Barbara Boxer provided the perfect illustration today of how thickheaded the left’s position on national security has become, as she attacked Condoleezza Rice at her confirmation hearing: Rice, Boxer spar in confirmation hearing.

California Sen. Barbara Boxer questioned Rice aggressively before the panel broke for lunch, suggesting her loyalty to Bush and her mission to defend the war in Iraq “overwhelmed your respect for the truth.”

Rice bristled at the comment. “I have to say that I have never, ever, lost respect for the truth in the service of anything,” she said.

She later told Boxer, “I really hope that you will refrain from impugning my integrity.”

Boxer pointed out what she said were inconsistencies in Rice’s statements about the imminent threat of nuclear weapons in Iraq. “This is a pattern here of what I see from you,” Boxer said. “It’s very troubling. … It’s hard for me to let go of this war because people are still dying.”

She said Rice has not acknowledged those deaths, has not laid out an exit strategy for Iraq and has been unwilling to admit mistakes — including going to war over weapons of mass destruction found later not to exist.

Rice insisted the war in Iraq was not launched solely over WMD. Deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, she said, welcomed terrorists, attacked his own neighbors and paid suicide bombers in the conflict between Israel and Palestinians.

But Boxer said the bill passed by Congress authorizing the war in Iraq was, “WMD, period.”

“Let’s not rewrite history, it’s too soon for that,” Boxer said.

John Kerry, meanwhile, is still trying to pass the Global Test, administered by the same Arab dictators who are helping the mujahideen in Iraq:

“You are going to be confirmed, and everybody knows that,” Kerry said. “Whether or not it is with my vote is yet to be determined. I have reservations.”

While those reservations are not personal, he said, they “do go to the story and trail of the past four years.”

The Massachusetts Democrat attempted to pin Rice down on what the Bush administration plans to do to end the insurgency in Iraq.

“The current policy is growing the insurgency, not diminishing it,” he said. “We went in to rescue Iraq from Saddam Hussein; now, I think, we have to rescue our policy from ourselves.”

He said that he had talked to leaders in a number of Arab and European countries, who told him that they had offered to do more to help in Iraq, but that those offers were rebuffed.

Our nation dodged a bullet when these people were denied the White House.