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If John McCain thinks he's improving his reputation and credibility, he's mistaken.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he was "surprised and frustrated" to read reports that the intelligence community had altered talking points about the attack in Benghazi, Libya, after being told last week that the source of the edits was unknown.
A spokesman for Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on Monday said it was the intelligence community -- and not other agencies or the White House -- that made the edits.
In a written statement, McCain complained that "senior intelligence officials were asked" last week about minor changes to CIA talking points, "and all of them -- including the Director of National Intelligence himself -- told us that they did not know who made the changes." He added that this is "another reason why many of us are so frustrated with, and suspicious of, the actions of this administration."
The truth really isn't complicated. Intelligence officials said they didn't know, probably because this wasn't a detail they bothered to explore in detail before talking to lawmakers. (Of all the things Congress was likely to care deeply about, the semantics of talking points written four days after an attack weren't likely to be one of them.)
But after this proved to be fascinating to some lawmakers, officials looked into it, got an answer, and let folks know what the found -- that the intelligence community changed "terrorists" to "extremists" for entirely legitimate reasons related to intelligence and national security.
Why is McCain "surprised and frustrated" by this? Your guess is as good as mine. It's possible McCain kind of enjoys being "surprised and frustrated" in perpetuity, and yesterday's statement was just a copy and paste of how the senator was feeling the day before.
That said, McCain at least resisted the urge to again condemn Susan Rice in his statement, probably because there's nothing left for McCain to criticize her about. Indeed, the senator's various theories have already been discredited, and though his statement yesterday insisted there are "many other questions that remain unanswered," it's no longer clear what else the senator wants to know.
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McCain needs a brain scan.
You may have made an erroneous assumption about what is needed for a brain scan: a brain.
He needs a brain first.
Actually what's really needed is for Stephen Colbert to have another McCain green screen challenge. At least that would give us all a laugh.
Does he really need all of this?
As we await his epiphany regarding his lineage, legacy and privilege, we are sadly given witness to McCain's folly and embarrassment.
Oh, John McCain, why so much retro-bane? -Kevo
McCain in a sentence: Thinks that Susan Rice is "not smart" but that Sarah Palin is made of presidential stock.
Is there anything else we need to know?
Yeah, Susan Rice, what a stupid Oxford graduate, a Rhodes scholar, a Phd. At least she's good looking.
Not everyone can be as smart as Sarah Palin or John McCain.
Yeah, McCain is no Mensa candidate himself; remember his role in the Keating Five?
Robert DuBois,#3.2
Indeed I do remember that. No, I don't think Mensa would accept McCain. LOL
(Do you have a sister named Blanche?)
(Or maybe Stella? Or a brother-in-law Stanley?)
dkm, LOL
McCain- son and grandson of admirals, 3 from the bottom of his Annapolis class, distroyed 4 multimillion dollar aircraft and through his own recklessness spent 5 years in a No. Vietnam prison - the actual heros of Vietnam never returned home.
I am glad you said that, Carver. This man has never done anything right in his life, yet everyone calls him a "hero". Now Little Johnny is having another tantrum. Lieberman followed him around like a puppy dog. Looks like Graham is his new lackey. I am sick of him.
Thought Sarah Palin should be Vice President. Enough said.
If he had bothered to show up to the briefing that was given, maybe he would have gotten some answers.
Beyond that, he's desperately attempting to remain relevant, and it is failing badly.
It is very sad to watch- and very sad that a sitting Senator is, well, delusional.
Thanks Arizona!
He can always go on Face The Nation for the 21st time this year and he and the lost-it-long-ago Bob Schieffer can do their imitation of two senile old fools trying to prove their relevance.
John McCain has reached the stage in life of being an Angry Old Man. He does not know why he is angry, but he keep looking for someone to be angry at. Anything or anyone associated with President Obama or President Bush who denied John McCain a place at the White House probably fit the bill for him. John McCain was never a "Maverick" he was always just pissy at the Bush Administration for his Primary loss, and not he has transferred that to the Obama Administration. Bitter is not a great legacy, but I think that is about all he has got.
I would love to see Clint Eastwood and John McCain together, "Mutt and Jeff", bloviating on a stage to an empty chair between them. Two unrepentant un-self-conscious old men whose names and reputations are bigger than their current relevance.
One of these cranky old man episodes will prove he should have won in 2008.
And yet John McCain will be on another half dozen political shows over the weekend.
The guy is senile and paranoid, yet the media lap dogs keep trying to make him into some old, wise Buddha.
I see where the president is going to pardon John McCain at the white house today. Oh......wait........I am wrong,........... it's a different turkey.
He'd earn more respect if he'd be helpful, mature and statesman-like instead of difficult.
