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McCain Refuses To Support Any Secretary Of State Nominee

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has not hesitated to voice his distaste towards U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice, who may be nominated to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. On Face the Nation Sunday morning, McCain went even further than simply opposing Rice’s nomination and said that, “until we find out all the information” on the Benghazi consulate attacks, he would not support any Secretary of State nominee.

McCain at first said it “might be a beginning” if Rice could come on the program to explain her position. But when pressed by host Bob Schieffer, the Arizona senator dug in and refused to support any nominee “under the present circumstances”:

SCHIEFFER: Until then, you will remain opposed to her nomination?

MCCAIN: Under the present circumstances, until we find out all the information as to what happened, I don’t think you would want to support any nominee right now. Because this is very very serious and it has even larger implications than the deaths of 4 Americans. It really goes to the heart of this whole light foot print policy that this administration is pursuing.

Watch it:

McCain’s scapegoating of Rice has been soundly debunked, as the ambassador was simply given talking points provided by the intelligence community. Even other Republican senators have backed away from his plan to block her nomination. Despite the lack of support behind him, McCain appears willing to take his politicization of the Libya attack to new heights in the nomination process.

Gingrich: U.S. Should Abandon The Middle East Peace Process

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) on Sunday dismissed the idea of having peace talks between Israel and Palestine, saying that it is too late to talk about peace.

While Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was on Face the Nation saying that it’s “very important that we recognize that the United States of America has got to push as hard as we can to resolve this Israeli-Palestinian issue, and so many events hinge on making that [peace] process go forward,” Gingrich was on ABC’s This Week, arguing that we should “end the talk about the peace process”:

GINGRICH: One, end all the talk about the peace process. You have a permanent war in the region. You have people determined to destroy Israel. They spent all the periods of non-war building up the weapons to have war. And then when they think it’s appropriate, they wage war. And then they go back to saying, oh, no, let’s talk about a peace process while we accumulate more weapons.

Watch it:

The U.S. is committed to helping Israel negotiate a peace agreement. On Sunday morning, just hours before Gingrich called for an end to peace talks, Obama was asking for peace from both sides, saying, “Those who champion the cause of Palestinians should recognize that if we see a further escalation of the situation in Gaza than the likelihood of us getting back on any kind of peace track that leads to a two-state solution is going to be pushed off way into the future.”

Lieberman Breaks With McCain, Graham On Libya Investigation: ‘I Respectfully Separate From My Two Amigos’


Today on Fox News Sunday, Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) said they did not think the U.S. Senate should create a special committee to investigate the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya on Sept. 11. Chambliss and Lieberman said the Senate currently has the capacity to investigate the matter and that a new committee is not needed.

Republican senators John McCain (AZ), Lindsey Graham (SC) and Kelly Ayotte (NH) this week called for a Watergate-style special “select committee” to investigate the attack, claiming that the Obama administration, particularly U.N. Ambasss misled the public about the attack resulting from protests against an anti-Islam video.

But Chambliss and Lieberman, both close friends of McCain and Graham (Lieberman, Graham and McCain are often referred to as “The Three Amigos“), rejected the proposal. “I respectfully separate from my two amigos on this one,” Lieberman said:

WALLACE: Do you think that we need … do we need a special committee or can your standing committees do it?

CHAMBLISS: Well first of all these two guys are two of my best friends and two of Joe’s best friends. We travel a lot together to some very dangerous places but the committees within the United States Senate are very capable of investigating this in the right way and this is one time I have a slight disagreement with my good friends.

LIEBERMAN: Yeah I respectfully separate from my two amigos on this one and I agree with Saxby. This was a tragedy but it doesn’t rise to the level of 9/11/01. Our committees can handle this and come up with answers.

Earlier in the segment, Lieberman undermined the central case McCain, Graham and Ayotte made in arguing for the special committee, namely the suggestion that Rice willfully inaccurately described the events of the Libya attack. “As I look at what we now know the intelligence community was saying that week and I look at Ambassador Rice’s statements on television on the following Sunday morning, I don’t find anything inconsistent between those two,” he said. Watch the clips:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on Friday rejected McCain’s request for a special committee on Libya in a strongly worded letter. “I refuse to allow the Senate to be used as a venue for baseless partisan attacks,” Reid wrote.

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