By James Taranto

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The other day, on PBS's "The Journal Editorial Report," our colleague Dorothy Rabinowitz observed that Republicans must be hoping to see more of Angry Left heartthrob Sen. Barbara Boxer "carrying on in the way she [did] last week during Condoleezza Rice's confirmation." If CNN had any viewers, these Republicans would have gotten their wish yesterday, when Boxer put on an embarrassing show on Wolf Blitzer's "Late Edition."

As the Washington Times notes, Boxer whined that Rice was mean to her:

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"She turned and attacked me," the California Democrat told CNN's "Late Edition" in describing the confrontation during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

"I gave Dr. Rice many opportunities to address specific issues. Instead, she said I was impugning her integrity," Mrs. Boxer said.
*** END QUOTE ***

Oh, those mean old Republicans, asking not to be called liars! Sounds as though Boxer is too much of a lightweight to be in the ring. In the same interview, responding to President Bush's Inaugural Address, Boxer put forward a foreign-policy vision that amounts to "don't worry, be happy":

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I have to say, I didn't get his point. For him to say that the survival of our liberty depends on anyone else, I just don't buy that. This is the greatest country in the world.

We have a constitution. We have a free people. We have a very vibrant political system, and it doesn't always turn out the way I want, but the fact is, for him to imply that our freedom depends on what happens elsewhere, I just don't buy it. This country has made it through all kinds of challenges, and we have never once lost our freedom. . . .

The fact is there was very little about what the policy implications of all these grandiose words meant. And you had to have Daddy Bush, President Bush's dad, who I really like very much, getting out there, saying, don't worry, be happy, we're not going to really change this.

I found it a very odd speech, in the sense that I was baffled as to what he's talking about.
*** END QUOTE ***

Boxer's pinched isolationism is a long way from the Democratic idealism of Wilson, FDR, Truman and JFK. Granted, skepticism of foreign intervention has a long history in America, but Boxer's blithe assertion that the lack of liberty elsewhere doesn't endanger liberty here is quite a stunning display of obliviousness in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

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