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Reports: Fiscal cliff vote unlikely tonight

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 21:30:00 +0000

Updated: December 31, 5:04 p.m.: Numerous sources reported that there would not be a fiscal cliff vote tonight

Following weeks of hysteria, numerous news outlets are reporting that the House of Representatives may nDATEot even vote on a fiscal cliff deal before the tax hikes and spending cuts take effect at midnight tonight.

Here's CNN's take:

The reason is partly about process, but the benefit is political.

House GOP sources said the main reason the House is not likely to vote before the deadline is because the deal is not yet done, and it still has to go through the Senate–which takes time.

GOP leaders prefer to vote in broad daylight, sources said, instead of in the middle of the night.

"There is no difference in voting at 2 a.m. than tomorrow at 4 p.m.," one of the GOP sources said.

GOP sources admitted there is an added benefit to the Senate's delay: taxes would already be up, so lawmakers could argue that they are voting for tax cuts, as opposed to tax increases.

The “Zero Dark Thirty” debate isn’t really about torture

Sat, 29 Dec 2012 17:00:00 +0000

Art can be created with moralistic intentions, but it is inherently a ruthless and amoral endeavor, whose meaning always gets away from its creator. It can certainly be used to soothe the savage breast, lend succor in an hour of darkness, and so on. But let’s not forget that children in the death camps were made to play Schubert by murderers and torturers who believed themselves to be civilized and cultured men. That thread of civilization and culture is what saves teenage genius Wladyslaw Szpilman’s life in Roman Polanski’s “The Pianist” – but the ironic question posed by that film is whether that’s a good reason for one man to live while millions of others died. Because he could play the piano?

Pentagon, CIA likely approved “Zero Dark Thirty” torture scenes

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 14:54:00 +0000

Through a scathing letter to Sony Pictures about its new film "Zero Dark Thirty," Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D), Carl Levin (D) and John McCain (R) have made national headlines by publicly chastising the studio for turning its film into a piece of revisionist history. The lawmakers note that while the film bills itself as "based on first-hand accounts of actual events" and as an act of "journalism," the truth is that it substantially deviates from the facts. Specifically, its narrative portrays torture as "effective in eliciting important information" related to the killing of Osama Bin Laden, even though CIA records prove this is not true.

McCain, Dems slam “misleading” torture depiction in “Zero Dark Thirty”

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 13:55:00 +0000

Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal’s “Zero Dark Thirty,” the film that depicts the CIA’s decade-long manhunt for Osama bin Laden, has been under fire for its torture scenes; many critics have gone so far as to say that the film “glorifies” torture by suggesting that information gained in the waterboarding scene led to the capture of bin Laden. Now, Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Carl Levin, D-Mich., have written a letter to Michael Lynton, the chairman and chief executive of Sony Pictures Entertainment, calling the depiction of torture "misleading" and "factually inaccurate."

"We write to express our deep disappointment with the movie 'Zero Dark Thirty,'" the Senators wrote. "We believe the film is grossly inaccurate and misleading in its suggestion that torture resulted in information that led to the location of Usama bin Laden."

They continued:

Susan Rice withdraws candidacy for secretary of state

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 21:17:00 +0000

Amid John McCain's continued threats to block her nomination, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice announced that she will withdraw her candidacy for secretary of state.

"If nominated, I am now convinced that the confirmation process would be lengthy, disruptive and costly -- to you and to our most pressing national and international priorities," Rice wrote in a letter to President Obama, NBC News first reported. "That trade-off is simply not worth it to our country ... Therefore, I respectfully request that you no longer consider my candidacy at this time."

"The position of Secretary of State should never be politicized," Rice continued. "As someone who grew up in an era of comparative bipartisanship and as a sitting U.S. national security official who has served in two U.S. Administrations, I am saddened that we have reached this point, even before you have decided whom to nominate. We cannot afford such an irresponsible distraction from the most pressing issues facing the American people."

