Pat Dollard

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Guess why Capitol Hill smelled like patchouli oil and vaginal yeast today?

No, Hillary wasn’t there, it was Code Pink. Harassing Rice.

From The Swamp:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice managed to avoid strife during her appearance before the House Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs today to explain President Bush’s 2009 foreign aid budget – her last scheduled appearance as the nation’s top diplomat.

Rep. Nita Lowey, a New York Democrat who chairs the subcommittee, agreed to lift her objection to granting $100 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority, responding to Rice’s assurances that the Palestinian leadership is committed to peace with Israel.

Lowey and other members of Congress froze $150 million of economic assistance to the Palestinians last week, as fighting worsened between Israel and Hamas, and after a gunman killed eight students in a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem.

But Rice was unable to escape hostility from the audience, as some 15-20 members of the anti-war group Code Pink waved blood-colored hands in the air and chanted “war criminal” from the back of the hearing room during Rice’s testimony.

The protesters were held back by police as Rice left the room, in contrast to last fall, when one member of the group came close enough to her to wave blood-colored hands in Rice’s face.

In response to a query from Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.), who called the presence of the protesters a “circus” and asked if anything could be done about them, Lowey replied, “we’re here in the United States of America, and as long as they don’t disrupt this proceeding and as long as they’re silent, they will be welcome.”

Rice testified that under the Bush administration, assistance to Latin America had been doubled, and quadrupled in Africa.