Now comes word that United States Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice wasn’t even at the UN, let alone in the committee room, when UN members voted Iran onto the Commission on the Status of Women committee. Not only was our Ambassador not in the room for the vote, she wasn’t even in the building. Wouldn’t you think that a female American Ambassador would understand the importance of standing up against a country that has some of the most hostile laws toward women? Shouldn’t Rice want to use the opportunity to highlight the regime’s record toward women? What’s also troubling is that we are now learning that Iran was not only elected to the Women’s committee sans Rice, but Iran was elected to 3 other UN committees that day. Iran is now an official member of the UN’s Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the Commission on Science and Technology for Development and the Governing Council of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat). And our representative didn’t bother to show up or speak up.

After spending 8 years at the UN, I understand that U.S. Ambassadors have a lot of issues to cover. There is no way to expect one Ambassador to cover all of the U.S. government priority issues at the UN. And certainly there are a plethora of UN meetings that drag on with an unlimited number of speakers and no time limits. And I also understand the unique ways of the UN system and the regional voting blocks that control elections. But an American Ambassador must be able to be nimble and spontaneous. The U.S. Ambassador’s staff must be able to monitor situations simultaneously and use the Ambassador’s time to maximize attention and impact. If the votes are stacked against the U.S. and we are going to lose an election then for heaven’s sake – stand up and say something! Bring some shame on the countries that vote for the violators by drawing attention to the situation. American silence sends a very loud message and encourages the status quo.

But U.S. Mission staff confirm that Rice wasn’t at the UN and therefore wasn’t able to even drop by the committee elections meeting that was taking place. Even after all the votes were counted and Iran was elected to 4 committee assignments at the UN, Rice didn’t speak out to highlight the hypocrisy of electing a country like Iran to a committee designed to promote women’s rights because she wasn’t around.

For Rice, this silence is becoming a pattern. She is seldom in New York City and even spends less time at the UN. Rice has not conducted the hard negotiations nor done the sometimes unpopular and messy work of engaging the UN or speaking up when others are silent. Rice has been routinely unavailable to reporters, absent from daily UN meetings and all too often silent when the American people needed a strong voice to speak out on an important issue. From Iran to Zimbabwe to Sudan to Cuba, Rice consistently stays silent. It’s no wonder other countries at the UN think the Obama Administration is so easy to work with. And it also explains why we haven’t had one single Security Council resolution on Iran since Rice arrived. In a roughly two year period, the Bush Administration passed a total of 5 Iran resolutions, 3 of which contained increased sanctions and were voted unanimously (one sanctions resolution passed 14 to 1 with Indonesia voting no). The excuse that Rice is building relationships quietly or has a different type of style is lame. We don’t need to win popularity contests, we need action and votes and leadership. In Rice’s case, we just need her to start showing up for meetings and using her microphone.

It’s time for Rice to step up and represent American interests at the UN or step aside and cede the role to someone who will show up for the fight.