~
"That said, McCain at least resisted the urge to again condemn Susan Rice in his statement, probably because there's nothing left for McCain to criticize her about."
Yes, that is why he is so frustrated.
Well, sure, the CIA water boards, has secret renditions, operates a drone assassination air force, tortures, and reads our mail. But, LIE TO CONGRESS? Johnny, say it ain't so!
Gosh...Golly... Do I sense a possible Sunday Morning talk show appearance... Are those shows interested in retread hasbeens...
Yes.
McCain is predictable. Thus the Sundays shows can count on not being "surprised and frustrated" by real dialogue or tough questions.
Perhaps if Senator McCain, along with his Republican cohorts, actually got around to doing the jobs citizens sent them to WA to do, they wouldn't have so much time to
wastespend on making mountains out of mole hills. There is more than enough real work of mountainous size for these overpaid under-brained shills to be worked up over.Is one actually paid to appear on those chat shows?
McVain probably pays them to let him on!
He doesn't need to; all he needs to do is just imply that if they don't let him on, he'll kick up a big fuss and that'll get reported by what even he has acknowledged, openly, publicly and multiple times, is his "base": the Washington DC national media.
This will only stop on the earlier of two events: when McCain gets too frail or sick to pull this crap, or when the head honcho at even just one of the traditional Big 3 national TV networks cuts McCain off.
Which one is likely to do that, and why? None: all 3 networks are owned by conglomerates whose main aim is the bottom line and who managers, knowing that, are not about to take on unnecessary heat and attention, just to get slagged by this cranky old POW and quite possibly and NEEDLESSLY be made the object of cross-partisan criticism for beating up on a hero, on an old military dude (We all thank you for your service!), old people in general, etc. Why risk being called out as a Big Old Meanie network over something as pointless as denying this old pigeon-droppings target some attention? If say NBC were to do it first, on Meet The Press, the first benefits of doing that wouldn't go to NBC, they'd go to the OTHER two, CBS and ABC, for 'covering the controversy'.
He's 76 freaking years old, and he's nasty, and petty, and no above throwing his dead weight around. If he were to run again for re-election in 2016, and able to, he'd be 80, running in a state which is likely to go blue anyway. The networks are going to let the arrow of time pick the moment McCain fades away.
If I were to forced to make a GUESS, though ... I'd be guessing he has an even more 'senior' moment than this one, not too long from now, and it'll be such an embarrassment the networks won't want to book him without a letter from his physician, which he won't/can't produce.
From Hero to Zero in a New York Minute.
The only reason he was ever a hero" was because he was stupid enough to violate Rule #1 of Wartime Aviatin': "Don't turn around and fly back over the target you just bombed, especially not low and slow." (which is what he did)
McCain is totally off base on this (and on many other things). But that said, let's take the high road. He really is a bona-fide hero and deserves our respect even as he currently seems more adept at trying out for buffoon than hero. Let's not repeat the Right's mistake of reducing all persons we disagree with into cartoons. McCain is, like all humans, more complex than either promoters or detractors seem to realize. He's in a long bad patch at present, but I'm hoping he can recover himself and his poise. Praying for that, anyway.
Jon, sorry but . . . nope. Not gonna take the high road because he doesn't deserve it.
You really should bone up on your McVain knowledge. His status as a war hero is a myth, and unfortunately for him respect has to be earned. He has not done a single thing to deserve my respect.
McVain is about the least complex person in Washington. He is an arrogant sore loser, and not even close to being complex. He is consistently wrong about everything he postulates, from Iraq to Obamacare to the CIA to fair taxes to Susan Rice. He is a simpleton with no poise. He is a shameless self promotor and nothing more. His entire life is a bad patch and it's time for him to leave the national stage and move back to Arizona.
Republicans are just confused by someone actually looking into something and getting back with more answers.
In their minds 'We'll get back to you on that' is the end of a subject.
"Why is McCain "surprised and frustrated" by this?"
Because he's way past his sell-by date and senility is starting to kick in.
And relevancy.
I doubt he's relevant to much of anything now. Like Bush. Like Mitt.
Puppets without the master's hands...
Because the alternative is to admit he was wrong.
"Swing and a miss!" for McCain yet again! Yes, as most of us have long observed, it's time to send him back down to the Bush leagues.
"suspicions gets"? It's got to be "suspicions get" or "suspicion gets".
(nobody expects the grammarian inquisition!)
It's possible McCain kind of enjoys being "surprised and frustrated" in perpetuity
He loves her he loves her not
John McCain was surprised and frustrated when his wife recovering from terrible car crash injuries , was not "there" for him , just when she needed him most . However on a more uplifting note his beer baroness girlfriend was "There" .
