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Subscribe to RSSNBC's Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro discuss the ongoing fiscal cliff negotiations and how Grover Norquist's no-tax-increase pledge plays into the discussion. Plus, what happened when Susan Rice made a visit to The Hill.
Edited by NBC's Jordan Frasier.
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Yesterday afternoon, I mentioned that I thought this Susan Rice witch hunt was nothing more than a manufactured controversy to nominate John Kerry in her place.
Last night, Lawrence O'Donnell did a segment floating the theory out there.
This morning, Sen. Jon Borasso (sp?) confirmed on MSNC the GNOP wants Kerry to clinch the nomination.
Why do you suppose that would be?
Should be a fascinating couple of days ahead watching this play out...
Ummmm.....Does the name Scott enter the fray?
Yup, Feisty, I did see Lawrence O last evening....the TeaPeople plot is so naked.....
Uh Oh!
Now Susan Collins has jumped on the John Kerry bandwagon! lol
They are licking their chops at giving Scott Brown another shot at the MA Senate seat!
Do these nut-jobs really think the President and his team don't recognize what they are up to?
I mean seriously... lol
You would know Jen.
Feisty,
McCain and Graham are hiding behind Ayotte's skirts.
But their weak excuses are wearing thin.
Let's see the list of their "troubling questions" without delay.
Let's see, they developed the talking point without thinking it all the way through.
And as for Ayotte, she's questioning herself: Why did I agree to this stance with McCain and Graham?..."I'm so troubled"
chilled - my guess is Ayotte is beyond embarrassed at this point but knows backing out of the Three Stooges will make her seem weak. She hasn't realized staying in makes her look ridiculous!
McCain has lost all credibility and, after seeing Graham on Sunday looking like his head would explode, both men are pretty much doomed to the cellar of the Republican party!
You got it Seeking!
Ayotte looks absolutely petrified when she spouts those 'talking points' which she probably doesn't believe.
McCain needs to check into a mental health unit, especially after his horrific comment about Colin Powell. Bitterness of the highest order!....Graham, trying to seal his right-wing creds!
Chilled & Seeking,
You're right--Ayotte is questioning herself. Typically she doesn't have tremors in her voice, but she's got 'em now! She made a huge mistake and doesn't know how to get herself out of it.
Personally, I'm glad. When she was Attorney General in NH she personally argued a case before the State Supreme Court, challenging a Federal District Court's ruling that NH's law requiring parental notification of minors seeking an abortion was unconstitutional. When she lost, the Federal District Court forced the State to pay for Planned Parenthood's attorney's fees because Planned Parenthood's position had been unheld at every level of judicial review--essentially, the Federal District Court held that her challenge was frivolous. Her office had to pay Planned Parenthood $300,000.
In addition, there were some pretty shady doings when she was Attorney General in NH. She was accused of violating American Bar Association standards in a murder case, putting her own personal views ahead of the law. And she was criticized for refusing to investigate fraud charges against a mortgage investment firm--reputedly because she was friends with the president of the firm. Also, when she left the AG office she deleted all her emails and her appointment calendar.
This woman does not belong in the U.S. Senate! I hope she sinks like a rock to the bottom of a scummy pond where she belongs.
I was wondering about those voice tremors, Jack.......Guess she has really stepped in it, hanging around with those two, and they won't be able to save her.
Jack, how did Ayotte get elected with that record as AG, silly question really, Florida elected Rick Scott despite Medicare Fraud that his Co. Columbia Hospital Group perpetuated and fined giant bucks, as CEO he skated, go figure.
skyparrot,
Yeah, you have to wonder. The Right Wingers don't like it when we point out that they're always voting against their self-interest, and yet what better example of it than Rick Scott? They promote him to a position of importance rather than put him in jail. Go figure, indeed!
Anybody else notice that these 3 pin heads just repeated the same talking point from the same script?
They couldn't put enough brain power together to come up with a original response. Pathetic.
yes, they want his seat in the senate, it only makes sense, and brown wants to be senator again. maddow floated the same therory.
An open senate seat, Feisty, however it could come back to bite them on the azz. Mass. votes democrat most of the time and there is no guarantee that Scott Brown can be reelected. Kerry would probably be as good as Rice as S. of S. However Obama should not allow them to dictate his appointments. He needs to stand up to them this entire four years and only concede anything when it is a good move for the people of this country. Not the very rich and the large corporations that the republicans promote.