John McCain will hound Susan Rice to the ends of the earth (or just the Senate Foreign Relations Committee)

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 12:45:00 +0000

Grouchy old Sen. John "Walnuts!" McCain is always mad, and usually there is one thing in particular that he is mad at at a time. Like for a while it was Ultimate Fighting, for some reason. No one knew why, but he devoted literally all of his time as a senator to eradicating it, until a new thing made him mad and he just completely and totally forgot about UFC. Then for a long time the thing he was mad at was "George W. Bush," and that's when everyone grew to love him, but then he moved on from that, too, and he was mad at Iran for a little while, but mostly it's just been Barack Obama, for the last few years, who really gets his goat. Now he's narrowed his focus further, and the one thing in this world that he hates most is the prospect of Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice becoming secretary of state.

More setbacks for Susan Rice

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 14:02:00 +0000

President Obama continues to defend U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice from Republican criticism of her immediate public response to the attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. “Susan Rice is extraordinary,” Obama told reporters before a Cabinet meeting with Rice and Hillary Clinton. “Couldn’t be prouder of the job that she’s done.” But bad news for Rice: Republican senators aren't showing any signs that they're going to back off the attacks.

Rice met with a number of Republican senators this week to try to win them over, ahead of a possible nomination for secretary of state. But so far she has not been successful.

“I continue to be troubled by the fact that the United Nations ambassador decided to play what was essentially a political role at the height of a contentious presidential election campaign,” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told reporters on Wednesday. She added that she “would need to have additional information” before voting to confirm Rice.

Collins, a moderate, would be a key Republican vote in the Senate if Obama were to nominate Rice. “Everybody knows [Collins] does her homework very carefully and that she thinks before she speaks, so it’s not a good sign for Susan Rice,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.

Rice vs. Rice: What changed for John McCain since 2004?

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 21:31:00 +0000

The president has just been reelected and looks to replace his secretary of state with a Ms. Rice who has already served in a senior administration position. The minority party in the Senate is threatening to obstruct her confirmation because she propagated faulty intelligence. The administration defends her, saying she merely recited the most credible intelligence of the moment and had no intention of misleading anyone, but the senators’ questions persist.

No, that's not today! That was eight years ago when George W. Bush appointed his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to be the nation’s top diplomat a week after winning reelection.

Arizona launches misleading abortion website

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 18:20:00 +0000

In a Sunday appearance on Fox News, Sen. John McCain (R. AZ) signaled that Republicans might be ready to reconsider their extreme position on abortion rights. "As far as young women are concerned, absolutely. I don't think people like me -- I can state my opinion on abortion. But other than that, leave the issue alone," he said. It's sound advice, and makes for good policy.

Too bad his home state didn't get the memo.

Less than 24 hours later, the Arizona Department of Health Services launched "A Woman's Right to Know," an informational website that uses manipulated ultrasound images and scary (read: medically inaccurate) claims about the risks associated with abortion to keep women from having the safe, legal medical procedure. State Rep. Kimberly Yee (R. AZ) and other Arizona lawmakers have not been shy about the intent of the website, either. As Yee told the Arizona Daily Sun, "the medical drawings, which are in full color and much more detailed than any ultrasound, may give some prospective parents additional reasons to reconsider their initial decision to terminate the pregnancy."

Susan Rice fails to win over Senate critics

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 17:14:00 +0000

Three Republican senators who met Tuesday with U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice say they are more troubled now over her initial explanations about the deadly Sept. 11 raid in Libya.

Rice met behind closed doors Tuesday with Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte — three of her harshest critics.

Ayotte said Rice told them that her national television description that a spontaneous demonstration triggered the attack on the U.S. consulate was wrong. She had made the comments five days after the raid based on intelligence information.

The lawmakers said the Obama administration still must answer questions about the attack.

Obama is considering Rice as a successor to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

After the meeting, according to reports, Ayotte told reporters that "it’s certainly clear from the beginning that we knew that those with ties to al-Qaida were involved in the attack on the embassy. And clearly the impression that was given of the information given to the American people was wrong. In fact, Ambassador Rice said today, absolutely, it was wrong."

She also said, "I have many more questions that need to be answered."

