At yesterday's Senate hearing on September's Benghazi attack, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a series of questions, all of which seemed rather familiar. Indeed, the odd thing about McCain's inquiries is that he would already know the answers to all of his questions if he'd familiarized himself with the publicly available information, including the findings (pdf) of the independent investigation.
And while I was willing to let that go, McCain's appearance on Fox News this morning was even more difficult to endure.
For those who can't watch clips online, this was the key quote:
"[Clinton] obviously has an adoring media. She really didn't answer any questions. Her response to Senator Johnson about whether it was a spontaneous demonstration or not, saying it 'didn't matter.' It 'didn't matter' how these people died? That was stunning. That was really stunning. Of course it matters. It matters for a whole lot of reasons, including to the families and Americans, because the American people deserve to be told the truth and they were not told the truth."
Clinton never said it "didn't matter" how the four Americans were killed. She said the opposite.
As was obvious to anyone paying attention, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) was preoccupied with preliminary intelligence reports about a possible protest in Benghazi and Clinton said that was irrelevant as compared to the death of four Americans -- and she was correct.
If McCain found this too confusing to understand, perhaps the Senate Foreign Relations Committee isn't the best place for him to serve.
What's more, Clinton has "an adoring media"? This from a man who spends so much time on the Sunday shows that he has his mail forwarded to green rooms? This from a senator who's so adored by the D.C. political establishment that he's considered reporters his base?
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Is McCain too senile to remember the hounding Ms. Clinton took regarding White Water development, Vince Foster's death, and whether she should stay with her man?
More Paul Kantner for Sen. McCain:
Put your old ladies back into bed
Put your old men into their graves
Cover their ears so they can't hear us sing
Cover their eyes so they can't see us play
Get out of the way
Let the people play
Hey obsessed Right Wing Benghazi Truthers - you're too daft to see just how crazy your crazy is! -Kevo
I was actually thinking of another song, for the republicants, sung by Jorma of the J.A., when I was watching Hil's yesterday:
Come back baby, let's talk it over, one more time!
Your J.A. knowledge is exemplary, and you hit the nail on the Palin......
P.S. I am waiting for some idiot to bring up Kerry's protests during the Nam war....
I wonder if the GOP prefers to run against Clinton or Biden in 2016. Biden, right? If so, why could they not do better raising questions among persuadable voters in the center? It seems to me they were just playing to right wing nuts whose vote is not in question.
If anything, her performance strengthened her standing. She looked Presidential. Simply from the perspective of the craft of politics, the handling of the hearing reinforces the meme that the GOP is dysfunctional.
Once she gets out of State, you can count on a replay of the Clinton coronation theme of inevitability. I don't see much hope of her splitting with the Dem Leadership Council's "Bush-lite" positions. She will play it with the same caution she always has, and take the left of the party for granted. So post 2016 it will be 8 more years of do nothing on climate change or serious gun control measures or breaking up the too big to fail banks.
Despair.
Hillary Clinton represents another Republican nightmare because the Dems will have nominated the female presidential candidate who has the potential to win. This follows the election of a black president. Add Bill Clinton to the mix and Republicans will likely be starting a campaign from behind no matter which person they nominate.
But I wouldn't consider Biden a pushover. He has charm and an avuncular presentation to the public that makes it difficult for anyone to demonize. Biden will have appeal to the middle class. If the economy continues to improve and he does not stumble or appear too far left, it will be hard for Republicans to campaign against him using Obama. Consider the contrast in style between Biden and Chris Christie if he becomes the Republican candidate. Biden wins hands down because his is personable and that works with voters in the middle.
But all of this is academic because we are too far out from the next presidential primaries and elections.
Pre-2008, it would have been too early. With the long lead times needed for Victory Lab type data driven strategies, 3 years is hardly enough to build the software and find the proper talent to make it work. Elections are now a $6 billion dollar industry, and the advisers will not find it financially in their interests to council prospective candidates to wait for more typical dates like mid to late 2014.
Assuming Pelosi and Warren don't run, I am behind Biden, but I don't sense he is mobilizing quickly enough. The preparations really do have to begin now, and the Clinton faction will be weakest at the outset, when the nomination is still in question.
Clinton supporters will be starting up the machine and calling for money the day Clinton leaves office.
I am hoping Andrew Cuomo, NY, runs. I really like him. He grew up near my husband, and we are more familiar with him than most, also his dad, Mario.
I like both Biden and Hillary, but would prefer Cuomo.
I'd most prefer Dennis Kucinich of OH, but he's not going to run. He'll forgive me if I misspelled his name, not being Croatian.
