In your face

By Mustang Bobby

Peter Beinart:

By appointing Susan Rice as his new national-security adviser and Samantha Power to represent the U.S. at the United Nations, Barack Obama is practically shouting a message to the Washington GOP: “I’m no longer afraid of you.”

It’s about damn time.

We saw a little flash of this backatcha from the president when Susan Rice was being roastedlast winter when she was being mentioned as the next Secretary of State, but that collapsed and we got John Kerry. Not that there’s anything wrong with Mr. Kerry, and I doubt that having a knock-down/drag-out over Ms. Rice in the Senate confirmation would have left the State Department hanging out there while John McCain and his wormtongue Lindsey Graham romped all over her on TV. But by making her the National Security Adviser — which does not require Senate confirmation and carries as much heft in actually running the country’s foreign policy as being Secretary of State — Mr. Obama is flipping off the Republicans and he doesn’t give a shit if they carry on about the “culture of intimidation” and how uppity arrogant he is.

Now let’s see if he sticks to sticking it to them.

(Cross-posted at Bark Bark Woof Woof.)