Republicans got wind of the trial balloon that is the nomination of Susan Rice for Secretary of State. Ambassador Rice would be an admirable choice to succeed Hillary Clinton's as Secretary of State.
Predictably the suggestion has the GOP screaming 'Benghazi' at the very thought. According to the GOP he 'handling' of the Benghazi attack ('scandal', 'crisis', 'coverup', etc.) has tainted her beyond consideration. Her 'handling' consists of appearing on Sunday talk shows hours after the attack occurred, killing four Americans, and sharing the known intelligence at the time.
The Republican 'logic' in a nutshell: it doesn't matter if it's fair to her or not, it doesn't matter if it's a real issue or not, we have invested a great deal of time and effort in making it appear as if it is, and we intend to keep it that way.
"Whether fair to her or not, Susan Rice has become the posterchild for congressional suspicions of a coverup of the attack on our consulate in Benghazi," the aide said. "If the president sent up a Rice nomination, you'd just have one more committee holding hearings, asking questions and sifting through documents with a media drumbeat on Benghazi — not the start I'd imagine he wants for the second term.
Rice's Sunday show appearances on the attack — in which she initially blamed it on an anti-Muslim YouTube video — have become a lightning rod within the Republican Party's foreign policy hawk wing, with Sen. Lindsey Graham going on record on Sunday saying he would oppose any effort to name her to the top Cabinet post in the upcoming second-term shake-up.
A senior Republican aide expressed shock that the rest of the country is not obsessed with the non-scandal that is Benghazi, and that their constant stream of 24/7 propaganda about it has not seeped into the national consciousness beyond the fictional programs on the Fox network, better known as 'math you do to make yourself feel better as a Republican'.
A senior Republican leadership aide expressed shock at the possibility that Rice would be nominated for the State Department slot and said it would almost go poorly for the ambassador.
The GOP also expressed doubts about John Kerry's nomination as Secretary of Defense, pointing to his anti-war efforts, and seemngly believing that his swiftboating was an actual thing and not a fabrication to help GWB continue on as President after his first illegitimate term.
The idea of Kerry heading up DoD was also questioned by Republicans, who warned the selection of the Vietnam veteran-turned-critic wouldn't be simple either.
"He'll run into a buzz saw of Vietnam vets" if Obama taps Kerry for the Pentagon slot, a GOP aide said.
Please proceed, Republicans.