What is John McCain doing? Everyone is upset at what happened in Benghazi. Internal state department funding issues, caused by Congress, resulted in security gaps that led to the death of an American ambassador and three members of his team.
That is unacceptable.
But why, then, are the Republican Senators McCain and Lindsay Graham continuing to attack Susan Rice, an Obama insider and US ambassador to the United Nations?
At yesterday's press conference, President Obama was right to be angry. How many times does it need to be repeated: Ambassador Rice was not in the chain of command and was acting at the direction of the White House.
Americans understand how the right wing message machine, like Fox News, tried to make Benghazi a defining issue in the recent presidential election. Fox, Roger Ailes, Rupert Murdoch, and the panoply of faux news hosts and commentators, failed.
The Republican Congress has legitimate reasons to question the performance of the State Department, but the point has been driven into dust.
On Benghazi and Ambassador Rice's comments to the media after the tragedy, it is clear that the Administration was struggling to ascertain facts on the ground, in an extraordinarily difficult Libyan environment, and also meet the public's right to know.
But for Republicans to continue to fan the flames on Benghazi invites the observation that John McCain and the GOP are fighting the last political war with President Obama, or the war before that. This "escalating" controversy shows the Republican leadership in Congress at its worst: picking at a scab to inflame the infection of conspiracies and anger. If this is setting the tone for the new relationship between the Republican Congress and President Obama, the message that sends is that Ambassador Rice is being tied to the political stake to be burned in the public square like the witches of Eastwick in puritan times.
Perhaps it is time for former UN Ambassador Colin Powell to speak out. There is no one more qualified that General Powell to defend Ambassador Rice, by explaining the difference between repeating a lie that led to a trillion dollar war and trying to explain a tragedy in hindsight -- four American deaths -- that happened under murky circumstances.
That is unacceptable.
But why, then, are the Republican Senators McCain and Lindsay Graham continuing to attack Susan Rice, an Obama insider and US ambassador to the United Nations?
At yesterday's press conference, President Obama was right to be angry. How many times does it need to be repeated: Ambassador Rice was not in the chain of command and was acting at the direction of the White House.
Americans understand how the right wing message machine, like Fox News, tried to make Benghazi a defining issue in the recent presidential election. Fox, Roger Ailes, Rupert Murdoch, and the panoply of faux news hosts and commentators, failed.
The Republican Congress has legitimate reasons to question the performance of the State Department, but the point has been driven into dust.
On Benghazi and Ambassador Rice's comments to the media after the tragedy, it is clear that the Administration was struggling to ascertain facts on the ground, in an extraordinarily difficult Libyan environment, and also meet the public's right to know.
But for Republicans to continue to fan the flames on Benghazi invites the observation that John McCain and the GOP are fighting the last political war with President Obama, or the war before that. This "escalating" controversy shows the Republican leadership in Congress at its worst: picking at a scab to inflame the infection of conspiracies and anger. If this is setting the tone for the new relationship between the Republican Congress and President Obama, the message that sends is that Ambassador Rice is being tied to the political stake to be burned in the public square like the witches of Eastwick in puritan times.
Perhaps it is time for former UN Ambassador Colin Powell to speak out. There is no one more qualified that General Powell to defend Ambassador Rice, by explaining the difference between repeating a lie that led to a trillion dollar war and trying to explain a tragedy in hindsight -- four American deaths -- that happened under murky circumstances.
11 comments:
This is the inevitable backlash of a Republican Party that has seen a massive repudiation of its message by the American People. Just because the election is over, does not mean Republicans cannot continue to politicize Benghazi in such a manner that they can "taint" the Obama Administration with it. They will use this as the excuse for further obstructionism in Congress, which will hopefully lead to their loss of power in 2014 when we get fed up enough with it.
The President watched and listened to the attack on Benghazi in real time. The President sent Rice out on those TV shows. Either she lied deliberately to us or the President lied to her. She told lies the White House knew were not true. Unfit for Secretary of State.
