Susan Rice won’t be sec’y of state, though Wexler says she’s kosher on Israel

Susan Rice just removed herself from consideration to be the next secretary of state. That’s why the timing of a Politico Op-Ed from Robert Wexler vouching for her pro-Israel credentials was sort of odd.

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Wexler, a former Florida congressman, was arguably President Obama’s lead Jewish surrogate during the election. The former Florida congressman even gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention that was entirely devoted to praising the president’s record on Israel and Iran. Convention delegates on the floor didn’t seem to be paying much attention to the speech, which kind of came out of left field. But clearly the party wanted a high profile for Wexler’s affirmation that the president is kosher on Israel.

So in the same vein, Wexler’s testimony on behalf of Rice might have been seen as somewhat useful — had she actually been nominated for secretary of state. (Though Jewish groups already seemed pretty okay — even pleased — with Rice.) But then she ended up publicly bowing out of contention only hours after the Op-Ed was published.