Clarke and Race

T-Steel has a good post on the whole Republicans playing the race card against Clarke's criticism of Condi Rice. It's worth checking out. But my favorite was this line that Ann Coulter pulled on Scarborogh Country this thursday:

I think the larger point is, this is, you know, a career chair-warmer who is upset a black woman took his job.

Which is just further proof that Ann Coulter doesn't give a shit about what the facts actually are.

Let's say your a prep cook, okay? And you're fired for whatever reason. And at the same time someone else, let's call her Condi Rice, gets a job as a line cook. Would you say that Condi Rice got your job? No, because (and this is the tricky part) a prep cook is different than a line cook. Despite the fact that both jobs have the word "cook" in their title.

Richard Clarke was Director of the National Security Center. Condoleeza Rice is the National Security Advisor to the President. I know, I know, both those titles include the words "National Security" but they're different. It's kind of like how 2+5 is a different number than 2+4 even though in both cases a number is added to two. Okay, I hope I haven't lost anyone here in this highly technical explanation.

Besides, Clarke wasn't demoted nor did he lose his job. He was Director of the NSC, and while there he created a position to analyze cyberterrorism, since that's a pet interest of his. He then took that job. And later he resigned.

Maybe the Cyberterrorism job was less prestigious than the Director job, but when you end up in a job that you took the initiative to create, that sounds like a personal career choice, not a demotion.