UN Envoy Susan Rice Is Top Candidate to Succeed Clinton
By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan and Flavia Krause-Jackson on November 10, 2012
Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, is emerging as the
favored candidate to succeed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, even with
the political controversy over her remarks about the fatal Sept. 11 attack
on the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya.
Six current or former White House officials, who all spoke on condition of
anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said Rice remains close to
President Barack Obama and shares many of his views on foreign policy. They
emphasized that the president hasn't made a final decision, and Clinton may
remain in her post for some months into Obama's second term.
Former White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley and other officials said
Obama's first move will be choosing a successor to Treasury Secretary Tim
Geithner. He also may need to find successors to Defense Secretary Leon
Panetta, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and U.S. Trade
Representative Ron Kirk, the officials said.
Rice is thought to be the president's preferred choice over two other strong
candidates, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry of
Massachusetts and National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, according to the
current and former administration officials.
Rice, who also worked on the presidential campaigns of Kerry and former
Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, is known for her strong personality
and passionate defense of Obama's foreign policy at Security Council and
inter-agency meetings.
Libyan Assistance
She was an advocate of U.S. aid to Libyan rebels who rose up against
then-dictator Muammar Qaddafi, and her supporters say she helped win UN
Security Council support for a resolution authorizing international
intervention in Libya.
Her push for intervention, officials said, might in part have been a product
of the failure of former President Bill Clinton's administration to
intervene to halt genocide in the central African nation of Rwanda, when
Rice was 30 and serving on the National Security Council staff.
Visiting Rwanda last year with her family after a surprise visit to Libya,
she said, "Many of us heard strong echoes of 1994 when Muammar Qaddafi
promised that he would root out the people of Benghazi."
Still, she also has argued that what worked in Libya couldn't be replicated
in Syria, where her anti-interventionist line contrasted with Kerry, who
looked more favorably upon the creation of humanitarian corridors.
Pugnacious Style
At the UN, her often pugnacious style has by turns been admired and derided,
diplomats there say. Behind closed doors, they say, she pulls no punches and
uses colorful language to get her points across.
She has clashed with Vitaly Churkin, her Russia counterpart, most pointedly
over Syria. At times their exchanges got personal, such as last year when he
publicly chided her for an unusual outburst and said Syria wasn't an issue
that could be drowned by expletives.
Friction notwithstanding, she also helped obtain tough 2010 UN resolutions
aimed at derailing Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program, which required
protracted negotiations with Russian officials, and win UN membership for
the new nation of South Sudan.
High Profile
Still, Rice's high profile and relationships with UN ambassadors from
Europe, Russia and China are considered an asset, although she lacks
Clinton's experience at retail politicking and her celebrity as a
presidential candidate, a senator and a two-term first lady.
While several officials said Clinton would be a difficult act to follow,
many in the White House regard Rice as the most recognizable successor and a
reliable advocate for Obama's positions on Iran, Syria and other difficult
issues.
A 47-year-old Stanford University graduate and former Rhodes Scholar, Rice
would be the second African-American woman to serve as the top U.S. diplomat
if she were nominated and confirmed by the Senate. She isn't related to
Condoleezza Rice, who served in George W. Bush's administration.
Susan Rice, who was a National Security Council director and assistant
secretary of state for African affairs under President Clinton, joined the
Obama campaign in 2007 and helped run the foreign policy team advising the
candidate.
Controversial Remarks
Two of the officials said Rice is much closer to Obama than Kerry or
Donilon, so putting her at the State Department would ensure that the White
House could maintain control over U.S. foreign policy.
Her Sept. 16 remarks on Sunday talk shows that the attack on the U.S.
diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, began as a peaceful protest that was
"hijacked" by militants were considered a possible obstacle to Senate
confirmation and an invitation to continued attacks on the administration's
handling of the assault.
This week's elections relieved some -- though not all -- of those anxieties,
said two of the officials. These officials observed that Republican
presidential candidate Mitt Romney dropped the issue during his third and
final debate with Obama, and two prominent Republicans, former Secretary of
State Rice and former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, criticized
some of the attacks on the administration over the issue.
In an e-mail message yesterday, Wolfowitz added: "I did defend Obama
officials against the charge that they knowingly abandoned Americans who
were in danger, but I also said in the same article that they deserved to be
criticized for 'persistent misleading comments about the motives of the
attackers.' That was a reference not only to the comments of our UN
ambassador but also to the secretary of State and the president himself."
In addition, said a third administration official, the investigations that
are under way into the attacks may reveal that Rice's remarks were based on
preliminary intelligence reports that were revised, and that the anti-Muslim
video did play a role in inspiring the attacks.
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Received on Sat Nov 10 2012 - 06:07:10 EST
