Associated Press
Yesterday afternoon, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told the media he demands additional information about the September attack in Benghazi. At the exact same time, McCain was skipping a classified intelligence briefing on the September attack in Benghazi.
So, what happened? Apparently, the Republican's office scheduled his press stunt at the wrong time, so McCain forgot to be where he was supposed to be.
Senator John McCain is demanding answers on the Benghazi attack, but his office tells ABC News he missed a classified briefing on the subject because of a "scheduling error."
The classified briefing was held on Wednesday before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee -- of which Senator McCain is a member -- and lasted three hours. It featured testimony by officials from the State Department, the Pentagon, the CIA and the National Counterterrorism Center.
During part of the briefing, McCain was holding a press conference demanding answers about the administration's handling of the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya on Step. 11 that killed four Americans, including US Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens.
So, let me get this straight. Yesterday, McCain said Susan Rice is "not very bright." This morning, McCain said the Obama administration is "incompetent." But given a chance to get answers about Benghazi, this towering intellect and model of competence forgot to show up for a briefing, and blamed a scheduling mishap?
McCain added today that there are additional hearings lined up on Benghazi, and he definitely plans to be there. What a relief.
As for McCain's calls for a special new committee to investigate the violence, many McCain allies -- Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) -- already disagree with him, and the Arizona Republican doesn't have many allies in his crusade to smear Susan Rice, either.
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Let's see, glass house? Check!
Stones? Check.
Senile incompetent in position of power for far too long?
Why don't they put this old, lying, piece of crap out to pasture. His good bye date has expired.
"Senile incompetent in position of power for far too long?"
You left off "CHECKMATE!"
"Senile incompetent in position of power for far too long?" CHECK!
As ex-military, McCain should also know that loose talk and loose cannons get people killed. Without knowing the facts, without knowing what is and is not appropriate for discussion in public, he's taking cheap shots because his party is having a hissy-fit over losing an election.
If McCain were still military, I'd have had his worthless butt hauled before a summary courts-martial on the spot.
Check!
Forgot to remind him?! He's a senile old coot.
But...but...y'all just don't understand! He's mad! Actually he's MAD! The <<whisper>> b.l.a.c.k. man beat him!
Eddie #1.4
"McCain should understand about loose talk"...(para)
Well "Eddie"...old "Songbird" didn't learn the lesson at the Hanoi Hilton - why would he now?
Wow - I'll miss Mitt's bits, but John carries on!
Mitt and John are really party of the Koch Brothers idivide and conquer strategy. They are part of Karl Rove's wedge campaign strategy that identifies enough "anti-" groups who then vote their issue, and, together, add up to a majority. The strategy worked to perfection in 2010. The wedge we are seeing today targets and energizes those who have come to hate this "incompetent black leader who defends a black UN ambassador and besmerches a white war hero". In fact, he is so incompetent, he has to be impeached. It's not just those robo-calls that are talking up impeachment. I heard it on Hannity and Fox News talking about it. This is no laughing matter. This is serious, folks. Impeachment now, they say, and, if that fails, will some start advocating a"second amendment" solution? I remember similar fervor stoked when Bill Clinton was President. Rush Limbaugh had a slogan on his tv show: "America held hostage" referring to the Clinton administration. Militia groups were everywhere. Then the Oklahoma City bombing happened. And Limbaugh pulled back a bit only to charge back over the years to the mouth the excesses of this summer that caused sponsors to pull out.
Hannity and Fox and the Kochs defend all this escalating and dangerous talk in the name of Antonin Scalia's decision in the Supreme Court on freedom of speech, but it is not freedom of speech, it is dangerous speech.
Benghazi has been on the lips of Hannity since the beginning of this tragedy. In part, the attack on Susan Rice was made and continues, to have people forget the incompetent statement by Romney the night Ambassador Stevens died and, the next morning when Romney doubled down on his statement.
By the way, how much money did the Kochs contribute to McCain's last Senate re-election campaign?
Don't think Mitt Romney was ever outside the planning of the strategy of his campaign. He has been part of orchestrating the the wedge campaign strategy for years. He just joined ranks with the the Kochs in their efforts to gain control of the government. Even Romney's "gift" comment makes sense if what he and others in the .1% are working for is to keep their "gifts": low tax rates, government subsidies, weak enforcement of environmental laws during the W. Bush Adminstration, rewards for outsourcing jobs, etc. Those "gifts", they reason, are theirs to keep and they deserve more..
I'll bet the Kochs are really upset that BP had a 4.5 billion dollar penalty and criminal charges against it. The Kochs have had enough legal charges filed and proved against them that they could be called the Koch Criminals. They may be the next BP.