Susan Rice meeting with senators over Benghazi attack

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 14:15:00 +0000

WASHINGTON — U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice is meeting with key lawmakers in what could be her final pitch for their support if she is nominated to be the next secretary of state.

The discussions, beginning Tuesday, will focus on her much-maligned explanations of the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans, officials said, but she's also clearly auditioning for America's top diplomatic job.

Despite lingering questions over her comments five days after the Benghazi attack, Rice has emerged as the front-runner on a short list of candidates to succeed Hillary Rodham Clinton, with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., seen as her closest alternative. But despite a softening of Republican opposition to Rice, she still has work to do to ensure that enough GOP senators are willing to back her potential nomination.

Rice's series of meetings on Capitol Hill this week will therefore be a critical test both for Republicans, who will decide whether they can support her, and the administration, which must gauge whether Rice has enough support to merit a nomination. According to congressional aides and administration officials, Rice is expected to meet with small groups of lawmakers who will press her on her since-retracted description of the Benghazi attack as the byproduct of an angry protest over an American-made film ridiculing Islam. She'll be joined by acting CIA Director Michael Morell in the meetings.

More top Republicans break with Grover Norquist

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 18:35:00 +0000

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., is the latest high-profile Republican to back away from Grover Norquist and his pledge not to raise taxes.

“I’m not obligated on the pledge,” Corker told Charlie Rose on CBS on Monday. “I made Tennesseans aware, I was just elected, the only thing I’m honoring is the oath I take when I serve, when I’m sworn in this January.”

Corker joins a number of other Republicans who have indicated they would consider bending on the pledge to prevent a set of automatic cuts from taking effect should budget negotiations fail.

“I care more about my country than I do about a 20-year-old pledge,” Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., told a local Georgia news station. “If we do it his way then we’ll continue in debt, and I just have a disagreement with him about that.”

John McCain realizes GOP can’t win war on women

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 17:45:00 +0000

John McCain sounded awfully chastened yesterday. Gone was the bluster of doing "everything in my power to block" Susan Rice from a position she has yet to be nominated for. He didn't question her competence. The rage gave way to this Sunday morning walkback: "I think she deserves the ability and the opportunity to explain herself and her position, just as she said. But, she's not the problem. The problem is the president of the United States."

I doubt McCain is done being an angry, bitter man who still hasn't forgiven Rice for her attack on him during the 2008 presidential campaign. But someone must have told him that trashing an accomplished, relatively young woman of color who wasn't even remotely responsible for what happened in Benghazi is just not a good look these days. Maybe McCain underestimated how many people had Rice's back, from the Congressional Black Caucus to the president himself -- just as his fellow party members had underestimated the power of the voting bloc they commanded on Nov. 6.

Must-see morning clip

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 14:20:00 +0000

"Morning Joe" co-host Joe Scarborough summoned his inner John McCain this morning when he asked, "Why are liberals still so angry on the Twitter?" He added:

They are angry about everything. Like they won. They don't understand like when conservatives win, we go hunting. and drink beer. And know we're going to control at the same time, the country for four years. The liberals on the Twitter, on my machine, are so angry. And it doesn't bother me. I feel sorry for them.

When asked, "What did these people do before the Twitter?" Scarborough joked, "They kicked their dogs."

Susan Rice defends Benghazi comments, calls McCain criticism “unfounded”

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 13:55:00 +0000

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said Wednesday that her early account of the attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans in Benghazi was based on the initial intelligence community assessments and was always subject to review and updates.

She said she respects Republican Sen. John McCain, who has been critical of her, but says "some of the statements he's made about me have been unfounded, but I look forward to having the opportunity at the appropriate time to discuss all of this with him."

Her comments attributing the attacks to a mob enraged over an anti-Muslim video posted on YouTube were widely denounced by Republicans during the U.S. presidential campaign. The attack came on the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States, and her critics said it was clearly a terrorist attack aimed at the anniversary. U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed.

The focus has fallen on Rice because she is a longtime White House insider and is believed to be President Barack Obama's first choice to replace Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is not expected to stay on during his second term.

