Tag Archives: John McCain

John McCain’s Benghazi “cover-up” conspiracy: A cover-up of WHAT, Senator?

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STEVE BENEN catches two very important things about John McCain’s appearance on MTP this past Sunday: 1) His exchange with David Gregory “wasn’t awkward; it wasn’t bizarre; it was alarming.” And 2) “this was McCain’s fourth Sunday show appearance of the new year — that’s four appearances in seven weeks.”

“Meet the Press” host David Gregory pressed the Republican senator on the unsubstantiated charge that the Obama administration has engaged in a “massive cover-up.” Gregory asked a simple question: “A cover-up of what?”

McCain, just a few days after explaining how important it is not to be “disagreeable,” became unusually belligerent, asking the host whether he cares about the deaths of four Americans. Gregory tried to get an answer anyway, responding, “You said there is a cover-up. A cover-up of what?” McCain, unable to think of anything substantive, said, “Of the information concerning the deaths of four brave Americans.”

Even for McCain, whose capacity has deteriorated sharply in recent years, this was a pathetic display. Remember, McCain has had several months to think about this. He’s sat through classified and unclassified briefings. He’s participated in a series of congressional hearings. He’s (presumably) read the results of independent investigations, and had his own questions answered, verbally and in writing. [...]

This was the point at which it might have dawned on everyone watching, including journalists who still consider the senator an credible on foreign policy and national security, “Good lord, John McCain has no idea what he’s talking about.” I hate to be a stickler for such things, but as a rule, when the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee accuses the White House on national television of orchestrating a cover-up as part of a terrorist attack, it’s not too much to ask that the senator have some idea what he’s talking about.

But in this case, McCain is simply lost in a fog of his own partisan rage. At this point, the man doesn’t understand what he doesn’t understand, and worse, he just doesn’t care. McCain no longer thinks it matters that he can’t back up his accusations; he simply wants to keep making them. And if you press him for details he should understand, the increasingly unhinged senator will suggest you’re indifferent to the deaths of Americans at terrorists’ hands.

Pres. Obama turns John McCain and his bitterness into an angry, impotent, pinkish-grey Partisan Rage Monster: fake outrage! McCain mad! McCain SMASH!

Why on earth do all the Sunday talk shows have this irrelevant, silly man (who gave us Sarah Palin) on a permanent rotation?

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REFERENCE: 

Various and sundry reasons why we can’t have nice things

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Feds spend $7 on THE ELDERLY for every $1 on KIDS: Funny how the blame is always on the (nonexistent) welfare moms who keep pumping out kids for more government cheese. (via) »»»»»» SENIORS TAKE NOTE: it’s impossible for the GOP to draft a budget that balances in 10 years without eating into entitlement benefits for people older than 55. »»»»»»  House GOP leaders want Obama to own the automatic cuts — the sequester (the OBAMAQUESTER) — but their budget chief, PAUL RYAN, is expected to count those cuts toward his 10 year plan.   

Kerry: Budget cuts may force reduction in aid to ISRAEL: Some $3 billion goes to Israel annually in US military aid, 74 percent of which must be spent in the US. »»»»»»  Incomes rose more than 11 percent for the TOP 1 PERCENT of earners during the economic recovery and declined by 0.4 percent for everyone else.

After a METEOR struck RUSSIA, the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology announced Friday that it will hold a hearing over asteroids – that committee is chaired by THIS GUY, so maybe they’ll try to pray them away.   »»»»»»  ”The REPUBLICAN PARTY was always an uneasy marriage between the Jesus freaks and the plutocrats.”  »»»»»»  Why a $9.00 MINIMUM WAGE would NOT lead employers to shed jobs or increase prices and pass the costs onto consumers. 

The NRA says regular Americans can’t protect themselves without high-capacity magazines.  »»»»»»  We’re at war, but… why did Senator JOHN MCCAIN claim he wouldn’t filibuster CHUCK HAGEL, then go ahead and do so anyway? Because Hagel hurt his feelings over five years ago.  »»»»»» SEAN HANNITY: “It’s the first time a filibuster of a cabinet nominee has been used. And needless to say, this marks a major win for the GOP, and pretty embarrassing defeat for the president.”  »»»»»»  FreedomWorks produced a video of a fake GIANT PANDA having sex with a fake HILLARY CLINTON. Seriously.  