I am overjoyed that the kind of campaign President Obama waged succeeded, that he won re-election by a strong margin, but I shudder to think what would have happened to our country if some of Karl Rove's partners in his wedge campaign, particularly the right to life people and the voter suppression people, had not pushed their issue to the extreme. Personally, I am thankful they went so extreme, because they motivated millions of Americans to register and vote in 2012 who had not voted in 2010; the election when the Kochs gained power in state after state.
Mitt Romney is no joke. Karl Rove is no joke. John McCain is no joke. Hannity is no joke. Limbaugh is no joke. The Kochs definitely are no joke. We must take them seriously. Consider this: how many votes in the swing stated would it have taken to elect Romney as our next President.
We must be vigilant. We can devise ways to take away the power of the Kochs and their partners. We must not let 2014 be a repeat of 2010!
The scheduling error was caused by his aide scott-3860658 who was too busy posting dumb comments on blogs.
Is that Scott of a bazillion numbers you speak of? -Kevo
Time to go home to Arizona, old man. Go before you embarrass yourself again with your incompetence.
"Go before you embarrass yourself again with your incompetence"........ or soon, your incontinence!!!!
And maybe "incontinence"...
It's Personal , periphally due to do with "Scheduling Error". When you are on an Agenda, you make decisions...
Didn't go to the briefing because he knew that, President Obama would just say "its under investigation. " Ha Ha. Youtube knows more that he does about this stuff.
chemdmd,
The topic you have decided to post your 2 cents in is in regards to senile McCain not attending the Benghazi briefing, not the POTUS new conference. You must be a Repug, you can't even decipher the conversation you have decided to stick your nose in. #stupidisasstupiddoes
As I was reminded yesterday, McCain is a Stumblebum.
In McCains 'war hero' era he crashed 5 aircraft and murdered 170+ Americans on the Forrestal. Never would have happened without Admirals Pappy and Gran Pappy though (Screw Up 4 Stars aren't anything new).
The Cong finally did the U.S. a favor by shooting McCain down and keeping him locked up for the rest of McCains "war". No telling how many more Americans McCain would have killed if he wasn't a POW.
I'm not surprised that level of screw up found his way into politics, or is a GOPper.
So McCain missing briefings resulting in not knowing whats going on? Yeah, and? Hasn't it yet occurred to people that ignorance is the Right Wings strong point?
Put it this way, Many of us flushed something down the toilet this morning that had more value than McCain.
Actually, there's no telling how much intel he squealed that got Americans killed. He's NO war hero, he's just another over-indulged old white man with a chip on his shoulder at the loss of his own youth.
@Rob:
As I stated yesterday - the fire on the Forrester was caused by a misfired Zuni rocket, not anything McCain did. He may be a wrong-headed human being, but we get no where by attributing accidents to him.
As I stated yesterday - the fire on the Forrester was caused by a misfired Zuni rocket
I will not let the fact checkers dictate my postings about John McCain.
;)
Rob Berman, I have heard that he was a "Hot Dog" type of pilot, and not a very good one, and some say that is why he got shot down. I cannot back this up with my source, though. I tend to believe it has validity, however. McCain has always had a very big ego, and a need for attention.
I never cared for the man, and dislike him a great deal now.
For facts on McCain's flying history please see http://www.factcheck.org/2008/09/mccains-plane-crashes/
He didn't cause the Forrester fire, he wasn't particularly reckless, there's no evidence he betrayed his country to the the North Vietnamese and he was shot down over Hanoi not by the Vietcong, who operated in what was then South Vietnam, but by a surface to air missile fired by North Vietnamese troops. He did not crash his plane he was shot down, but finished his bombing run before ejecting. The Forrester fire killed 134 sailors.
Just a high level of misinformation in one post is usually confined to Republican posters to this forum. I believe you've set a record for a Democrat, Berman. Let's try to maintain our standards as Democrats who tell the truth and check our facts. Just because we might not like someone's politics doesn't mean that we need to spread false information about him/her.
he still has no business in the Senate, most of his republican comrades aren't defending him. I'm so mother@!$%#ing glad he lost to Obama in 2008, we' still be knee deep in dead American soldiers in Iraq, as well as other places, our own defense would be so thinly spred, we wouldn't be able to stop a mouse from crossing the borders.
He was a bad pilot, a regular sex maniac, royally screwed up in Spain, was responsible for being shot down in 'Nam because he disobeyed orders. Rolling Stone and the Los Angeles Times demolished him thoroughly back in 2008. I think only Bob Dorn has destroyed more air craft by flying.
I think his fellow Veterans graded him a D grade.
I don't agree with his politics or most of his policies but there is no need to be rude and disrespectful and to make light of his years in captivity? the man was tortured
RI
A lot of people were tortured at the Hanoi Hilton. Why would McCain be a special case?