He's an extraordinary man, and a rare creature: an honest politician.
The freaky part of this is the known fact that both sides loathe John McCain. I only say known on the people side, because the media fawns over the man like he is some leader. Ask a rank and file American about McCain, literally anyone, and you will get a negative responce...
This controversy only exists to embarrass Hillary, and keep her from running for president, and everyone knows it. McCant has been Hil's best friend on the hill for years, and is now becoming two faced to destroy her hopes. Where is the outrage over all of the testimony over the WMD issue with W? The repuplicants were silent, and they know it. Susan Rice is not the issue, and the talk shows are not the issue. McCant can't say a bad word about Kerry, in the testimony this morning, and Kerry will sail through. The republicants who could not say nice things about Hil's four years of exemplary service, yesterday, are as culpable as W and Iraq. The republicants are pathetic.....
"This controversy only exists to embarrass Hillary, and keep her from running for president, and everyone knows it."
Does it matter if she runs for president in 2016? The GOP is in the process of rigging it so she (or any other Democrat) couldn't win it anyway?
I just heard Rush Limbaugh, Shawn Hannity, and Laura Ingram accuse Hillary Clinton of faking the emotion and the tears over the victims of Benghazi, including one of her best friends, the Ambassador.
Why can't someone pull the plug on these mindless pieces of scum? I am so tired of MSNBC even giving voice to their lying, ramped up, phony, half -assed hate, their desire to perpetuate violence in this country. Free speech is one thing, but these idiots are being paid to incite hatred and violence and I say to this trash, SHUT your bloated, ugly, slimey, fat, profane, disgusting mouths.
This is air pollution. Why does anyone need this slime? No one with an IQ above 50 gives a sh$@ what any of these toxic creatures has to say.
Hillary Clinton is a decent, hard working, caring public servant, and a great woman, of fine character. Something these whankers could never begin to understand.
Tactically, accusing Hillary Clinton of ineptitude, cover-ups, hiding behind supposed health problems, and faking her deepest emotions will boomerang back to the Republicans, who refuse to take responsibility for the disastrous Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. Equating Benghazi with those two lengthy wars exposes the Republican scramble to place all blame for America's foreign policy woes on Hillary Clinton. Their anticipation that the Secretary of State would be an easy mark has resulted in a televised, and very embarrassing, Republican face-plant. Oh, and it's forever documented in the official Congressional Hearings records.
#3.3
I hope it knocks them flat on their ignorant, lying faces.
Someone PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE send that man a pair of Bermuda shorts and the keys to a golf cart!!!
The Senator from Alzheimerona.
There were idiots on here yesterday posting the same (intentional?) misunderstanding about what Hillary said "didn't matter".
In some cases it's illiteracy, in others dishonesty. In any case it illustrates the emptiness of their argument.
#6
Or their heads.
No - let him keep babbling. These guys don't get how stupid and irrelevant they are becoming. Never interfere when your opponents are hurting themselves. McCain is a loser, and will ALWAYS be a loser until the day he dies. Nothing will change that as long as he keeps that yap going. He is stealing air time from other possible representatives of the Republican party and there is no oxygen left for anyone of their saner members (such as they are). Good. Let that wacko keep going.
From a campaigning standpoint, this is a very good strategy. But this isn't any way to govern. McCain isn't campaigning, he's one of a small handful of people who are supposed to be helping run our country. And when Republicans allow these kinds of people to lead the debate for their side, they aren't just hurting themselves, they're hurting the country.
Today the Senate hearing was a witch-hunt for Hillary instead of a serious probe into how the failings at Benghazi can be prevented from ever happening again. Which means nothing is resolved.
The Republicans need to throw these sideshows out of the positions of power they're holding and install the responsible few they have left.
As Jules from Pulp Fiction says,
"If my answers frighten you then you should cease asking scary questions."
The Republicans don't want answers, they want soundbites that they can use in 3 years to try and undermine HRC's potential run for President.
The Sunday shows keep booking McCain because he is guaranteed to say something outrageous. Perhaps they are hopiing that he will go into a rage, have a stroke and die on camera? Otherwise, his positions and opinions are irrelevant to either party. McCain was booked on Fox because his bitterness at his defeat in 2008 matches their audience.
Or is it that the Sunday shows are too lazy to go out and get other people? Is McCain their "fall back" guy?
Yeah, the media need to stop with the b.s. of trying to show the crazy all the time.
Who listens to the old fossil anyway!
