Weigel

1971, 2013: The John Kerry Synchronicity

John Kerry’s breezy confirmation hearing faced one interruption, from a protester screaming about her “friends in the Middle East” who feared death. Kerry waited for her to finish, Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Menendez made a small joke to move on, and then Kerry gave one of the first-ever tributes to someone interrupting his own hearing.

Most of the hearing in question is on C-Span. Republicans were so adamant about disqualifying Susan Rice’s possible nomination that you can forget: They helped ensure that a Vietnam war protester, a guy who brought the results of Winter Soldier hearings to the Senate, and who was shamed for this in his 2004 campaign, would be elevated to run America’s diplomatic operation.