RUTHFULLY YOURS

Ros-Lehtinen was named chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee this week. 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.

In her opening remarks after being named chair, she demonstrated why she may well become the darling of conservatives and the bane of the Obama administration. She issued a multi-pronged attack on the administration. She promised “a number of cuts to the State Department and Foreign Aid budgets. There is much fat in these budgets, which makes some cuts obvious.” She is looking not only to cut but to reform: “We must shift our foreign aid focus from failed strategies rooted in an archaic post-WWII approach that, in some instances, perpetuates corrupt governments, to one that reflects current realities and challenges and empowers grassroots and civil society.” But she does not intend to focus solely on budgets. She described what amounts to an ideological offensive against the administration, describing her plan to use “U.S. contributions to international organizations as leverage to press for real reform of those organizations, such as the United Nations, and… to call for withdrawal of U.S. funds to failed entities like the discredited Human Rights Council if improvements are not made.”

She also talks in terms that are rarely heard from the White House. It is the language of American exceptionalism, and she has confidence of an advocate of a forward-leaning foreign policy. She explained that her “worldview is 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.”

In sum, using the power of the purse and oversight hearings, Ros-Lehtinen is expected to push back on policies that have under-delivered. We can expect her to scrutinize the gap between rhetoric and results. What have we gained from “reset”? Why are we giving $1.5 billion to Hosni Mubarak in light of an election rampant with fraud? Why aren’t we more robustly supporting the Green Movement? 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.

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. She, as well as the 2012 presidential candidates, 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. That is no small thing.

By Jennifer Rubin  | December 10, 2010; 2:00 PM