"...given a chance to get answers about Benghazi, this towering intellect and model of competence forgot to show up..."
ROTFLMAO!!! You owe me a hot tea for that one!
Let's see, this is coming from the guy that pushed Sarah Palin onto US - and he says Susan Rice isn't "competent"? Huh?
Pot meet kettle....
This. Well done, Zora. The Sarah Palin argument never, ever gets old.
Pot meet kettle....
False equivalence.
Rice is competent, neither McCain or Palin seem able to find their asses with both hands.
.
The "pot meet kettle" phrase was inaccurately chosen, that's true.
But the use of Sarah Palin to disparage McCain's judgement is a historical fact that will never go away, and never be forgotten.
Rochester, #8.3
It was a Biggie, all right! It kept me awake a few nights imagining what would happen if this dynamic duo won the election. OMG. Cold sweat time!
"...given a chance to get answers about Benghazi, this towering intellect and model of competence forgot to show up..."
There he goes again, gettin' all mavericky in there...
this is my Senator! groan. I wrote to him (again) today and complained about his incompetence and embarrassment to Arizona. We already seem to be the most embarrassing State in the Union....with Brewer, Kyl, SB1070, slow election results, likely voter suppression in Maricopa County, etc, etc. Just for the world to know...there really are people in this state who do not agree with any of the above and we do vote. We think we voted in Ron Barber (Gabby's hand picked replacement) because we think the votes show his opponent losing...which is good since she would be another 'personhood' vote!
AZ, If I lived in Arizona, I'd surely move to the Isle of Man! You've got Brewer and that goofy sheriff...McCain....OMG. Forgeddabaoudit.
Not to mention the climate of Arizona. Ugh! You'd like the Isle of Man! Sea breezes..........oh yeah...If, when I die, I go to Hell, I just know Hell is either Arizona or Texas. Possibly Kansas.
@AZcindy - you have my condolences.....
and I believe they are still counting votes in Arizona and we thought Florida was bad eeeek
As they say, you can't spell CRAZY without R-AZ!
So, just to be clear, John McCain skipped math class so that during math class he could complain to someone that he doesn't understand math. But he does intend to show up in math class some other time. Right?
Would this be a math class Republicans take to make themselves feel better? LOL
This bears repeating over and over:
Susan Rice is mau-mau'ed for making public comments based on what she was told by the CIA.
W was a "strong leader" for taking us to war based on what he was told by the CIA.
(The thing I find so frustrating is that there's this thing called logic, and that there are so many who don't want or even consider using it.)
#11, Susan Rice had as much to do with the "Benghazi debacle" as I did.
There's a name for those people who hate logic. Let me.................... ...............think..................................wait, it is coming to me.....................Yes, Republicans!
You want logic? Wrong planet! I hear Vulcan is lovely this time of year.
I got their logic gates right here:
http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&client=safari&sa=X&tbo=d&rls=en&biw=1680&bih=870&tbm=isch&tbnid=CjqnoYERGkQ3zM:&imgrefurl=http://www.businessinsider.com/logic-gates-the-next-phase-of-high-frequency-trading-2010-6&docid=pSOsASAGwG7oSM&imgurl=http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/4c0d40237f8b9a8e36420100/logic-gate-example-1.jpg&w=620&h=377&ei=3WWlUPa-EejryAGT1YDYCA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=4&vpy=158&dur=7849&hovh=175&hovw=288&tx=105&ty=109&sig=116915618897908726201&page=1&tbnh=132&tbnw=217&start=0&ndsp=41&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:73
Does anyone else wonder what they were doing at CIA when they should have been paying attention and giving the Administration good intel? Were they all exchanging emails with their mistresses?
Crawl out a little further on that limb, Johnny. Some of your fellow Republicans are getting ready to saw it off because they realize a cranky old bigot probably isn't the best face for their party right now. And maybe, just maybe, the Sunday talk shows will realize your sell-by date is way past and we'll be spared your millionth appearance on Meet the Press.
Come on people,
We all know McCain gets his intel from Faux "News".
McCain records it so he doesn't miss a thing.
.
Dear John,
You know how much I've wanted to avoid saying what we both knew to be true. No one is fooled by our farce anymore. It's a sham and we both know it and we've only been making fools of ourselves by pretending we're still together. We're seen apart all the time and people have put two and two together. I'm done, John, and we'll both be happier for it. I love you John ad I always will, but I can't be seen as someone you keep around for appearances sake. I'll be back for my things over the next few years, but this is goodbye.
Fondest memories and deepest regrets,
Your Mental Faculties
Keating Five alumnus Mau-Maus Rice!