Just reading the title of this post, I knew it would be about Mccain. The right wing is too predictable.
If the 2008 election proved anything, it was that McCain is not very bright, and does not work very hard to make up that deficiency. He is not prepared with knowledge; that would require becoming steeped in policy detail and nuance. He doesn't do that; he does grandstanding.
Had he been elected president, he would have doubled down on the Bush catastrophe.
jdog,
He sure would have doubled down on the Bush catastrophe, and I still wake up at night in a cold sweat thinking of that horrifying duo of McCain/Palin heading the US government.
They are both alike in their love of sound bites and grand-standing. Neither of them are bright enough to head a committee, let alone a country.
The networks need to stop feeding his self-importance.
It's amazing to me that Senator McCain is entrusted with sensitive, confidential intelligence information. Some one may want to tell the stupid geezer that if he's going to question an administration official about a cover-up...he may want to avoid implicating himself in said cover-up. If he was such a "good friend" of Ambassador Stevens, as he alludes to in his opening statement....why didn't he act, when his friend confided in him about his security concerns?
I thought the same thing! WHY didn't Sen McCain push for security, talk around about how insecure things were in Benghazi? No, he only likes to sling dirt and dissatisfaction around, trying to dirty the real workers, like Secretary Clinton. I see him, my blood boils. Trying to be civil, truly. But people like McCain and his ilk just boil my bloody brains!!!!
I thought the same thing after he said he knew security was lacking in Benghazi. WHY didn't he speak up, talk to someone, press the issue until he was satisfied? I think he's a liar, and didn't think this through, that he may seem LACKING in caring for Ambassador Stevens' well being.
The most profound part of your statement "didn't think this through" says it all.
Too bad he didn't die in one of those planes he crashed. I am so sick of this old fool!
Can't that senile old fool just become Guest of Honor at a single car fatality and become a "good Republican"? The words I'd really like to say about him you can't say here, but it would involve "talking like a sailor."
#14, TROLLOP,
This ugly, creepy, self-important, lying old fool.
They are scared to death of Hillary. And rightfully so.
She is going to be our next President.
#16,
May I hope for Andrew Cuomo? My husband grew up near that family and they are as fine as it gets. I like Hillary a great deal, but she is so hated by the right and has so much baggage that it will be a horror of a primary and years of gridlock if she's elected. For Biden, I like him, too, very much, but his age is a factor. He is a wonderful VP, the best!
You gotta love Joe Biden.
But I'm hoping for Cuomo. Fewer problems.
Did you really just link to your own tweet about a rumor to support a claim? Wow.
Actually watching Hillary testify was interesting, since you could recognize that Hillary was very well prepared and knew her stuff. But still somewhat with all these live broadcasts a lot of those comments are staged. But by that staging you could get a better picture of what was going on. Such as with the comments about over 1.5 million messages sent to Hillary everyday does make it difficult to read and must be filtered in order of importance. Which can become problems, especially in world issues if there is more than one thing going on and it can become difficult for which one issue is more important than the other is. The other point is this department working on a shoestring budget which does make it difficult to make any real and good changes in the world. Hillary selecting to work in that department shows very much she does want to make and improve things in the world. The Republican side of the stage was indeed trying to buff out their chests trying to show they were on the ball of things, but totally failed and really showed how lacking they were in caring about what really happens to people as they live their lives. There are other places that stage things too such as the news media. Such as the news people on MSNBC, just like any business they look for what will bring popularity to their programs so they will review those twitters and blogs to find those key elements that people will listen to. But have some of those people on a different network (channel) and you see those same people spilling out things in a different way that in some cases contradicts what they have said on another network (channel). Another stage example would be Fox, because they are doing the same thing, but on the more severe conservative side that lacks any real rational thought. But as far as it goes also places like these news media network do owe people at least something for how they do become so popular. And delivering the news, which can be too easy falsified with the lack of truth just doesn’t cut it.
A note to MSNBC send the check us people at these blogs deserve it too. Having those big fat pay checks just doesn't cut it all the time now does it.
Of course it matters to the families and Amurkans and you know, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11 infinitum! (In my best jabber-jowel McLame..).
Go ahead TC, talk like a sailor!
For all the Senators who keep screaming about all the "unanswered questions" they have:
If you're not getting answers, ask better questions.
Cora,
Their brains can't handle better questions. Rush and Fux give them the little, hateful, staged questions they need to ask to try to make Clinton look incompetent. (Incompetent: Hillary! LOL)!
They made fools of themselves. It was so obvious what they were doing. They are just too dense to know it.
