FRANK J. FLEMING: What’s Wrong With Susan Rice?

The Republicans’ opposition to Susan Rice’s potentially becoming the next secretary of state is pretty hard to understand.

It wasn’t long ago that Republicans were all for a different black woman named Condoleezza Rice taking the same job — is the GOP just bigoted about the name Susan?

Republicans’ stated objections to Rice make no sense. They complain that she’s “dishonest” and “incompetent,” to which she could easily respond, Well, duh, that’s why I work for the government.

When did Republicans start insisting on approving only competent, honest people, especially with regard to the Obama administration? Is it just me, or did that come completely out of left field?

I thought it was common knowledge that people who are good at things get jobs in the private sector, and those who are ambitious but not particularly useful find jobs in politics. So our expectations are similar to when we give small tasks to toddlers: As long as they don’t screw things up too badly, we consider them successes.

Read the whole thing. But I love this bit in particular: “This idea that President Obama should only appoint honest, competent people is really unfair. The guy is a Chicago politician; he’s probably never once met anyone like that.”