My diary last Friday,John McCain's egg-on-face Benghazi comeuppance, received a bit of attention. The diary focused on this video showing what appeared to be John McCain's realization that he had really screwed the pooch with his Benghazi overreaction.
General Petraeus's briefing was comprehensive. I think it was important. It added to our ability to make judgments about what is clearly a failure of intelligence. And he described his actions and that of the, of his agency and their interaction with other agencies and I appreciate his service and his candor.
Apparently, I read him all wrong in that moment. Not only has he not had a light bulb go on, he has gone further down the rabbit hole.
McCain appeared on Face the Nation Sunday and told Bob Schieffer he wants Susan Rice to appear on the program to tell the world how terribly wrong she was to convey the collective assessment of the intelligence community surrounding the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.
Bob Schieffer: Senator, would you be willing to reconsider Susan Rice's nomination, if in fact she's nominated. Or, ah, if she can explain to you, give you a better explanation why she gave the (crosstalk).
John McCain: I give all, I think we give all nominees the benefit of the hearing process, etc. Maybe she could start out by publicly coming back on this show and saying "I was wrong. "I gave the wrong information on your show some several weeks ago". That might be a beginning.
Schieffer: But 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 could want to support any nominee right now because this is, this is very, very serious, and it has even larger implications than the deaths of four Americans.
"It really goes to the heart of this 'light footprint' policy that this administration has been pursuing. And all of the failures throughout Middle East that are now, the chickens are now coming home to roost.
Bolding mine. So John McCain is has now concluded that Susan Rice has screwed up so monumentally that no nominee could gain his support as a result. Or something. I'm trying to understand exactly what he is saying here. Apparently he is ready to oppose anyone President Obama may nominate, even if it isn't Susan Rice, because Susan Rice.
So I admit it is me who has egg on his face thinking that John McCain might have realized he had had ass handed to him in the Petraeus hearing. Instead he has come to the conclusion that it was just his hat they were handing him. My bad. I should have known that this bitter, mean, spiteful, nasty piece of work could ever learn a lesson. At least not while That One sits on the throne that should have been rightfully his.