Dem. Congressman: Calling Susan Rice ‘Incompetent’ is Racism

Assistant Democratic Leader and Representative from South Carolina Jim Clyburn does not like the kind of criticism Ambassador Susan Rice has been exposed to for the willful lies and manipulations she tried to sell America in the wake of the attack on our consulate in Benghazi.

Rice, having spread the false message that the attack was a spontaneous protest about a YouTube video that got out of hand, is either incompetent, a liar or both. There is no other alternative to explain why she so vehemently pushed a lame narrative as Americans looked for answers.

Now, Clyburn claims that the word “incompetent” is a racial code word thrown out by Republicans. And so begins another round of race-baiting…

Clyburn recently sat down with CNN’s resident hack, Soledad O’Brien to discuss the criticism of Rice:

“These are code words. We heard them during the campaign. During this recent campaign, we heard Sununu calling our President ‘lazy,’ ‘incompetent.’ These kinds of terms that those of us – especially those of us who were born and raised in the South – we’ve been hearing these little words and phrases all of our lives and we get insulted by them. Susan Rice is as competent as anybody that you will find…. It certainly caused a big problem with me. I don’t like those words. Say that she was wrong for doing it, but don’t call her incompetent. That is something totally different. A lot of very competent people sometimes make errors, and to say that she erroneously did it, I don’t have a problem with it. But to call her incompetent, a PHD Rhodes Scholar, being called incompetent by someone who can’t hold a candle to her intellectually. By someone who said, and Senator McCain called her incompetent as well. But he told us that Sarah Palin was a very competent person to be Vice President of the United States. That ought to tell you a little bit about his judgment.”

Rice either knew what she was saying was wrong, which makes her a liar. Or, she was entirely out of the loop and was still running her mouth off with nothing but wild conjecture, which would make her incompetent. In either case, her critics shouldn’t be obliged to back away from completely apt terms simply because Clyburn, or anybody else, shouts “racism!”

For the record, “incompetent” is the nicer label to be applied to Rice. I think Clyburn’s right- Rice is no dummy; she knew exactly what she was saying and she knew it was a complete fabrication. To pass off Rice’s deceit as an “error” is to ignore the mal-intent involved in actively looking to lie to the American people.