Republicans are terrible people

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In a speech to the Wyoming GOP, DICK Cheney said that the recent national security choices by President Obama (i.e. Chuck Hagel, John Brennan and John Kerry) were “subpar people.”  This from the guy who was part of an administration that chose, among other things, Heckofajob Brownie for FEMA.

Charles Johnson: Sen. Lindsey Graham has appointed himself the King of Republican Bad Craziness, pandering to the far right’s bizarre fantasies about the Benghazi attack with a relentless zeal that would be impressive if it were directed at something actually useful to the country.

New wingnut conspiracy! In the wake of news that Sen. Lindsey Graham is threatening to block the nominations of Hagel and Brennan, there’s a whole new conspiracy theory bubbling up on the right. From ground zero of Obama era conspiracy theories comes the conspiracy theory to top them all: that CIA nominee John Brennan is himself a Muslim.


via quickhits

John Cole: Thinkprogress makes the mistake of taking John McCain at his word. Look, how many times will people fall for this. The McCain / Lieberman / Graham / Snowe / Collins caucus will always say they are in favor of looking at compromise and policies advanced by the President. But in the end, they always find a reason not to, usually because someone hurt their feelings or they didn’t like the seat they were sitting in at the negotiating table at the White House or because Nancy Pelosi smirked on CNN.

“Well, Tom, the problem with saying this is the president’s idea is that you voted for the Budget Control Act. I voted against it. We wouldn’t have ever been talking about the Budget Control Act but for your party refused to negotiate on the debt ceiling something that has been routinely increased as the country needed it. You used that occasion in 2011 August to basically say we are going to default on the country’s obligations or you’re going to give us dramatic spending cuts. That’s how we got to the Budget Control Act.” — Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) to Tom Cole (R-OK) for his claim that President Obama is responsible for the upcoming sequester.

Senators Marco Rubio and Rand Paul have both been tapped to rebut President Obama’s SOTU before they’ve even had a chance to hear him speak: They’re serving up both kinds of Republicans! Country and Western! The Tea Party and The Tea Party. The difference is that Tea Party hero, Sen. Marco Rubio, can say, “Pro-growth” in español. With that Steve Stifler-like smile and charm, Marco Rubio is there for outreach, and to coerce the Latino vote into bed. And just in case the Tea Party gets a little nervous if there isn’t someone there to speak the native language of “white people” to the actual base, Tea Party hero, Sen. Rand Paul, is there to reassure them that they haven’t been overrun by the demographic shift, just yet. But this is typical Republican Party behavior. They get two chances to make their case, and you get one.


via letfreedomlulz

Chuck Hagel vs. John McCain: Defense Secretary nominee vs. a sad, little man

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Chuck Hagel, John McCain Clash Over Iraq Surge (VIDEO)

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Or as Josh Marshall says: “There’s simply no elevating it. Sen. McCain’s (R-AZ) entire game here is about score settling and holding on to what is arguably the only thing he was right about in the last 20 years. The ‘surge’ McCain may have been right about. There’s a decent argument. But, of course, this is one move in the larger Iraq story which is undeniably one of the biggest foreign policy catastrophes in modern American history — and one which John McCain is one of the great authors of. What a sad little man.”

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Defending a ‘surge’ in a dishonest, catastrophic war is like defending seatbelts in a car that’s about to go into a crusher. And then there’s the whole ‘Palin’ decision… McCain doesn’t even know how big of a joke he really is.

A village in Alaska *finally* regained its Idiot

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Sarah Palin and Fox “news” have agreed to part ways. Did she quit (again?) or was she fired? RealClearPolitics reported that a source close to Palin said she was offered a contract but declined it and a Fox spokesman said, “We wish her the best in her future endeavors.” In other words, Fox wasn’t going to pay her a million a year anymore — or, more likely, any money at all.

So how will this quitty, no job-y thing work out for Sarah? According to her: Great! Opportunities aplenty! For example, she’ll have so much more time to work on her Facebook posts whilst “not retreating” from her “message.”

