An angry protest from some students and faculty prompted former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to withdraw from an invitation to be the annual commencement speaker at Rutgers University later this week. This inspired predictable (and quite understandable) pushback from conservatives, who accuse the malcontents of intolerance. And that’s true: A minority managed to prevent the majority of graduates from hearing an A-list speaker with very substantial (though controversial) accomplishments.

Instead, former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean will speak. He left office when many of today’s Rutgers graduates were two years old. (Yeah, let’s just say the line for post-speech photo-ops got a lot shorter.)

But the full-throated defense of Rice exposes the hypocrisy some social conservatives, who may denounce Rutgers protesters today, but would also find a lot to be intolerant about if the woman they’re defending told them she wanted to be their President.

The few who remain in the once fiscally-focused Tea Party now spend much of their time hunting for heretics on social issues instead. Not coincidentally, the Tea Party is a fraction of its former size. For those left, it’s not hard to find them a new witch to burn, and Condi Rice fails many of their narrow litmus tests. If they had reason to make enough of a stink about it, she could be as unwelcome at some Lincoln Day Dinners as she is at Rutgers.

When asked about the Presidency, Rice has declined to take the bait. But rumors have circulated since the end of the last Bush Administration, and only gained momentum following her very popular speech at the 2012 GOP Convention. After describing her childhood in Jim Crow-era Alabama, she teased the audience about such a girl growing up to become President.

So consider that Rice refuses to even say who she voted for in 2008 between Obama and John McCain. She always had a frosty relationship with McCain, and following President Obama’s 2008 victory said his win was “inspirational” for her as an African-American.

She describes herself as “mildly pro-choice.” That’s enough to infuriate some social conservatives, but many will amp up the outrage after learning she advocates a clear path to citizenship for well-behaved illegal aliens.

Regarding gay marriage, she supports of civil unions. One of her very best friends is supposedly an openly gay (male) professor. She guards details about her personal life fiercely and – without putting too fine a point on it – is an attractive, athletically fit, highly intelligent woman, who loves and understands football, yet has had no known romantic attachments since dating an NFL player more than 30 years ago.

None of this adds up to a fact about her private life. And even if it did, that too should add up to nothing for any fair-minded Republican seeking a winning Presidential nominee. Rice has solidly conservative national security credentials, is strongly pro-2nd Amendment, and has been preaching from the small government, pro-business Bible in the speeches she’s given.

But to a loud collection of extreme social conservatives, those little heresies (and personal rumors) would matter a lot if she were a Presidential candidate. This is the same crew that keeps in place Dave Agema, Michigan’s odious GOP National Committeeman, despite most of the highest elected officials in his party wanting him gone. Many are deluded enough to believe a governor who signed a Right to Work law is a liberal.

Their attitudes make it less likely somebody like Rice would ever run, despite her obvious appeal as a general election candidate. The Rutgers students are indeed behaving as intolerant children, but they’re not alone.

Ken Braun was a legislative aide for a Republican lawmaker in the Michigan House and worked for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. He has assisted in a start-up effort to encourage employers to provide economic education to employees, and is currently the director of policy for InformationStation.org. His employer is not responsible for what he says here, on , or … or in Spartan Stadium on game days.

Source: http://www.mlive.com/