Running rampant

I couldn't resist following up on Rice's glowing testament to the imagined Bush legacy and her unseemly display of Bush Idolatry Syndrome. In speaking of the wickedness rampant around globe before Bush asserted his grand vision for America in the world, Rice went on and on about a number of policy theatres in which there has been either no improvement under Bush or a decidedly worse situation today. But at the tail end of it all, she popped out this little nugget:

Saddam Hussein was shooting at our pilots in the no-fly zone and making a mockery of the oil-for-food program and corruption was running rampant in that program.

Yes, it was. And Rice is surely one to know it.

Bringing up the oil-for-food scandal is particularly cheeky of Rice. One would think that with the recently agreed $25 million settlement by Chevron for its role in the oil-for-food scandal, Rice might apply considerably more circumspection than she displayed here in bringing up this particular issue, considering that she was on the board of directors of Chevron and chaired that company's public policy committee while Chevron willingly participated in the oil-for-food scam.

Then again, she probably felt fairly secure in mentioning the oil-for-food scandal and did so without much fear that her own complicity would even be broached. It's not like anyone was paying attention. Paris Hilton, after all, was on her way to jail when Chevron agreed to the settlement.