Political Wire: Although Sarah Palin just lost her platform at Fox News, she tells Breitbart News that she’s been able to “free up opportunities” to “share more broadly” her message. Said Palin: “I was raised to never retreat and to pick battles wisely, and all in due season. When it comes to defending our republic, we haven’t begun to fight! But we delight in those who underestimate us.”

Think Progress briefly reviews the history of Sarah’s “message” which seems to coincide with the Palin family’s aspirations of wealth and fame:

The Palin family as a whole seems to hope for careers in show business, but this is only the latest in a string of failures for them. The TLC show Sarah Palin’s Alaska saw declining ratings and wasn’t renewed for a second season. Bristol Palin’s Lifetime show was yanked from the network for lower viewership, but not before landing $354,348 in tax subsidies from the state of Alaska. Todd Palin was reduced to appearing as one of many celebrities on NBC’s military reality show Stars Earned Stripes.

Maybe now that Fox News has cut ties with Palin, the rest of the television industry will follow suit. Sarah Palin long ago proved she had no real aptitude for governance when she quit her job as governor as Alaska. Her time on Fox proved she didn’t have much spark as a source of news or opinion. And the rest of her family’s efforts suggest that as entertainment, the Palins have nothing to offer us but diminishing returns.

If this isn’t one of longest, most painful ’15 minutes’ that has ever been foisted on the American people, I don’t know what is. Remember to thank John McCain. There is one thing we can know with certainty: morons everywhere will be devastated.

A tutorial for today’s young women: Hillary Clinton’s Benghazi testimony

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image pandem0nia

Connie Schultz: Secretary of State Clinton showed up to answer tough and sometimes ridiculous questions regarding the deadly September 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. In the process, she offered a tutorial for today’s young women.

Key points:

1) When a man asks you a question and then refuses to look at you as you answer, just keep going. Don’t let his rudeness silence you.

2) When he interrupts you, return the favor.

3) When he says things you know are not true, correct him. Repeatedly.

4) When he attempts to bully you, mow him down with facts.

5) And whenever possible, smile. Nothing rattles an angry man like a woman who looks happy to annoy him.

More…

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How to deal with a mansplainer starring Hillary Clinton in gifs

Step 5: When Senator John McCain calls you combative and proceeds to rant endlessly, nod with a sly smile.

Step 6: Take the time McCain spends ranting to reorganize the pages in your binder.

Step 7: Rearrange all of the random crap on your desk.  You can never be too organized when getting grilled by angry white dudes.

Step 8: When the rant continues on and on look at the mansplainer with a *blank stare* and put your hand on your chin like, “Are you still talking?”

More…

A ‘Republicans Are Always SO Classy!’ Update

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If you think you can’t afford to tip your server, then maybe you should eat at home:

Left in lieu of a tip. Gotta love those Republicans, huh? Share on FB.
Source: early-onset-of-night

Here’s the always classy John McCain, and his argument against Defense Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel (via Steve Benen):

“Chuck Hagel served our nation with honor in Vietnam and I congratulate him on this nomination. I have serious concerns about positions Senator Hagel has taken on a range of critical national security issues in recent years, which we will fully consider in the course of his confirmation process before the Senate Armed Services Committee.” – John McCain (R-Ariz.)

Let’s put aside, at least for now, McCain’s skills when it comes to evaluating officials for high public office (ahem), and instead consider why Hagel’s “positions on a range of critical national security issues” were fine in 2008, when McCain wanted Hagel in his own cabinet, but raise “serious concerns” now. How does McCain explain this? As best as I can tell, he doesn’t.

And look at this conservative example of ladylike manners and social elegance out of  Connecticut (via Capitol Watch):

State Rep. DebraLee Hovey, who represents Newtown and Monroe, posted this on her public FB page. From Florida. (Note: Hovey removed the post from her public Facebook page on Sunday afternoon). Gabby Giffords visited local officials and Sandy Hook families Friday in meetings that were closed to the press.

debralee hovey

She had more to say in this comment thread: “It was political. The Lt Gov was there, Blumenthall was there and ALL political types know it is courteous to let sitting Reps know when another political is in their District. So…… There was pure political motives.” She removed the item Sunday, according to the report.”

