How Ros-Lehtinen’s appointment might impact this country’s relations throughout the world in the next two years.

The Americano

It is important to give credit, where credit is due. And in this case the credit goes to Washington Post conservative blogger Jennifer Rubin for what she wrote Friday about how the appointment of Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen as chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee for 112th Congress will impact this country’s foreign policy.

At a time when most of the nation is focusing on domestic policies and the bitter squabble in the ranks of the Democratic Party over the White House agreement with Senate Republicans to extend the Bush tax cuts for everyone in the country, Rubin looks in a different direction. She looks at the foreign policy of the United States and how Ros-Lehtinen’s appointment might impact this country’s relations throughout the world in the next two years.

In her blog, Right Turn : New foreign affairs player arrives on the scene, published on the web Friday, Rubin focuses on how Ros-Lehtinen’s appointment will change how the foreign policy game is played.
“To say that critics of the Obama foreign policy are thrilled to have her on the scene would be an understatement. If you talk to Cuba democracy advocates, friends of Israel, supporters of Georgia against Russian aggression, and human rights activists, they will uniformly express praise for Ros-Lehtinen,” Rubin wrote.

In addition to quoting from the incoming chairwoman’s opening remarks after her appointment was made, Rubin wrote the Ros-Lehtinen has made her view of the world clear: “isolate and hold our enemies accountable, while supporting and strengthening our allies. I support strong sanctions and other penalties against those who aid violent extremists, brutalize their own people, and have time and time again rejected calls to behave as responsible nations. Rogue regimes never respond to anything less than hardball.”

Rubin believes that Ros-Lehtinen will push back and question the Obama administration’s foreign policy decisions. “After two years, many of the assumptions that formed the basis of the Obama foreign policy have proven faulty. Democrats have been reluctant to query administration officials, but Ros-Lehtinen will not be shy.

In her blog Rubin wrote that oversight hearings and budgetary control do not guarantee that the Obama administration will reverse course on its approach to Russia, Israel, Cuba or any other country.

“But Ros-Lehtinen can, and I predict will, make a difference. Many of the Obama foreign policy gambits will not stand up to scrutiny, and nations that have been neglected or undercut by this administration will have a chance to make their case,” Rubin wrote.

She added that Ros-Lehtinen “can begin to lay out the case against Obama foreign policy and describe what an alternative vision — robust on human rights, supportive of our allies, candid in the description of the war against Islamic jihadism, and assertive in advancing U.S. interests rather than the nebulous goal of “engagement” — would look like.”

Rubin concluded that pursuing these goals is “no small thing.” And she is right.

The Americano/Agencies

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