Fair Condi and the All White Knights

To start things off, a long-time e-mailer sends in this tale of fair maiden Condi paying a visit to the White Knights and Imperial Wizards of Moon Table. "Miss Rice" breaks editorial bread with vile racists Pruden and Coombs and anti-semite Tony Blankley and the other hoary white heads doing the Father's business.

The roundtable interview is mostly foreign policy, of course. Foreign Editor David Jones (who?) poses a question about North Korea without mentioning one of that country's most generous benefactors or the nuclear weapons development paid for with that benefactor's largesse.

Then there's this bitter laugh line:

Miss Rice: I'm never going to underestimate al Qaeda -- Never.

As the evening progresses, the conversation turns to God and Condi 08:

Mr. Sammon: Before we let you get away, we've got to talk about the fun political stuff. And that is starting with, are you would you consider running for president in 2008?

Miss Rice: Oh, jeez [sic -- Jeez].

...

Miss Rice: I know. I have never wanted to run for anything. I don't think I even ran for class anything when I was in school. I'm going to try to...

Mr. Pruden: But you could save us from Hillary (laughter).

...

Mr. Sammon: So are you ruling it out?

Mr. Pruden: Will you do a Sherman? (Laughter.)

Miss Rice Oh, that's not fair, but -- (Laughter.)

Mr. Pruden: Newspapers aren't fair.

(Editor's note: Mr. Pruden is asking if Miss Rice intends to burn down his house and Mr. Coombs' house.)

Miss Rice: Oh, that's not fair, but ... I really can't imagine it.

Mr. Sammon: Well, let me just follow up on this because that's perfectly understandable. But one of the things people are confused about and they understand your foreign policy positions, you've been very clear about those but there is some confusion about some of your domestic policy issues. And I know that's not your bailiwick, but, for example, I interviewed Colin Powell last year as secretary of state and he talked about how he was pro-choice, how he was pro-affirmative action, how he was against an amendment that would ban the burning of a flag, these kinds of social issues. I "googled" Condi Rice and abortion and I've gotten so much murky, contradictory information. Could you clear it up for us today? Are you pro-life? Are you pro-choice? What is your thought on abortion?

Miss Rice: I believe if you go back to 2000, when I helped the president in the campaign, I said that I was, in effect, kind of Libertarian on this issue, and meaning by that that I have been concerned about a government role in this issue. I'm a strong proponent of parental choice, of parental notification. I'm a strong proponent of a ban on late-term abortion. These are all things that I think unite people and I think that that's where we should be. I've called myself at times mildly pro-choice.

Mr. Sammon: That was the phrase that kept coming up.

Miss Rice: Yeah, mildly pro-choice. That's what that means. I think that there are a lot of things that we can unite around, and that's where I would tend to be. I'm very comfortable with the president's view that we have to respect and need to have a culture that respects life. This should be an issue pretty infrequently because we ought to have a culture that says that, "Who wants to have an abortion? Who wants to see a daughter or a friend or, you know, a sibling go through something like that?" And so I believe the president has been in exactly the right place about this, which is, we have to respect the culture of life and we have to try and bring people to have respect for it and make this as rare a circumstance as possible.

Mr. Sammon: The only reason I even brought it up was because there is a school of thought that says that no conservative Republican can be elected president if they are not firmly pro-life. I know you haven't ruled anything in or out but...

Miss Rice: I'm not trying to be elected.

Mr. Sammon: But it sounds like you do not wish to change the laws that now allow ...

Miss Rice: Well, I don't spend my entire life thinking about these issues. You know, I spend my time really thinking about the foreign policy issues. But you know that I'm a deeply religious person and so, from my point of view, these extremely difficult moral issues where we have -- where we're facing issues with technology and the prolongation of life and the fact that very, very young babies are able to survive now -- very small babies are able to survive -- these are great moral issues.

What I do think is that we should not have the federal government in a position where it is forcing its views on one side or the other. So, for instance, I've tended to agree with those who do not favor federal funding for abortion, because I believe that those who hold a strong moral view on the other side should not be forced to fund it.

Unlike, say, the invasion of Iraq.

Given the foregoing dance, it seems that Condi's set to do a reversal on her purported choice position should the Father's paper demand it.