McCain’s obscene hypocrisy

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 17:45:00 +0000

Shockingly, old white male senators are attacking a woman of color in a powerful position. The men in question are Sens. Lindsey Graham and John McCain. And the woman they’re attacking is U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice. John “I’m still bitter about losing to Obama” McCain said Rice is “not qualified” to become secretary of state and described her comments on Benghazi as “not being very bright.” Lindsey “Republicans are not generating enough angry white guys“ Graham said he was “dead-set on making sure” Rice doesn’t become secretary of state and called her response “so disconnected to reality I don’t trust her ... And the reason I don’t trust her is because I think she knew better, and if she didn’t know better she shouldn’t be the voice of America.”

McCain vs. Obama, the sequel

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 12:56:00 +0000

Barack Obama has said nothing directly about whom he’ll appoint to replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, but he sent what the political world is regarding as a clear signal when he emphatically vouched for Susan Rice’s integrity last week.

If Obama does nominate Rice, the current U.N. ambassador and his longtime friend, it will create a very public showdown between the president and the man he defeated in 2008. The question is whether John McCain, who has emerged as the GOP’s loudest Rice critic and who has pledged to block her nomination, is fighting this battle by himself – or if he can bring the rest of the Republican Party along with him.

If stopping Rice at all costs were to become a GOP priority, her nomination would be in serious jeopardy. Republicans will have 45 votes when the new Senate convenes in January, more than enough to uphold a filibuster. Plus, if Rice were nominated and it became an all-out partisan battle, Republicans would potentially be able to win over a few red state Democrats, who might feel home state pressure to side against Obama. West Virginia’s Joe Manchin comes to mind here.

Petraeus testimony changes no minds

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:30:00 +0000

What happened at today’s much-hyped congressional hearings featuring disgraced former CIA director David Petraeus? It’s hard to say, since the hearings were classified and reporters were not even allowed to see Petraeus enter and leave, let alone listen to him speak.

To judge by what representatives of each party told the press after the hearing, you’d think they attended entirely different meetings. Republicans seem to think that Petraeus completely undercut the Obama administration’s account of the attacks on U.S. diplomats in Benghazi, Libya, while Democrats insist he backed up that account.

"The fact is, the reference to al-Qaida was taken out somewhere along the line by someone outside the intelligence community ... We need to find out who did it and why,” said Republican Rep. Peter King, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, who attended the first of two back-to-back hearings with Petraeus. (The second was with senators.) "The general was adamant there was no politicization of the process, no White House interference or political agenda ... He completely debunked that idea," said Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of the very same meeting.

GOP’s scandal envy

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 22:09:00 +0000

If you're looking at the Republican harumphing over Benghazi and asking yourself, "Why are we supposed to be so mad about this again?" you're not alone. Let's review: There was an attack on our consulate that killed four Americans, including our ambassador. Amid confusing and contradictory reports from the ground, President Obama waited too long to utter the magic incantation, "Terrorism, terrorists, terror!" that would have ... well, it would have done something, but it turns out that he did say "terror," so never mind that. But that's not the real scandal! The real scandal is that Susan Rice went on television soon after and amid all kinds of "based on the best information we have"s and "we'll have to see"s, said one thing that turned out not to be the case: that after the protests in Cairo, there was some kind of copycat protest in Benghazi, which was then "hijacked" by extremist elements using heavy weapons to stage an attack.

Benghazi’s buffoons

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 21:25:00 +0000

Cranky, petulant John McCain is so, so mad about Benghazi these days. He is just furious at the Obama administration for ... something. (For being the Obama administration, instead of the McCain administration.) And he cannot stop going on TV and complaining about how Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice blamed a "flash mob" for the attack on the American consulate, when in fact it was a terror attack, by terrorists. He is so busy going on TV and saying that, and demanding "Watergate hearings" into the thing Rice said, that he didn't have time to read any news articles that explain that he is just wrong about what Rice said.

McCain not only hasn't had time to not be totally wrong, he was so busy being on TV complaining that the Obama administration wasn't telling him enough stuff about Benghazi that he missed a briefing on Benghazi that the Obama administration held for senators on the Homeland Security Committee, a committee McCain is on.