Susan Rice’s ‘Fat Cat’ Foreign Investments Blasted By Liberal Group – OpEd
By Jim Kouri
While President Barack Obama lambastes the so-called “fat cats” who “outsource” their money and jobs to other countries, perhaps the President should look at one of his own minions, Susan Rice, who appears to have turned her government connections into a winning lottery ticket, said a political strategist on Sunday.
According to Mike Baker, a GOP consultant and attorney, a liberal-left grassroots organization this weekend setup an Internet petition slamming Susan Rice, a potential secretary of State nominee, and demanding she divest herself of her stock in the Canadian company seeking approval for the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline to the Gulf Coast.
“It’s indefensible that Susan Rice has millions of dollars invested in oil companies and banks that will make huge profits if the State Department gives approval to the XL pipeline,” said officials at Roots Action.
According to Baker, Rice, the current U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, owns somewhere between $300,000 and $600,000 in TransCanada Corp. stock, as per her financial disclosure forms.
The pipeline needs the approval of the State Department before construction can begin and Amb. Rice may be the person who can give that approval, thereby enriching her, her friends and fellow party members.
The exposing of Rice’s financial history has led to intense criticism from environmentalists at a time when several Senate Republicans have vowed to oppose her because of her early statements about the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi.
Green groups are pressing the White House to require that any nominee for the position divest themselves of any stock in TransCanada or other oil sands companies.
“The core organizations of the Democratic base have vowed that after the election they will hold Obama’s “feet to the fire” with a Tea Party-style mobilization from the left — forcing votes on progressive proposals, organizing mass rallies and grooming their own candidates for the next congressional elections. They’ve sworn these oaths before, but after each election, they persuade themselves to give the leadership another chance. Soon the next election is upon them, and they line up for their marching orders” states the Roots Action news and views section.
“As a high-ranking administration official — and a potential replacement for Hillary Clinton early next year to run the State Department — Susan Rice shouldn’t have any stake in corporations that are doing all they can to plunder tar sands in Canada and send carbon emissions soaring even faster,” the group states.
The Obama administration has touted Rice’s name as a possible Clinton replacement. In addition, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-MA) is supported by fellow lawmakers for the Secretary of State post as Hillary Clinton’s successor in President Obama’s second-term.
The GOP senators are the most vocal critics of Amb. Rice’s comments during her appearances on the Sunday morning news shows just five days after the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
According to her defenders, Rice had based her presentation on inaccurate or doctored intelligence assessments that the military-style assault on the U.S. Consulate and a nearby CIA facility, which killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, appeared to be spontaneous, inspired by protests across the Arab world against an anti-Islam video made in the United States.
But many within the intelligence and military communities claim that within hours of the Benghazi attack it was revealed that the consulate experienced a planned terrorist action complete with heavy firepower including rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs).
Rice’s emphatic statements on the TV news shows stirred up an uproar among Republicans and some Democrats who said the administration was misleading the Americans over the issue and blamed Rice.
She failed to change the minds of her Republican opponents during a two-day visit to Capitol Hill this week, however, setting up a bitter confirmation fight if Obama nominates her to replace Hillary Clinton.