P.S. No one knew WMD's were not in Iraq until we went there and turned the place upside down. Saddam said he deliberately mislead others into thinking he had WMD's.
Embassy staff begged for 7 hours for someone to come to their rescue. Other embassies were protected by marines on 9/11 but not Benghazi. The claim that the people died because of a lack of congressional funding is absurd.
Chauncey,
The Bush Administration/US Gov. most certainly did know that there were no WMDs in Iraq before we invaded Iraq.
To say otherwise is either blistering ignorance or deliberately perpetuating the lie.
If Ms. Rice lied to the American people, she wouldn't be the first person named Rice to do so.
If Condoleeza was still allowed to be Sec/State after her perfidy, (and her lies cost many more lives than four lives) why penalize Susan for allegedly lying?
I will never forget the National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice going on TV after 9/11 and telling the American people she/they had "no idea that anyone would use airplanes as missles" -- really Condi? Really? REALLY? Liar liar liar liar...
Benghazi is a tragic failure somewhere - but the ever diminishing John McCain elevating it to a political issue is bullshit.
Dear Red States:
We're ticked off at the way you've treated the Blue States, and we've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country and we're taking the other Blue States with us. In case you aren't aware that includes Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast.
To sum up briefly:
You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states; we get stem cell research and the best beaches.
We get the Statue of Liberty; you get Opry Land. We get Harvard; you get Ole' Miss.
We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs; you get Alabama. We get two-thirds of the tax revenue; you get to make the red states pay their fair share.
Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's we get a bunch of happy families; you get a bunch of single moms.
Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80% of the country's fresh water, more than 90% of the pineapple and lettuce, 92% of the nation's fresh fruit, 95% of America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners) 90% of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the US low sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools plus Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.
With the Red States you will have to cope with 88% of all obese Americans and their projected health care costs, 92% of all US mosquitoes, nearly 100% of the tornadoes, 90% of the hurricanes, 99% of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100% of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.
We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.
38% of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62% believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44% say that evolution is only a theory, 53% that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61% of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals than we lefties.
We're taking the good pot too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico.
Sincerely,
Blue States
Dear Red States:
We're ticked off at the way you've treated the Blue States, and we've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country and we're taking the other Blue States with us. In case you aren't aware that includes Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast.
To sum up briefly:
You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states; we get stem cell research and the best beaches.
We get the Statue of Liberty; you get Opry Land. We get Harvard; you get Ole' Miss.
We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs; you get Alabama. We get two-thirds of the tax revenue; you get to make the red states pay their fair share.
Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's we get a bunch of happy families; you get a bunch of single moms.
Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80% of the country's fresh water, more than 90% of the pineapple and lettuce, 92% of the nation's fresh fruit, 95% of America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners) 90% of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the US low sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools plus Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.
With the Red States you will have to cope with 88% of all obese Americans and their projected health care costs, 92% of all US mosquitoes, nearly 100% of the tornadoes, 90% of the hurricanes, 99% of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100% of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.
We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.
38% of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62% believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44% say that evolution is only a theory, 53% that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61% of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals than we lefties.
We're taking the good pot too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico.
Sincerely,
Blue States
If you think Condeleeza Rice is a liar on WMD's, then you can add Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton, and John Kerry to that list. All of them saw the same intelligence.
The difference between Iraq and Libya is that there was actually inaccurate intelligence regarding Iraq. With Libya, the White House watched the attack in real time and knew for a fact that it was not caused by movie protesters. Obama and Rice can't blame their lies on bad intelligence that never existed.
nicely put Blue States,I'll gladly move back to California when Florida secedes from the US!
Blue states own Obama and his record. The blame Bush crowd can only blame Obama going forward.
They are so resentful for the election loss that they are desperate to discredit the President of the United States in any way the can. It's time for McCain to get off his "hero tribune"... it's a long time ago and let's recall what happened in the meantime: He became an adulterer and left his wife and family to marry the beer millionairess... a self-confessed alcoholic and prescription medications addict. What a great example this McCain is! Typical Republican.
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