Saturday, December 01, 2012
Baggage
The rumored replacement of Hillary Clinton with Susan Rice as Secretary of State might fly below the radar of some, but the fact that Rice comes with substantial conflict of interest baggage should raise at least a few red flags. As a member of the political elite heavily invested in energy stocks from notorious carbon intensive projects like the Canadian Tar Sands, Rice can hardly be counted on to act impartially when it comes to ruling on Tar Sands related projects like the Keystone pipeline. But then, for that matter, neither can Obama be counted on to act impartially when it comes to the Gateway Pacific Terminal proposal to export Powder River Basin coal--a project owned in large part by Goldman Sachs, the financier that bankrolled his election in 2008. While Rice and Obama might miraculously rise above personal financial interests, given their track records, that's highly unlikely.
