Grumpy Old Men

This is just sooooooo stupid on so many levels.

Ninety- seven Republican Congressmen have written a letter to the President urging him NOT to nominate UN Ambassador Susan Rice for the position of Secretary of State on the grounds that she is “unfit” to serve in the cabinet.  They are led in this effort by Senator John McCain, who is turning more and more into a bitter old curmudgeon with each passing day.

The Republican’s problem with Ambassador Rice stems from her appearance on the Sunday morning news shows five days after the raid on the Benghazi consulate.  Ms. Rice stated at the time that according to the most current intelligence reports, the raid appeared to be a spontaneous event spurred on by global protests of a YouTube video depicting the Prophet Mohammed in a less than flattering light.  She stressed that the investigation was ongoing. 

We found out later that the intelligence community and the White House believed from the very beginning that the raid was an act of terrorism.  At some point a decision was made to remove that fact from the talking points that the Ambassador referenced in her interviews.  Whether the rationale was political or a matter of national security is still unclear at this time. What is clear is that she did not deviate from the talking points provided to her in preparation for those interviews.

Regardless of the motivation, Republicans are calling upon the president to refrain from nominating Ambassador Rice to any cabinet post  based solely on the details she provided during those interviews. Republicans believe that the Ambassador was part of a cover up designed to deflect criticism about the source of the attacks, the lack of protection at the consulate and the unpreparedness of the intelligence community.  They believe that her participation in this cover up makes her “unfit” to hold a cabinet position.

This is not about policy; it’s about politics…and bad politics at that.

And this is personal.

John McCain is a grumpy old man who is still bitter over his beat down by the President four years ago.  He is also a Senator who is struggling to remain relevant on the political stage.  Over the past four years Senator McCain has taken it upon himself to savage the president’s foreign policy at every turn. He has been proven wrong each and every time.  This attack is just more of the same.

Senator McCain has also borne a grudge against the Ambassador.  Sources say that he took then citizen Rice’s attacks during the 2008 presidential campaign personally.  Is it mere coincidence that McCain has chosen Rice to be the easy target of his venom? 

We think not…and here is why.

The questions that McCain is raising are valid.  Given the violent circumstances in Libya; why didn’t the intelligence community know about the attack in advance and why was the Benghazi consulate left unprotected?  But his angst should be focused on the intelligence community and the State Department. They are the ones responsible for ferreting out our enemies and securing our consulates… not the ambassador to the UN. 

If McCain is determined to place blame, the Director of the CIA, David Petraeus would be a viable target.  Perhaps he could question the Director of National Security, James Clapper. Or he might consider calling into question the integrity of the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.  Now THAT would be interesting!

McCain did none of the above.  Instead he chose to publically condemn Rice who had nothing to do with Benghazi and whose only fault was in relaying the information as instructed by her betters.  Had she deviated from those talking points, McCain’s criticism would be valid.  Then she would be ‘unfit.”

As we said…this attack is personal.

It is also really, really bad politics.

The Republican Party was just thoroughly trashed in the election.  African-Americans, women and young people came out in overwhelming numbers to re-elect the president. 

Now that same electorate bears witness to McCain and 97 old white men pillaring a young, accomplished African-American woman for doing her job.  BRILLIIANT!!!

Take this one step further…

Let’s say the President chooses to nominate Ambassador Rice for Secretary of State.  The Democrat led Senate is charged with confirming such appointments.  The only way the Republicans can stop the appointment is by way of a filibuster.   Republicans have shown no reluctance here, having chosen to filibuster the president’s legislative efforts 112 times this year alone…a record 360 times since 2007.  Again, just imagine the optics.  The only thing worse would be if Republicans were to don white sheets.

We can only imagine that the President and the Democrats are grinning from ear to ear.

In closing we ask you to consider these random thoughts…

How does Senator McCain justify his criticism of Susan Rice…who had nothing to do with Benghazi, after he stood in defense of Condolezza Rice… who had everything to do with national security at the time of the 911 attacks and the subsequent war in Iraq?

If the attack on Susan Rice isn’t personal…than how else do you explain Republicans marginalizing her decades of distinguished public service over one factually incorrect statement?  If we were to declare “unfit” every House and Senate member that made a factually incorrect statement there wouldn’t be anybody left to govern.

And finally, how many of those 97 Republicans called on then Secretary of State, Colin Powell to step down after he provided US citizens, the Congress, the UN and the world with extensive false information about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?

Just asking…