DebraLee Hovey 3

I wonder how her colleagues in the General Assembly feel about this sentiment.

Later, DebraLee (which is the feminine form of BillyBob) posted one of those familiar “conditional” Republican apologies (emphasis mine): 

“The remarks I made regarding Congresswoman Gifford’s visit were insensitive and if I offended anyone I truly apologize. My comments were meant to be protective of the privacy of the families and our community as we work to move on, and were in no way intended as an insult to Congresswoman Giffords personally. Our community has struggled greatly through this tragedy, and we are all very sensitive to the potential for this event to be exploited for political purposes. This is what I wish to avoid.”

John Boehner declared last week that he won’t be holding any more one-on-one negotiations with President Obama (despite the fact that Republicans need him to sign off on changes to federal taxing and spending), he now feels free to share the details of their weeks of unsuccessful talks. Unsurprisingly, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal‘s Stephen Moore, Boehner says most of the fault lies with the president … and he confirmed that he told Harry Reid to “go fuck yourself“ (via Daily Intelligencer)

The Club For Growth is a Republican organization because they’re as classy as their members / donors (via LGF):

You may have heard the news that 67 Republicans voted against Hurricane Sandy relief funding… Republicans who decided not to punish the blue states, however, will now be punished themselves by receiving a negative rating on the Club for Growth purity test: Club for Growth Will Punish Members Voting for Sandy Flood Aid.

And of the 67 Republicans who voted against Sandy relief? More than half — 37 of them! — had previously supported disaster aid for their own home states.

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Classy driver who probably helped vote in the do-nothing congress of 2010.

Is low testosterone causing some of the problems in Washington?

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Get off my lawn! Why some older men are so grouchy

The look: A scowling face, a wagging finger, and a shaking head. The targets: The economy. Teenagers. Windmills. Some informally dub it “grumpy old man complex.” British author Carol Wyer labels it “irritable male syndrome,” a spike in the outward crankiness of guys of a certain age. As more baby boomers hit 60 — the age when male grumpiness seems to kick in — be ready for a growing chorus of grouchy flare-ups, like a Donald Trumprant set to explode.[...]

Testosterone levels generally fall as men age, according to the Mayo Clinic. Such hormone drops are known to dampen male moods, says Dr. Ridwan Shabsigh, head of the International Society of Men’s Health and a urologist in New York City. “Testosterone is a hormone that grows muscles, reduces fat in the body, affects energy, and improves sexual desire,” Shabsigh says. “However, it also has neural-psycho effects. And in some men we encounter in our practice, those affects can be mostly visible: low mood and irritability.”

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John McCain actually compared a planned raid to a surprise attack: bin Laden vs. Benghazi

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pimmyjalmer: Rachel Maddow facepalm.

Josh Marshall asks: is this the stupidest thing McCain ever said?

“Under what circumstances? Why was reference to Al Qaeda left out? There are so many things that have happened. The interesting things finally, we knew in hours of all the details when we got bin Laden, they making a movie out of it and we are ten weeks later and finally our ambassador to the United Nations, who appeared on every national Sunday show, is now saying that she gave false information concerning how this tragedy happened as far as the spontaneous demonstration triggered by a hateful video.”

As Josh points out: “…you tend to know more about a raid you spent a year planning and executed yourself than a raid on your compound which, as kinda tends to happen in these [situations], you didn’t know about in advance and happened in dark.”

Yes, it’s a great mystery that we had “all the details” about a long-planned raid — and it’s simply dereliction of duty that we can’t foretell the future.

After his comment, perhaps it’s worth noting that John McCain graduated sixth from last place (894th out of 899th) in his class at the U.S. Naval Academy. Ironically, he called Susan Rice “not very bright“ (Rice graduated from Stanford University with honors, was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and earned a master’s degree and Ph.D. at Oxford University). Of course, he’s a rich conservative white man, so… that makes him qualified to judge those who aren’t.

It’s somehow fitting that John McCain’s legacy will be Sarah Palin, who has proven herself to be one of the dullest knives rattling around in our nation’s junk drawer.

