Pay No Attention to that Man Behind the “Opportunity”

Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsay Graham are not playing politics with the deaths of four American government officials, including a US ambassador, in Benghazi, Libya.

Really.

They’re not.

Even if the entire Benghazi “scandal” was a concoction of the Romney campaign to use the deaths of Americans in Libya as an “opportunity,” as they called it:

[A]s word of violence spread, campaign aides late Tuesday watched tweets coming out of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo that were criticizing the filmmaker rather than condemning the attackers, and saw an opportunity to criticize Obama.

America saw death and mayhem in Libya and Egypt. The Republican presidential candidate saw opportunity.

Of course, Mitt Romney had been keeping his eyes open for an “opportunity” like this for a while. Romney wasn’t sure how the “opportunity” would present itself. Maybe it would be like the Iran hostage criss, another horrible tragedy that Mitt Romney saw as an “opportunity.” But whatever it was, Mitt Romney was ready should the “opportunity” of an American tragedy present itself.

So, please don’t believe that John McCain and Lindsay Graham are using an American tragedy in order to score political points, even if that’s exactly what their presidential candidate did, and his surrogates, every day up until the election.

Okay?

We Owe the American People and the Families of the Murdered Americans a Full and Complete Explanation

You see, John McCain and Lindsay Graham are doing this for the families of the Americans who died in Benghazi – America owes them a full and complete explanation:

Sen. John McCain added: “We owe the American people and the families of the murdered Americans a full and complete explanation, which for two months the President has failed to deliver.”

And that’s why John McCain and Lindsay Graham are threatening to torpedo the nomination of Susan Rice, and African-American woman, as Secretary of State, because they care about the families of the murdered Americans.

Which brings up another Rice who wanted to be Secretary of State, and another tragedy a lot bigger, and a lot more important, than four Americans dead in Benghazi. I’m talking about September 11, and Condi Rice’s role in the debacle that led to 3,000 Americans dying in an instant, and America getting involved in two multi-trillion dollar wars (the second of which was based on a lie that Condi Rice was also a part of).

You’re probably thinking what I’m thinking right about now. John McCain and Lindsay Graham must have stepped up and demanded that Condi Rice not be nominated as Secretary of State out of concern for what we owed the American people and the families of the murdered Americans. Right?

Nah.

We Don’t Owe the American People and the Families of the Murdered Americans a Full and Complete Explanation

Here’s what John McCain said on the Senate floor about Democratic concerns about Condi Rice becoming secretary of state after the Bush administration, which included Rice, lied to the American people and Congress about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, costing us the lives of America service members and trillions of dollars, not to mention that little 9/11 thing:

‘So I wonder why we are starting this new Congress with a protracted debate about a foregone conclusion… I can only conclude that we are doing this for no other reason than because of lingering bitterness over the outcome of the election.’”

I’m not noticing a lot of concern about what we owe the American people and the families of murdered Americans.

Then there was John McCain’s comments to CNN around the same time. Again, no mention of what we owe the families of murdered Americans:

MCCAIN: Condoleezza Rice is a great American success story. This is what America is all about. A young woman who grew up in a segregated part of America where Americans were not treated equally, to rise to the position of secretary of state. We should have been celebrating, I believe, this remarkable American success story. Also, I thought that some of the remarks — and I’m not going to mention my colleagues’ names — some of the remarks aimed at her during the hearings challenged her integrity. We can disagree on policy and we disagree on a lot of things, but I think it is very clear that Condoleezza Rice is a person of integrity. And yes, I see this, some lingering bitterness over a very tough campaign. I hope it dissipates soon.”

Funny, not so concerned any more about a young woman who grew up in a country where she wasn’t treated equally and rose to the position of secretary of state. And, no mention of what we owe the families of the murdered Americans. Imagine that.

And finally, we dont want to forget Lady Lindsay, who threw a really hissy fit today when the President dared to defend his UN ambassador. Surely, Lindsay Graham spoke up during Condi’s nomination for what was owed to the families of the dead Americans?

Nah.

Lindsay was busy explaining how hard the business of intelligence is when you’re busy operating against all those bad guys in the Arab world. Here’s a transcript of Lindsay Graham on Fox from January 27, 2005:

GRAHAM: Good morning. It’s painful to watch.

DOOCY: You’re talking about the confirmation and not this program, I hope.

GRAHAM: Oh, no. Well, yes.

DOOCY: She wound up — she was there at the Department of State just about a half an hour ago, addressed her staff. She’s happy to be there but it was a rough road getting there.

GRAHAM: Well, I think she comes out bigger than her critics. The words like ‘misleading’ and ‘disingenuous,’ I think, were very unfair.

DOOCY: What about the word ‘liar’?

GRAHAM: Yes, that’s even more unfair. Because it was all in terms of weapons of mass destruction and misleading us about the war and what was in Iraq. Well, every intelligence agency in the world was misled. And to connect those two to say that she’s a liar is very unfair, over the line. And if the Democratic Party keeps this kind of attack up they’re going to be meeting in a phone booth.”

Again, no mention of the families of the 9/11 dead, or the families of our American service members killed in Iraq (let alone all the families we killed in Iraq).

It’s queer, the way Lindsay Graham and John McCain seem to have flipped on a dime and changed their story when the African-American woman trying to be secretary of state is no longer a Republican, but now a Democrat. Suddenly, her racial struggles, her experience, and her integrity no longer matter.

Queer indeed.