Instead of running a “we’re thankful for…” editorial Thursday, something positive, the Washington Post editorial board attempted some tushy covering for Team Obama and Susan Rice
The GOP’s bizarre attack on Susan Rice
SINCE THE Senate is solely responsible for the confirmation of Cabinet officers, it’s not often that members of the House of Representatives jump into a debate about the nomination of a secretary of state — particularly before there has been a nomination. That’s one of the reasons a letter sent to President Obama this week by 97 House Republicans, challenging his potential choice of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice for the State Department job, is remarkable.
The House is solely responsible for initiating all legislation that involves revenue, yet, it was the Democrat controlled Senate that first passed ObamaCare, using complicated machinations to avoid Constitutional issues. The Post didn’t have a problem with that.
Another is blatant disregard of established facts. Drawn up by Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), the letter alleges that “Ambassador Rice is widely viewed as having either willfully or incompetently misled the American public†about the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. But as congressional testimony has established, Ms. Rice’s comments on several Sunday television talk shows on Sept. 16 were based on talking points drawn up by the intelligence community. She was acting as an administration spokeswoman; there was nothing either incompetent or deliberately misleading about the way she presented the information she was given.
Yet, the taking points initially said it was terrorism, a notion that pretty much every American thought was the root cause, not some stupid video. Until someone, supposedly James Clapper, changed them. And Susan Rice should have been skeptical going on TV a week later about those talking points. If not, she’s too much of a dupe to be Secretary of anything. Here we go, though
Though the Benghazi attack involved clear failures of U.S. security, Republicans have concentrated on a dubious subsidiary issue: the alleged failure of the administration to publicly recognize quickly enough that the incident was “a terrorist attack.†In fact, Mr. Obama has acknowledged that “the information may not have always been right the first time.†But if there was a White House conspiracy to cover up the truth, Republicans have yet to produce any evidence of it — much less a connection to Ms. Rice, who had no involvement with the Benghazi attack other than those television appearances.
They do have a point, one which I have noted in blog posts and many, many times on Twitter. This focus on the talking points, while important, is a focus on the third most important issue, second being what happened in the run up to the attack, and most important being what happened during the attack. Why were our people left to die? Why were the two ex-SEALs told to stand down? Was the Libyan government asked for permission to send in a rescue group? Who refused to send help from our bases in Europe and/or naval vessels in the Mediterranean? What happened?
I think we know that someone was not being done by the very fact that the Obama administration refuses to release any photos taken of US officials during the crisis, as highlighted by one of the last true journalists, Sharyl Attkisson. If the White House was involved and on the ball, they’d be releasing photos left and right to show how super mega awesome Obama is. And the GOP needs to focus its efforts on what really matters. Are you listening, Senators McCain, Ayotte, and Graham, et all?
BTW, the post ends with the raaaaacism meme
Could it be, as members of the Congressional Black Caucus are charging, that the signatories of the letter are targeting Ms. Rice because she is an African American woman? The signatories deny that, and we can’t know their hearts. What we do know is that more than 80 of the signatories are white males, and nearly half are from states of the former Confederacy. You’d think that before launching their broadside, members of Congress would have taken care not to propagate any falsehoods of their own.
Hey, remember when the Washington Post took liberals to task for the disgusting and real racist and sexist attacks on a different Rice, aka Condi Rice? Yeah, me neither. But, in todays world, to even investigate someone of color who happens to be a Democrat is raaaaacism.
Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.
Read: Washington Post Inadvertently Makes A Good Point On Susan Rice Talking Points »
