Collins gave away the Republicans' real problem with Rice

[gulliver]

Thank you, Sen. Susan Collins(R) for finally letting the cat out of the bag on the Republican beef with Ambassador Susan Rice.

Collins said that after a 75-minute session with Rice she still had many unanswered questions and remains “troubled” that on the Benghazi issue Rice played “a political role at the height of a contentious presidential election campaign.”

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-corker-collins-susan-rice-benghazi-20121128,0,7774610.story

So that's it. It's really about the Republicans being sore losers in the election.

Republicans are angry at Rice for being effective, not for being ineffective. She went on all those Sunday shows and presented a cool-headed, solidly backed up, by-the-book read out of the facts as we knew them. Unfortunately for Rice, her poise and mastery of the situation were so good she put a damper on the poor Republicans' election chances.

Rice did her job well and with supreme competence. That's why Republicans are angry. Mitt Romney lost, so someone has to pay.

[dennis4868]

1. I don't think she was even being political

she was simply repeating the CIA approved talking points. WTH DO THEY WANT FROM HER?

[gulliver]

2. She wasn't.

She just made it harder for the Republicans to be political. They were demanding information. She gave them what the government had, and it didn't help them in the election. That's her crime.

[dennis4868]

3. The media is playing along

With the GOP bullshit here. Badically the GOP abd the media is mad that she didnt disclose classified info on Meet the Press. If Rice disclosed classified info they would be all over for doing that.

[truebrit71]

18. ^^This is the problem...

...the presstitutes are continuing to allow this meme to drag on...

[yardwork]

4. That suggests that the Republicans were counting on Benghazi to change the election.

I still can't get over the fact that Mitt Romney held a press release about the events in Benghazi before anybody even knew that people had been killed. And he had a smirk on his face the entire time as he burbled his prepared talking points about how the Obama administration was "apologizing" for the video.

Now, nothing else the Romney campaign did was effective or timely. It was the most inefficient, ineffective campaign I've seen in my lifetime and I'm old as dirt. How in the world did the Romney campaign put together those talking points for Romney before anybody else even knew what had happened in Benghazi - before the Romney campaign itself even knew that Americans had been killed? I think it is because the Romney campaign knew that there was going to be unrest in Benghazi and may even be connected to people who caused the unrest.

The whole point of causing problems in Benghazi was to create a "September 11 surprise" designed to make Obama look weak on terrorism. The talking points that he was "apologizing" for the U.S. were already prepared and in fact had been said by Mitt many times before.

Things did not go according to plan. Americans ended up dead. Things turned out to be more confusing than Romney and Rove expected. The role of the CIA is very murky in all this (and I wonder if Petraeus's later resignation is a result of what happened in Benghazi). And Obama and his administration didn't take the bait. They didn't apologize for terrorism. In fact, they made some very nimble adjustments to a rapidly unfolding, confusing tragedy.

All the Republicans have left of the debacle is Susan Rice. They're furious that their plan blew up in their faces.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

5. He and Reince tweeted about the night it happened

They attempted to politicise it even before they knew people had died- and then Romney doubled down on it.

[siligut]

10. You know, the way it went . . .

I think it is because the Romney campaign knew that there was going to be unrest in Benghazi and may even be connected to people who caused the unrest.

I tend to think the same thing. The guy who was involved in the translation according to the news that followed, he was a repuke.

[yardwork]

11. And that "preacher" in Florida who likes to burn Korans was involved, too.

That suggests Jebby Bush to me.

[siligut]

13. Coptic Christian Morris Sadek translated it and is friends with Terry Jones

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula is the California man who directed the film, he is also a Coptic Christian. But it was the translation that Sadek did that caused the trouble. I have no doubt that Jeb has eyes and ears in all of the fuckhead goings on in Fla.

Maybe, all the R focus on Benghazi is meant to distract from their complacency/collusion? They did want something to trip-up Obama.

[yardwork]

16. "Obama lied, people died" was the drumbeat in the days leading up to the election, then dropped.

The right-wing noise machine had their talking points. Now they have different talking points. It's all distraction. Something tells me that Benghazi did not go according to plan.

[siligut]

17. Darn, those rebels must have made a few decisions on their own.

Maybe the Rs got played while they were trying to play the Obama administration?

[yardwork]

21. The Republicans are dopes. It wouldn't be the first time they started a fire and got burned.

This time they may have gotten four people murdered, too.

[siligut]

22. They sure seem to think they can write their own reality

They are always getting people killed and their focus on these four just seemed to be a tool to rile up their base, like Terry's death in the Fast and Furious issue.

But if they were involved in the Benghazi uprising and it got out of hand, why dwell on it? I don't doubt that they did have something to do with it, I just wonder about the reasoning behind keeping it at the forefront. Maybe it is their arrogance in believing that the M$M will continue to feed off the shit they are shoveling.

[truebrit71]

19. ..and lord knows Mittens was quick on the draw with his press release..

...something about that timing always seemed a little 'off' to me..

[siligut]

20. And that smirk

He thinks he is so smart he can't help himself from showing it. Yes, that reminds me, the R meme that Ds are soft or weak on terror.

[coalition_unwilling]

14. 5 senior military officers have been fired or forced to resign in the past

2 months, so I've often wondered about a '7 Days in May'-type plot that Obama and his staff uncovered and smashed to pieces.

[yardwork]

15. I always figure that leadership knows about the sexual shenanigans of their key employees

and publicizes them when they need to get rid of somebody. Or the opposition - which also always knows all about the personal business of people in power - publicizes them when they need to get rid of somebody.

So when I see a Petraeus-type scandal hit the press days after the election, I get suspicious. Especially when the protagonist is the head of the CIA.

[moondust]

6. I thought the same thing

when I saw the clip of Collins saying that. It's back to the old coverup nonsense they've been fishing for in vain since the beginning. Sore losers now fishing for excuses.



EDIT: In light of Rachel's clips of McCain, Collins, and Ayotte being the only notable Republicans campaigning for Scott Brown, the attacks on Rice are probably about the MA Senate seat after all.

[yardwork]

8. It's possible that the Kerry thing is an afterthought.

The Republicans didn't expect to lose so many seats in the Senate. I don't think that they expected Scott Brown to lose either. It was after the election that they started looking for a way to get Scott Brown back in the Senate. It's possible that McCain, Collins, and Ayotte were pressed into service to attack Rice precisely because they were the ones already close to the Brown reelection campaign.

[moondust]

9. I'll buy that.

Before the election trying to help Romney by claiming Rice was involved in a big coverup and after the election trying to help Scott Brown when Kerry's name was mentioned for a cabinet job and knowing he was interested in SoS.

Makes sense to me.

[yardwork]

12. They're being opportunistic in a slow, bumbling way. The Republicans are in disarray.

They're really not very swift right now.

[bluestate10]

7. Barasso from Wyoming also did the same thing.

Republicans are dense. If those guys were going to rob a bank, they would talk to local cops about their plans.