Agreed John!
Double agree! ☺
But it seems to not stop the RepubliCONs...they have a plan :<(.....
It was even mentioned that Rep Ed Markey (D), very popular, might run for the Senate seat, if it opens up.
We shouldn't be surprised by McCain's actions. We shouldn't be suprised any longer by any Republican these days. They have long since stopped behaving as they ought to.
All because Barack Obama beat them.
Dignity is gone. Honesty is gone. Team work is gone. And America's faith in them is gone. Every single one of them. They don't even have the guts to go after Petraeus.
Charles Pierce:
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, whose word once was gospel, before the episode of The General, His Wife, The Other Woman, The Other General, The Other Other Woman and The Lovesick Shirtless FBI guy erupted.
What more can Rice do? She has explained herself. Petraeus has explained what happened and why. The entire apparatus of government seems satisfied with their explanation of the tragedy in Benghazi and has moved on. Rice can't help it if Fox News is a monomaniacal propaganda mill, or that McCain is little more than a steaming lump of frustrated ambition at this point. The Foreign Relations committee will have at her, if the president follows through and nominates her, which he almost has to do now. The "American people," on whose behalf McCain and Graham (and Ayotte, the permanent parenthetical in this lash-up) allegedly are acting, have accepted the explanation, where they are paying attention at all. This must baffle McCain, who believes that there is no country outside of a green room any more.
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.
Read more: Susan Rice John McCain Meeting - What More Does John McCain Want From Susan Rice? - Esquire http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/susan-rice-john-mccain-meeting-112712#ixzz2DXM3Zgy1
We are significantly troubled, after listening to and watching McCain and Graham, that they have lost what small minds they had left. It is becoming increasingly evident that they no longer possess the mental faculties to do function as human beings - much less do their jobs as Senators. We are sad to report that they have passed from irrelevant into simply ridiculous and embarrassing. Therefore we will be sending them to their respective homes so they only embarrass their families and not the entire country - as they have been doing for the past few months!"
SeekingSanity: Perfectly stated.
She lied. What part of that don't you understand? She new it was not true because she gets the security briefings. Obama knew it was not true as well. The whole government lied to protect Obama, and the liberal networks covered the story up.
How do you KNOW what she knew? Have you ever written or read a security briefing for a UN Ambassador in the last 12 years? Didn't think so. STFU.
Thanks Feisty, you beat me to it! LOL!!!
Kerry is stepping down to go to the DoD to be SecDef. The Dems aren't worried about Scott Brown. Ed Markey can take him.
The left always looking for a conspiracy. The Republicans, if true, would be supporting Senator Kerry for Secretary of State because of his experience in foreign policy and they know him. Further the Republicans do not want Senator Kerry nominated for Secretary of Defense, as some in the President's circle has mentioned. The appointment of Senator Kerry as SOD would create another major storm in Washington, especially within the military.
The Senate seat will not make a difference to either party's power in the Senate.
sfcret - the Mass senate seat is HUGE and both parties know it. The President is not foolish and will stick with the nomination of Rice for SoS.
SeekingSanity - The Mass senate seat is not that huge in that it will not change the balance of power in the Senate, and I doubt Scott Brown could win anyway. Besides if the President nominates Senator Kerry for SOD there will still be a new election for his replacement, IF Senator Kerry somehow got the SOD job, which I doubt he will.
Seriously sfcret? You honestly think after all you've heard the last couple of weeks it's a left conspiracy? Your republican party has stated over and over they want Senator Kerry's seat, and we know from experience they'll do anything to get it. What's really going to be funny, is when you righties get what you want (a vacant senate seat) and you lose it too. You guys are getting more delusional every day.
Mo - clearly sfcret has no idea about what the Mass seat would represent to the Republicans.
Hi Sarge,
Wouldn’t that [balance of power] depend on what the Senate rules will be?
So until after the first day of the new session in Jan we really can’t be sure if it makes a difference.
Hi Dennis We both know that Senator Harry Reid is not going to change the Senate rules (it would be political suicide) . IMO, he is doing exactly what the Republicans did when they had control of the Senate and talked about the "nuclear option" a lot of talk, no action. The Democrats now have 55 seats and the lose of one would not effect the balance of power. Besides, I don't believe Brown could win back the Senate seat.
