This past week it was revealed by the media that Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, wasn't interested in the Vice President spot. Now whether she was telling the truth or playing the dead tree gang remains to be seen. All she said was "You can all come and visit me in California."
I'm thinking she's planning on going back to some academic post at Stanford University. She had taught and had even been the university's provost from 1993 to 1999. Now this isn't a judgement on her teaching expertise, I'm sure she would make an excellent professor. What I'm pondering is if Standford should take her back given her role in the foreign policy blunders this White House Administration has commited.
This would be easy to construe that what is being said here is some sort of punishment because of her political views. Americans shouldn't be blacklisted from employment simply because where they fall in the spectrum. But it isn't her views but her actions, well actually a combination of the both as she would have had to harbor that neo-con thought view to impliment that madness. Stanford, as far as I can tell, is very liberal/progressive. Friends over there tell me that the anti-war movement there is just as strong as it is on other campuses (well maybe Bob Jones University could be the exception).
She may have been a neo-conservative while working there, but she isn't the same woman now as she was then. Back then, she was another academic drone in university system. Now, she's the Secretary of State who served as an agent that forwarded America's decline. Stanford isn't getting their old Condi who was Provost, there are getting the Iraq War Condi. No one I know who is majoring in political science would take her class. Indeed, she may find difficulty initially teaching there. So, what, she would be relegated on the payroll as a researcher or book writer for Stanford?
Once again, this isn't blacklisting a person for their views, but a judgement on her actions. As this un-elected administration's term ends, should we be rewarding these people further? Cheney probably has minted a lot of coin through some backdoor deals with Haliburton. No doubt that others like Rumseld will use their time in some book deal. God only knows how W is set up after his last term. But here we have the first tangible evidence of life after the Bush Administration for one of it's chief lieutenants. Condoleezza Rice most likely will follow some sort of Kissenger path, books and lectures, and will retire a wealthy woman. But should Stanford taint its image with hiring her, essentially rewarding her for her time in this ill-gotten White House?