Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Graham's Grandstanding Gripes

"Senator vows to hold up defense, CIA nominees; Wants answers on Libya before allowing a vote" Associated Press, February 11, 2013

WASHINGTON — Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said Sunday he would hold up Senate confirmation of President Obama’s nominees to head the Pentagon and the CIA until the White House provided more answers about the Sept. 11 attack against a US installation in Benghazi, Libya.

Graham accused the White House of ‘‘stonewalling’’ requests to release more information about the attack that killed four Americans. ‘‘We’re going to get to the bottom of Benghazi,’’ he said on CBS’s ‘‘Face the Nation.’’

See: FALSE FLAG PSY OP - US AMBASSADOR ATTACK 

Those enough answers for you? 

A Democratic colleague branded Graham’s threat to stall the nominations of former senator Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican, to be defense secretary and John Brennan, Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, to be CIA director as ‘‘unprecedented and unwarranted.’’ Senators should have the chance to vote on the fate of those nominees, said Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island.

Also see: Haggling Over Hagel

Droning On About John Brennan

The White House took aim at Graham, a persistent critic of Obama’s response to the terrorist assault, by urging quick approval of the president’s nominees and scolding any lawmakers trying to ‘‘play politics’’ with critical nominations.

White House officials did not address Graham’s demand for more information, but did note that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Army General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified Thursday before Congress about the chaotic day of the Sept. 11 attack....

SeePentagon Testilies to Senate 

Weren't they under oath?

Republicans have accused the Obama administration of an election-year coverup of the attack and at the hearing several suggested that Obama was disengaged as Americans died.

‘‘We know nothing about what the president did on the night of September 11th during a time of national crisis, and the American people need to know what their commander in chief did, if anything, during this eight-hour attack,’’ Graham said on CBS....

What was George W. Bush doing on September 11, 2001?

‘‘In a constitutional democracy, we need to know what our commander in chief was doing at a time of great crisis, and this White House has been stonewalling the Congress, and I’m going to do everything I can to get to the bottom of this so we’ll learn from our mistakes and hold this president accountable for what I think is tremendous disengagement at a time of national security crisis,’’ he said....

Why did Bush just sit there reading that dumb book?

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RelatedSenate panel expects to vote on Chuck Hagel today