Condi Rice finds time to 'visit' hurricane victims

Yesterday Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice was seen packing food boxes for hurricane victims at a shelter. She used the time to defend the President about allegations by black leaders that the slow response was due to racism.

"I am a African American," said the enraged Rice. "Nobody, especially the president, would have left people unattended on the basis of race. I just hope that when people stop and think about it, they will just see that that’s just not the case. How can that be the case? Americans don’t want to see Americans suffer.”

This is an interesting statement considering that Ms Rice was still on vacation in New York during and after the hurricane. While mostly African American and poor people were struggling to survive the growing floods and lawlessness, Ms Rice was in the Big Apple attending plays and getting tennis lessons from Monica Seles. Many New Yorkers found this unseemly, and her activities were noted in several gossip columns. Finally on Thursday while shopping for shoes in the swank Fifth Avenue boutique, Ferragamo, Rice was approached by a woman who shouted to her “How dare you shop for shoes while thousands are dying and homeless!” Rice had her security physically remove the woman from the store.

Not surprisingly Rice abruptly ended her vacation and headed to Alabama the next day to save a really bad public relations situation.

Critics may argue that disaster relief is not the job of the Secretary of State. However, for a woman who constantly attributes her successful career to her upbringing in Alabama, one would think she would have been amongst the first people to get down to the area as a gesture of giving back to those who helped her. Her behavior just further cements her disconnect from the African American community. Would she have even cancelled her vacation if her shoe shopping hadn't been disturbed?