Now if Obama nominates Rice for Secretary of State and she should get approved by the Senate, I am sure Senator Kerry could not be confirmed as Secretary of Defense.
Wrong.
The GOP/RNC do not want to talk about their "Caucus Conspiracy" of 2009. Why?? The GOP/Tea Beggers want to bury their very important "Midnight Meeting" at the Caucus Steakhouse Restaurant in Washington D.C. Why?? Why has not one GOP/Tea Begger 'conspirator' mentioned their 'conspiracy.' What was part of their "Blood Oath?" Well it was an oath that was very 'teasonous,' and the Tea Begggers will never talk about it. EVER! It is not shocking at all to now hear the GOP/RNC 'attack' Susan Rice over nothing. Again! On Janruary 20. 2009 the Tea Beggers now still in Congress met, and planned for "Poltical Days" like this. Read Draper's Book America.
Who got to Susan Collins? She appears to have fallen in line with the Gang of Three? Questioning Susan Rice on the 1998 Embassy attack in Kenya--I at one time had great respect for Ms. Collins until her support for the Blunt-Rubio Amendment, it turns out she is a creature of the Republicans.
How is possible that Ambassador Rice "should have known" any classified intelligence it she isn't told? This is a personal smear by McCain etal. despicable.
I'm sorry, it is completely petty of me, but I cannot list to Ayotte speak for more than 3.7 seconds. I have never heard the woman speak publicly without sounding like she is on the verge of breaking out in tears.
I don't know what it is...I can't listen to her.
Kelly Ayotte is rapidly damaging her brand beyond political repair. The optics of her standing with McCain and Graham is a disaster for her. Instead of providing female 'cover' for their anti-Rice stance, she gets associated with these doddering foreign policy extremists who never met a war they didn't like.
It's a marvel to me that she got elected. Hopefully she'll serve six years and be done.
I just got it! Kelly misses her boy Scott--that's why she's standing with Crackers and Goober.
Ayotte -- McCain -- Graham -- I Wonder What Their Future Plans Are When They Will Have To Return To The Real World? Your Exit Clocks Is Ticking!
If God Was Obama's Choice For SOS They Would Find Fault Here As Well Simply Because It Was Obama's Choice!
I'm Still Waiting For The Republican Answers On Lebanon In 1983 And Bush's Invisible WMDs That Resulted In The Iraq War! Which Counted For 5,000 Lost Americans! Sorry -- They Must Not Count Because Republicans Are Not Accountable -- Right?
"I'm Still Waiting For The Republican Answers On Lebanon In 1983"
I know something about that incident at the Beirut Airport and the investigation conducted by the Pentagon revealed there was blame to go around all the way to the Secretary of Defense Cap Weinberger The CO was given a letter of reprimand and retired from the USMC and his XO committed suicide after the USMC Barracks were blown up by an Terrorist who drove a yellow truck past our sentries whose weapons were NOT loaded...
I don't know what the Republicans had to do with this tremendous loss of lives in 1983 but you seem to play politices on everything. Politics had nothing to do with that tragedy IMHO and I think can speak for the rest of the Marines who lived through that time in our history
How is it that you aren't interested enough to know the TRUTH about Beirut?
These republicans have gone off the flat edge of the earth. Since when does a senator tell the president who he can nominate to his cabinet? They believe that the earth is flat, and I think they have taken the trek to that cliff.
Rice will be our next Secretary of State and those who oppose her nomination are racists according to the Black Congressional Caucus. I disagree and think race has nothing to do with the opposition to Rice's nomination but more to do with her performance as UN Ambassador and her misleading comments about the Bendghazi terrorists attacks on our Libyan Consulate.
Benghazi is still an unsolved murder investigation. How would you expect the UN Ambassador to tell you anything more than the preliminary "understanding" of how the crime went down, while she is not under oath, and the perpetrators of the mass murder are still on the loose? If the CIA tells her to say something different from what only they know to be true, your complaint is, or should be, with Petraeus and the CIA, not with Rice for being a good "soldier". If you want to complain about not getting the TRUTH, start with 9/11/2001, not 2012.