Sadly, Sen. McCain, who was once viewed by many as a true American hero, has grown so mean-spirited, and so absolutely unable to get over his 2008 defeat at the hands of President Obama, that he increasingly looks like a caricature of of the senile old curmudgeon rather than an effective representative of the people of Arizona or a valued voice in the national political discourse. Either GET OVER IT, Sen. McCain, or retire to one of Cindy's many, lovely homes. It would seem, these days, that Sedona is a more fitting place for you than is the US Senate. Or are you, as many say, a guy who never met a war he didn't like?
It is pretty clear to me that McCain wants to discourage any talk of Rice as a nominee for State. Is it because he wants Kerry to get it in order to open up another Senate seat in Massachusetts for Brown?
Absolutely, exactly what they want, Brown got kicked in the ass and they do not want to lose another idiot Republican. Kerry stay where you are to protect our Country from them !
Where the heck was his staff, and his colleagues on the committee, if this was an actual error? It's hard to believe it was impossible for his staff to notice the mistake, say in the first half hour of the 3-hour briefing AND that it was impossible for his colleagues to pause at the 30-minute mark to route an urgent call to his staff.
In the grand scheme of prominent conservatives, I lump McCain in with Bill O'Reilly. They're not hate filled ideologues like some of the others, and at times can seem like pretty decent men, but they're always prone to going off the deep end, and both revert to "old angry white guy" more often than I'd like. Or maybe they just seem a bit more palatable in direct comparison to their peers on Fox News and in the senate.
Either way, this is a major brain cramp, and McCain looks pretty stupid for it. Not his VP selection of 4 years ago stupid, but pretty dumb.
Sorry old SOB! Trying so hard to dump on Obama, he makes himself look more ignorant every time!!!
Given the language of the right on this it appears to be just a tit for tat screech in regards to the very real lies Bush was caught telling and the very real misrepresentation of intel that he used to trick us into wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of course grown men would never be so chilish as to try such a ridiculous thing.
John McCain does not really want answers.... He just wants a microphone and some air time!!
The boy who cried wolf....eventually gets neglected....
Just now on Chris Mathews' show, Jonathan Alter said that Mr. McCain is always on the news shows speaking and he is one of those on the weekend programs known as 'Sabbath Gasbags"... that's an appropriate label, but not good when he is given such an audience he does not deserve!
Ha! Sabbath Gasbags! Funny! Thanks.
No worries for McCain. He'll be back on Meet the Press or some other Sunday news talk show to peddle this even more. And will they question or point out any of this? We all know the answer to that.
You know what, let's just say McCain and Graham seem to just have to visualize themselves as heroic soldiers and JAG lawyers fighting for the country.
But a soldier has a duty to support the CIC and our government and people. We had this stuff happening on foreign soil before.
Couldn't we demonize Condi and Bush for the first 9/11, by that reasoning then?
I know, McCain and Graham want to politicize this and visualize themselves as pilots strafing and bombing the enemy and "sweating" a defendant or witness. But this trouble is the President and State Dep't and our Ambassadors are not the enemy.
They claim to defend Chris Stevens, who was OUR Ambassador and so is Susan Rice OUR Ambassador, the CIC is OUR CIC, OUR CIA and security agents.
This is so very sad to watch.
It is sad and extremely disgusting.
John McCain needs to go back to boot camp and relearn what honor is. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and even Dana Rohrabacher (today at the public congressional hearings on Benghazi) believe the louder they yell the more justified they are. I was so glad to see Gary Ackerman and Gerald Connolly fire right back at Dana Rohrabacher reminding the entire committee that it was them who denied Pres. Obama’s request for $450 million to increase security for these awe-inspiring citizens who put their lives on the line for all of us.
It seems that the hawks and many of the rest of us Americans-yes, we're Americans think McCain is untouchable. Well, he was a Vietnam POW, so I feel bad for that.
However, how far does our guilt over that horrendous situation go?
My brother and cousin were over there. I thought it was a terrible war, but I did not dishonor the returning vets. They got a raw deal.
McCain has been fortunate after coming home, lavish homes, respect, attention. Not all our vets have this, but yes. McCain paid a price. Others also paid a heavy price. To be clear, I'm going off at those loudmouths like Rohrabacher, not you.
I fear you are right, he has lost his sense of honor for politics and likely having lost elections. Maybe he is just clouded from bitterness.
My family has had many, many veterans. My Republican father enlisted twice. He kept medals and we have a framed honorable discharge from my ancestor signed by Abraham Lincoln!
It's as if they still claim to be more American and more patriotic about that terrorist attack. That's where I'm coming from. We are all Americans and this politicization of this incident really ticks me off.
No, they (Rs) did not want to PAY FOR extra security, did they?
It's hard for celebrities to know when to leave the stage. Most have to be pushed. Someone should give McCain a nudge.