neither Secretary Rice nor I have family members that will pay the price for this escalation. My point was to focus attention on our military families who continue to sacrifice because this [Bush] administration has not developed a political solution to the situation in Iraq."
White House spokesman Tony Snow and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have fired back at Sen. Barbara Boxer over the California Democrat’s comments about Rice’s family life.
When Rice appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday to discuss U.S. policy in Iraq, Boxer noted that Rice has no children of her own to lose overseas.
"Who pays the price?” for the war, Boxer demanded. "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.”
Rice commented on the exchange during an interview Friday with Fox News Channel's Jim Angle.
"I guess that means I don't have kids. Was that the purpose of that?" Rice said. "Well, at the time I just found it a bit confusing frankly. But in retrospect, gee, I thought single women had come further than that. That the only question is are you making good decisions because you have kids?"
Earlier Friday, Snow responded to Boxer’s remarks.
"I don’t know if she was intentionally tacky, but I do think it’s outrageous. Here you have a professional woman, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Barbara Boxer is sort of throwing little jabs because Condi doesn’t have children, as if that means that she doesn’t understand the concerns of parents,” he told FOX News Talk. "Great leap backward for feminism.”
A spokeswoman for the Family Research Council, Charmaine Yoest, also took issue with Boxer’s comments.
"I think it’s offensive to the millions of Americans who don’t have a direct relative serving overseas to suggest that somehow they’re not connected to the men and women in our military who are putting their lives on the line,” she said.
Boxer, in a statement provided to Fox News, stood by her original comments:
"I spoke the truth at the committee hearing, which is that neither Secretary Rice nor I have family members that will pay the price for this escalation. My point was to focus attention on our military families who continue to sacrifice because this [Bush] administration has not developed a political solution to the situation in Iraq."
