General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"GOP antics are making Democrats getting angrier by the day."
Posted with permission.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/11/28/15517301-smear-campaign-against-rice-broadens-intensifies
Smear campaign against Rice broadens, intensifies
By Steve Benen
-
Wed Nov 28, 2012 3:04 PM EST
The only meaningful complaint raised by Republicans against Susan Rice is that she shared the collective judgment on the Benghazi attack on Sunday shows. It gives new meaning to the phrase "blame the messenger" -- Rice didn't write the CIA talking points, she simply told the public what they said, just as she was asked to do.
And yet, the Republican campaign against her appears to be intensifying. The latest criticism comes by way of Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who, next year, will ostensibly be the Senate's only GOP moderate.
Rice paid Collins a courtesy visit this morning, and the Maine Republican later told reporters that Rice served as assistant secretary of state for African affairs when al Qaeda attacked American embassies in Kenya and Somalia: "What troubles me so much is the Benghazi attack in many ways echoes the attacks on those embassies in 1998, when Susan Rice was head of the African region for our State Department."
This is pretty twisted -- to suggest the assistant secretary of state for African affairs is responsible for security decisions at every U.S. diplomatic outpost in an enormous continent is absurd, even by the standards of congressional Republicans -- but as the smear campaign against Rice unfolds, it's also quickly becoming the norm.
Collins added that Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) "would be an excellent appointment and would be easily confirmed by his colleagues," thus boosting the Republican Party's partisan goals of shrinking the Democratic caucus.
In the meantime, GOP antics are making Democrats getting angrier by the day.
"People are happy to fight for her," the aide said, adding, "This is getting people's back up. The general sense of the mood is this is ridiculous. She's obviously qualified." The aide also questioned whether Republicans besides McCain, Graham, and Ayotte would think this is a "smart fight to pick" given Rice's qualifications and that this would mean a "high-profile fight with a qualified African-American woman." As to the threat of holds from Ayotte and Graham, the aide said that if Rice is nominated and presents well at her confirmation hearing, there's a "good chance cooler heads prevail" and there would be more than enough votes to confirm her.
still_one
(92,270 posts)A racist pig just like your cronies
Now get lost
msongs
(67,421 posts)blm
(113,071 posts)They prefer Rice's more hawkish and interventionist mindset. She'll continue Hillary's brand of hawkishness that they are far more comfortable with than Kerry's 'exhaust all methods of diplomacy first' mindset.
babylonsister
(171,075 posts)Kerry is picked for the cabinet? I don't know which theory I'm buying; hadn't actually thought of yours, but that also makes sense, though I don't think Hillary has been that hawkish; she's been doing the President's bidding, and I don't think he's hawkish at all.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,416 posts)At any rate, the SOS carries out the policies of the Administration, he/she doesn't just make it. Anyway, since when did being a "hawk" disqualify somebody for the job?
Blue Idaho
(5,049 posts)They will use every dirty trick in the book to try to jack a republican into the Senate. I think they are betting on filling Kerry's seat with that sexist, racist, truck driving poster boy for bad manners.
blm
(113,071 posts)You really think McCain and Company are sincere in praising Kerry for SoS? They hate his noninterventionism, and excoriated him for it many times over the last 2 decades.
This reminds me of how Clintonites planted antiKerry stories in the press after Obama won in 2008, that portrayed Kerry as desperate to be SoS. Still haven't forgiven Rahm for that BS. In my view, Syria wouldn't be such a clusterfuck right now if Kerry had been SoS instead of Clinton.
joeybee12
(56,177 posts)an "unnamed aide." Yeah, that gives me hope.