The Convoluted Campaign Against Susan Rice

[babylonsister]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-28/the-convoluted-campaign-against-susan-rice.html

The Convoluted Campaign Against Susan Rice
By Margaret Carlson
Nov 28, 2012 6:30 PM ET

Lindsey Graham and John McCain finally came face-to-face with their prey this week.

snip//

Why are they upset at Rice and not, say, officials in charge of security at the mission? Or, if they want to go big, why not Secretary of State Hillary Clinton?

Probably because they wanted to go after a lesser official whom President Barack Obama would like to be secretary of state. Or because they don’t want to talk about how Republicans have consistently denied funds to protect diplomatic posts in dangerous places. Or because they don’t want to discuss how supportive they were last decade when then National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin Powell gave testimony that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

Powell and Rice then, like Susan Rice now, were relying on information provided by the intelligence community. There is, however, a major difference: Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice were testifying before official government bodies to justify going to war. Susan Rice was filling airtime between ads for erectile-dysfunction drugs.

snip//

It doesn’t make sense unless you’re just looking for conflict or are up for re-election. As it happens, McCain, the grumpy old man of the Senate, is often spoiling for a fight, and the ally of the man who defeated him four years ago is a satisfying target. And Graham, who must face voters in the red state of South Carolina in two years, already features his dispute with Rice in campaign ads.

snip//

Then again, this story is getting pretty convoluted. It’s hard enough to know what really happened in Benghazi in September. It’s harder still to implicate Rice in some kind of cover-up. This week’s events will undoubtedly provide more fodder for another round of Sunday-morning talk shows. But the story McCain and Graham are trying to sell is getting harder and harder to swallow.

[spanone]

1. k&r...

[HereSince1628]

2. The word for today is kerfuffle

alternate spellings carfuffle or kurfuffle
from Scots, Gaelic, meaning to put into disorder or disarray. As a noun, a brouhaha or loud noise.

Example of usage:

Republican activists created a kerfuffle to follow the Nov 6 election to forestall any political honeymoon for Obama's second term.

[babylonsister]

3. Good word, and very appropriate imo.

Same ole, same ole...they're getting boring.