Susan Rice’s Visit to Capitol Hill Didn’t Help

Senators who criticized her after terrorist attack may still block her cabinet nomination

United Nations ambassador Susan Rice’s outstretched hand to prominent GOP senators, who criticized her after the deadly attacks in Libya, has been slapped away. Rice’s meeting with Senators John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire seemed to do little to stop their criticisms of her and the Obama administration’s public messaging after the September terrorist attacks on a U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. Graham and Ayotte reaffirmed their pledges to block Rice’s likely nomination to replace Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “Bottom line, I’m more disturbed than I was before,” Graham said after his closed-door meeting with Rice, whom he had previously said he could not “trust.” McCain told Fox News he would be “very hard-pressed” to support Rice’s nomination. Should President Obama go ahead and nominate Rice, her contentious meeting with the Republicans signals an ugly confirmation battle ahead. (New York Times)

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