Dan Sullivan is now bragging that he is  endorsed by Condi Rice

It was an honor to work with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the State Department to combat terrorism and keep America safe, and I’m so grateful for her support. Secretary Rice appears in my new ad “Challenging Times” and describes our work together and the stakes of this election. Watch the ad here on Facebook and chip in $10 to help keep the ad running! http://bit.ly/1wN7J35

Condi Rice (arguably a co-architect of Mission Accomplished:Iraq.)  is widely known for her support for the invasion of Iraq and for her endorsement of enhanced interrogation techniques (otherwise known as waterboarding, or torture.)

I observed to Dan, “Interesting claim, but it would seem that the policies you pursued increased and spread terrorism and made the U.S. and much of the rest of the world much less safe. What data are your claims based on?”

He responded, “I worked to defund terrorist networks and encourage divestment from rogue states.” While this sounds really swell, it’s a statement not only apparently missing from the strategy adopted by President Bush (http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/63562.pdf), it is also alarmingly vague (which is my way of suggesting that it sounds very much like the current Administration’s policy, which contrary to that of Bush, is intended to avoid use of military action.) The Bush Administration was neither vague nor apologetic about their advocacy of pre-emptive strikes.

National security experts note the U.S. strategy for dealing with rogue regimes changed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. In a June 2002 speech at West Point, President Bush said: “containment is not possible when unbalanced dictators with weapons of mass destruction can deliver those weapons on missiles or secretly provide them to terrorist allies.” The Bush administration’s National Security Strategy, issued in September 2002, asserted the need for preemptive strikes against states or entities intent on terrorism. This language “reflected the view that the bad behavior of these regimes was inextricably linked to their character,” says the Wilson Center’s Litwak. “Hence, a change of conduct or behavior would be inadequate because the behavior derived from the regime’s character. Therefore, you had to change the regime to end the behavior.”    http://www.nytimes.com/cfr/world/slot1_20080602.html

While Condi is “on board” with Dan (‘he served as a…  Marine!’), Condi says nothing about the relative qualities of Dan vs Mark, so we are left to assume that she supports Dan because he is a true-believer: he endorses torture, pre-emptive unilateral regime change, and all the other policies Condi promoted during her tenure as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State.

“But wait!” you might blurt out. “What about that stand-up guy in the Bush Administration, Colin Powell? ”  No, the top military official of the Bush Administration is no where to be seen.  Hmmmph…..

The constant repetition of military themes in Sullivan’s campaign herald his hawkish and militant approach to most everything, and his rhetoric regarding the current Administration suggests that as a US Senator he would promote  war. He would push a war on woman, a war on drugs, a war on health care, a war on regulation of business AND hot wars around the world where US sons and daughters would die to accomplish some end that has yet to be defined, but are intended to demonstrate that, yes, the US can kill people and blow stuff up if that’s what it takes to satisfy US corporate demands. Yousa!  Exciting stuff!

But I suppose for Alaskans, the real crux is that he claims to be Alaskan because he married Jane Fate’s daughter (at least that’s what Jane’s daughter claimed when SHE showed up instead of Dan in Bethel. ) Frankly, I think he should run for Senate from a State that is more prudish, bigoted, hypocritical, and misogynist, than Alaska (North Carolina comes to mind.) Be a better match,  no matter that Julie ‘stands by her man…’