It's possible McCain kind of enjoys being "surprised and frustrated" in perpetuity
Imagine the surprise surprise surprise the captain McCain felt , being one of the most experienced crashers of aircraft (without being drummed out of the service) , when his experience told him , uh oh ...
It's possible McCain kind of enjoys being "surprised and frustrated" in perpetuity
Being the kind of guy who was an inept service man failing to follow orders - failing to bring aircraft to a reusable landing . How to graduate this illustrative career into a civilian glory story (sans bumps) ? Why not Lincoln Savings ! Where Brave Brave Sir McCain dutifully ratted out his colleagues . The better to remove eyes from his own dirty , up to his elbows , hands involvement . John McCain , the Hero in full CYA regalia .
He bravely turned his colleagues in
Oh he bravely turned to yellowy fear
Brave McCain he turned em in
#14 Yeah, a man of genuine, great character. That's McCain.
I don't believe he was a Rhodes scholar, nor did he graduate from Oxford, and I don't believe he has a Phd. No, wait................that's Stupid Susan Rice, the one he wants to ruin just to get attention.
The man has had mental deficiency problems for a long time now, and his recent behavior is as concrete proof as it gets that he is senile. Think what our country would be suffering through now if he had beaten Obama for the presidency. Reagan was in the initial stages of Alzheimer's, but McCain is beyond that into a severe form of senile paranoia.
Yeah, That might mean we'd have had President Sarah Palin........ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeoooooooooooogoo
oooooooooooooommmyyyyyyyyyggooooooooooooood..
The horror........
You have spelled me
With your spelling
Irony and hypocrisy totally escapes a large majority of Republicans. This is the same party that hailed Condi Rice as the epitome of foreign diplomacy and intelligence yet they conveniently gloss over the fact that she led the charge of WMDs and the need to invade Iraq. Thousands of Americans have died as a result. Sadly, the Republican party is witch-hunting Susan Rice for giving the talking points given to her by the CIA and was careful to phrase it as "the information we currently have but we are continuing to investigate", leaving open the possibility that all of the facts were not in.
People with Alzheimer's are frequently "surprised and frustrated." The poor man should receive help and care, not mockery.
Sometimes we who never forget , forget , Could it be that knife in the back ?
Oh no !
The Senator, Crash McCain , would never have the mental acuity to remember who his knee jerk "enemies" are . It must just be a coincidence !
Coincidental enough to never forget to make an acid remark .
A remarkable senility that fails the smell , polite , and fact test .
Sometimes a cigar is just a roll of tobacco
Sometimes a small petty tyrant with grudges galore is just a wealthy womans snippy wife .
Susan Rice just needs an Oil Tanker named after her.
McCain is sensing that attention is shifting away from him again and he cannot have that.
John McCain needs a drone named after him.
Mitt the Magic Turkey
http://chucksmomentoftruth.wordpress.com/2012/11/18/thanksgiving-turkey-mitt-romney/
I'm sorry, but I still cannot fathom why the GOP picked on this as an issue. If the attacks were an extension of a spontaneous demonstration against the US, that would seem to me to be much more damaging to Obama's position on Libya than if they were a terrorist attack. So where's the scandal?
I mean, if after supporting the liberation of the Libyan people they 'turned on us' spontaneously, that would be a bad thing for Obama, right?
To me it's an example of how grasping at straws and trying to make the President look bad simply ends badly for the GOP.
It was a bright shiny object the Romney campaign gaspingly embraced to try to make the Obama administration look bad just before the election. Non story from the get go. Under Bush our embassies and consulates were attacked seven times resulting in over 20 deaths and no one was blaming the white house for bad security. In fact the Republicans have repeatedly decreased embassy security spending the administration has proposed.
Senator McCain desperately wants to prove that President Obama has not lessened the terrorism of Al Qaeda, et al. The Senator from Arizona, however, is flailing in this last ditch effort to showcase President Obama as a weakling who must immediately be replaced by hawkish, reactionary Republicans. The Bush war era is over, Senator McCain. It's time for level heads to prevail.
Oh lord...get him off the 'stage'. For cripes sake. He graduated in the BOTTOM tenth of his class, used Daddy's connections to graduate, got shot down and was a 'guest' of the Hanoi Hilton for 6 years, parlayed that into a Senate career where he can call others 'not very bright'. His 'war hero' meme has expired. It's how you live your life AFTER adversity that shows your measure. McCain? You've failed.
Let's get real. It's perfectly obvious that Susan Rice murdered those 4 men in Benghazi in cold blood in order to steal the election thereby destroying the United States and Jesus. Otherwise why would McCain and the other geniuses be staging such an opera?