Let me point it out, fellows. You sounded like idiots. In other words, like yourselves.
It's maddening. There were serious failures in Benghazi. That can't be denied, and it's not. But instead of a serious discussion about what went wrong, why, and how it can be fixed, everyone would prefer to play the Blame Game or the How Can I Spin This for Political Gain Game.
Clinton is a Rhodes scholar and McCain graduated at the bottom of his class (if he even graduated at all), and Hillary made a complete fool out of McCain. She exposed that McCain is an bitter, old, hateful monger. Clinton is the military and foreign affairs expert not McCain. Being a hateful, bitter warmonger like McCain is, does not qualify you as an expert. McCain still can not get over the fact that the country soundly rejected him in 2008. McCain is simply unqualified, lacking the character, credibility and integrity to be president. McCain is now putting his own hatred and jealousy before country.
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/benson/
Hillary Clinton is smarter than McCain, Lindsay Graham, and the entire GOP caucus put together. Her IQ is the sum total of all theirs.
McCain is so dumb he thinks he's smart.
OK R's you have your face time and pummeled 2 women. Is that going to bring back those 4 people, including our Ambassador?
What policy will be changed now to prevent it? Oh, I know what you are saying. Enact our no diplomacy war mongering saber rattling again? Occupy more nations and get Rs in charge. Election b.s. Go away, please. The election is over.
After a quarter century in the Senate, it bowls me over that McCain has zero concern about his legacy. History will judge that he and a remarkable number of his colleagues chose to play unserious buffoons, skirting every option to engage thoughtfully on serious issues.
McCain is an embarrassment. He claims Sec. Clinton had said it didn't matter "how these people died" -- which is an overreach and NOT the issue at hand.
Sec. Clinton was in the midst of trying to defend Susan Rice and the Obama Administration from charges they had deliberately misled the American public on what precipitated the attack on the consulate in Benghazi. By way of offering defense, Ms. Clinton contended that "information was developing" and that the "situation was fluid" in an effort to excuse the Administration for having reached a conclusion initially that might differ from a later conclusion.
Sen. Johnson then pressed her on that point, wondering if it would not be as easy as making a simple phone call to speak to the evacuees in order to clear that up.
It was then that Ms. Clinton made what I consider a major blunder. She claimed, "When you're in these positions, the last thing you want to do is interfere with any other process going on." To whose other process is she showing deference? Whose investigative process takes precedence over that of the SoS and the White House itself? The Senator is speaking about the very time when the Administration was scheduling with the networks and formulating the talking points that Susan Rice would trot out on the Sunday talk shows.
After dismissing the simple phone call as interfering with someone else's process, Sec. Clinton reverts to the nebulousness of fluid information and tries for a misdirect: We knew some things, she says, but "what was going on, and why they [the militants] were doing what they were doing is still unknown."
At this point Sen. Johnson presses her that we [the public] were told specifically that the assaults "sprang out of" supposed "protests" (ie. protests in response to the YouTube video), but that the veracity of that scenario could easily have been verified -- it should have been easy to ascertain if that were true.
The conversation was not about "how they died", it was the "Administration narrative surrounding what precipitated the assault."
With the Senator repeatedly pressing her on a point she doesn't have a good answer for, Sec. Clinton begins to raise her voice in indignation, "The fact is, we had four dead Americans! Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they'd go kill some Americans? What difference, at this point, does it make?" She finishes by trying to steer the issue away from the initial question about the American public being misled -- she says that to her it's less important to look backwards and determine why the militants did what they did, as it is to bring them to justice.
Doesn't answer the question does it? She's dodging, she's trying to divert the conversation away from the Senator's question, which was about the American public being misled. Ms. Clinton is trying to cast the exchange as a question simply about what started it.
The incident occurred just two months before the Presidential election, and the political ramifications of the two different narratives were well discussed at the time. If a planned attack, the Obama Administration might easily be faulted for lack of security or poor intelligence. But the Administration could not be faulted so much if the killings in Benghazi were seen as an unpredictable, spontaneous riot instigated by some contemptuous and intolerant boor with a camera. The filmmaker could then be played as the responsible culprit. With Susan Rice, Jay Carney, Obama at the UN, and with the Obama/Clinton public service announcement condemning the video and religious intolerance, that's exactly what happened.
So, Hillary's mistake was not going into the Congress and demanding they fund the State Department, which Congress deemed too costly?
No, they think we should bomb bomb bomb the region, like McCain snickered?
Sandy,#25,
Even after this, they won't fund it! What a bunch of hypocrites and hateful liars.