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“The conspiracy therefore was not to mislead the American public but to mislead America’s enemies. If Rice had gone beyond her unclassified talking points and said that Ansar al-Sharia was suspected to be behind the Benghazi attacks, no doubt she would now be being hounded for the unauthorized disclosure of classified information,” — Peter Bergen, CNN (AS)

What’s John McCain bitter about today? Same thing as yesterday…

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Charlie Pierce explains McCain’s whole Benghazi / Susan Rice dilemma:

“This whole long con has passed now into the realm of pure McCarthyism: “We are significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got and some that we didn’t get,” said McCain, an Arizona Republican. “It is clear the information that [Rice] gave the American people was incorrect when she said it was a spontaneous demonstration triggered by a hateful video. It was not, and there was compelling evidence at the time that that was certainly not the case.”

No details. Nothing specific. Just John McCain, being troubled, as he has been since the country declined to make him its president. What happened with Rice and the talking-points, and why it happened, has been explained at length by everyone closely involved in the episode, including David Petraeus… McCain and Graham — and the hapless Ayotte, who is clearly, and pathetically, looking past Rice all the way to the 2016 Iowa caucuses — have nothing. They want to beat up on Rice simply because they can’t beat up on the president, although McCain made a run at that over the weekend. And they came out of the meeting and ran their mouths about what went on because they knew Rice wasn’t going to go into details of that meeting in public. They are a pair of cowards, with a feckless rookie in train, and they are playing dangerous games with the country’s security. They hereafter should be ignored and, if Graham goes through with his threat of putting a hold on Rice’s nomination, Harry Reid should move his desk out onto Constitution Avenue, and no Democrat should cooperate with this clown ever again.”

Benghazi: Petraeus testifies, John McCain (finally) shuts up

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On Friday the Republican politicians who had so angrily demanded the testimony of David Petraeus about Benghazi got what they wanted – and what they deserved – when the former CIA director set forth the facts proving that their conspiracy theories and witch-hunts are dead wrong.

Appearing behind closed doors on Capitol Hill, Gen. Petraeus, recently resigned from the spy agency over his illicit affair with biographer Paula Broadwell, answered questions from legislators concerning the tragic Sept. 11 assault that left Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other diplomatic personnel dead.

When the session concluded, Petraeus was spirited away. And Senator John McCain (R-AZ), whose criticism of the Obama administration over Benghazi has verged on hysterical, emerged from the hearing room with very little to say to the reporters waiting outside.

“General Petraeus’ briefing was comprehensive. I think it was important; it added to our ability to make judgments about what was clearly a failure of intelligence, and described his actions and that of his agency and their interactions with other agencies,” said McCain, adding, “I appreciate his service and his candor” before abruptly fleeing as reporters tried to question him.

— Joe Conason: Petraeus Testifies, McCain Shuts Up

McCain and Fox and the rest of the Benghazi Political Clown Show posse owe UN Ambassador Susan Rice a public apology. However that’s one press conference, maybe the only press conference, that John McCain will definitely not attend.

Senator Harry Reid calls John McCain on his Benghazi bullshit

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“One of you, Senator McCain, has gone so far as to make the outrageous claim that this event was “worse than Watergate”—despite the fact that there is no evidence that any crime was committed, no evidence of any cover-up, and no evidence that the administration has characterized the incident in any way that has not been consistent with the Intelligence Community’s contemporaneous assessments.”

— Harry Reid, rejecting McCain’s request to form a Senate committee to investigate the attack on Benghazi last September. McCain had made the request in part because, per internal Senate rules, he’s term-limited out of his seat as ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and the formation of a new committee would allow him another perch from which to delve into the Benghazi matter. Reid derided McCain’s request as an attempt to use the Senate as “a venue for baseless partisan attacks,” and excoriated the senator for skipping a classified briefing on the incident in order to hold a press conference. source (via shortformblog)

Related: 

John McCain asked why he skipped Benghazi briefing: “Who the hell are you…?”

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Huffington Post: 4:25 p.m. — CNN published a more detailed account of its exchange with McCain, in which, when asked why he wouldn’t comment on missing the briefing, the senator responded, “Who the hell are you to tell me I can or not?”

When CNN approached McCain in a Capitol hallway Thursday morning, the senator refused to comment about why he missed the briefing, which was conducted by top diplomatic, military and counter-terrorism officials. Instead, McCain got testy when pressed to say why he wasn’t there.

“I have no comment about my schedule and I’m not going to comment on how I spend my time to the media,” McCain said.

Asked why he wouldn’t comment, McCain grew agitated: “Because I have the right as a senator to have no comment and who the hell are you to tell me I can or not?”

When CNN noted that McCain had missed a key meeting on a subject the senator has been intensely upset about, McCain said, “I’m upset that you keep badgering me.”

The “Maverick” doesn’t like being called on his reindeer games.

John McCain skipped a classified briefing on Benghazi to hold a press conference

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Who has time for actual facts and intelligence on anything when there are political games to be played? Not bitter, bitter John McCain, who’s still reeling from 2008.


image: ThinkProgress

Think Progress: On Thursday morning, CNN’s Dana Bash reported that McCain may have chosen to hold a joint press conference with Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) rather than attend a closed-door briefing about the attacks: I have to tell you something that just happened on Capitol Hill, and that is our senate producer Ted Barrett just ran into John McCain and asked about something that we’re hearing from Democrats, which is John McCain is calling for more information to Congress, but he had a press conference yesterday instead of going to a closed briefing where administration officials were giving more information. Well, Ted Barrett asked John McCain about that, and it was apparently an intense very angry exchange and McCain simply would not comment on it at all. 

McCain’s fake concern over Benghazi

Dave Weigel: Josh Rogin reports that John McCain and Rand Paul, both of them very public critics of the administration over Benghazi, skipped yesterday’s private hearing on the debacle. And McCain spent basically the entirety of Wednesday criticizing the administration — TV in the morning, a press conference in the late morning, a Senate colloquy after President Obama attacked him.

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image: Andrew Sullivan (Senators Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and John McCain (R-AZ) speak during a news conference on the consulate attack in Benghazi, Libya. The Senators called for a ‘select’ committee, like during the Watergate era, to investigate the terrorist attack. By Chris Maddaloni/CQ Roll Call.)

Yesterday John McCain had plenty of time for demagoguery during a press conference on Bengazi – but had no time for a classified briefing about the attack

When GOP Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham stepped before the cameras Wednesday and renewed their calls for a Watergate-like committee to probe the Sept. 11 terrorist attack in Libya, their longtime partner — Sen. Joe Lieberman – was noticeably missing. Lieberman later emerged from a classified, closed-door briefing with a much different message: A special congressional committee is unnecessary — at least for now. Lieberman says his Homeland Security Committee could handle a broad investigation into the deadly Benghazi assault just fine.

…Maine Sen. Susan Collins, the top Republican on the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, backed up her chairman, Lieberman, and dinged McCain, a member of the panel, for missing Wednesday’s nearly two-hour briefing in the Capitol.

Related: 

John McCain’s lawn: it’s dried up, bitter, and he wants you off it

John McCain’s lawn: it’s dried up, bitter, and he wants you off it

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Steve Benen reminds us that John McCain is the ultimate hypocrite:

As a top official in the Bush/Cheney administration, Condoleezza Rice said wildly untrue things about Iraq to the American people. Soon after, she received bipartisan support to become Secretary of State.

As a top official in the Obama/Biden administration, Susan Rice said entirely credible things about Benghazi based on the collective judgment of the intelligence community. Soon after, Republican Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham launched a smear campaign against Rice to prevent her from becoming Secretary of State.

Zeke Miller highlights the disconnect …from McCain in 2005:

“So I wonder why we are starting this new Congress with a protracted debate about a foregone conclusion,” he said [in 2005], adding that Rice is qualified for the job. “I can only conclude that we are doing this for no other reason than because of lingering bitterness over the outcome of the election.”

When Condoleezza Rice lied about WMD, McCain said she had unquestionable “integrity.” When Susan Rice told the truth about Benghazi, McCain said she’s guilty of “not being very bright.” The former received McCain’s support; the latter received McCain’s contempt.

John McCain’s legacy: bitterness, hypocrisy, and Sarah Palin.


via: 6dogs9cats


via: christopherstreet