McCain Throws Tantrum After Election

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright Nov. 15, 2012
All Rights Reserved.                                         

         Reminded of the drubbing he took at the hands of President Barack Obama four years ago, the six-term former POW Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) lashed out at the president.  Since his loss to Obama in 2008, McCain’s been on a rampage, showing he’s still madder than a hornet.  Romney’s Nov. 6 shellacking reminded McCain of just how much resentment he has for the two-term president.  Making a federal case out of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack at the U.S. Consulate in the Benghazi, Libya that killed 52-year-old Amb. Chris Stevens and three other Americans, McCain has asked for a Special Prosecutor to look into what the president knew and when he knew it.  Initial reports by U.N. Amb. Susan Rice indicated that the attack was based on violent rioting from an amateur U.S. video, depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a womanizing pedophile.  New info proved otherwise.

            McCain and fellow conservative Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) hold Obama accountable for a remote terrorist attack at a dangerous outpost in Libya.  Neither McCain nor Graham held former President George W. Bush accountable for Sept. 11, nor should they.  But Obama’s a different story.  Somehow the newly reelected president must put on his Superman cape and protect the U.S. diplomatic corps around the globe.  McCain and Graham blame Rice for giving false information about what caused the attack.  When the dust cleared, the Pentagon and CIA found al-Qaeda’s fingerprints on the attack.  When U.S. officials announced Sept. 10 that Yemen’s No. 2 al-Qaeda operative Saeed al-Shihri was killed in a predator drone attack, it increased the chance of an al-Qaeda attack at a new target.  Al-Qaeda was bound to attack after Bin Laden’s death May 1, 2011 and Yemen’s Anwar al-Awlaki Sept.30, 2011.

            Hoping to whip-up a new Watergate-like scandal, McCain spends too much time on his personal vendetta.  “More that two months after the Benghazi attack, there are still many unanswered questions,” said McCain calling for an independent Congressional investigation.  McCain asked for no such thing following Sept. 11 or for the numerous attacks on U.S. targets by Bin Laden since the first World Trade Center attack in 1993.  “While we await the findings and recommendation of the administration’s internal review of the Benghazi attack, it’s essential for Congress to conduct its own independent investigation,” insisted McCain.  When U.S. East African embassies were attacked Aug. 7, 1998 by Bin Laden in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya, McCain didn’t insist on Congressional investigations of former President Bill Clinton.

            McCain’s memory has grown dim about the morning after Sept. 11.  White House spokesman Mike McCurry said the administration didn’t know who conducted the attacks.  It took days for the White House to admit that it was Osama bin Laden.  Should McCain have questioned McCurry’s integrity because he shared the CIA’s most recent information, before more facts came out?  “I do not see the benefit of, nor need for a select committee,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).  “Our committee, our Homeland Security Committee, has government-wide jurisdiction and history of producing comprehensive bipartisan reports on everything from the Ft. Hood terrorist attack to Hurricane Katrina, so I don’t see the need for creating a brand new select committee to take a look at this,” said Collins. McCain wants to stir the pot now that he knows Obama’s president for the next four years.

             Obama lost his cool at his first post-election press conference Nov. 13, telling Senate Republicans to back off Amb. Rice.  “But when they go after the U.N. ambassador, apparently because they think she’s an easy target, then they’ve got a problem with me,” said Barack, opening himself up to more controversy.  Barack got defensive when McCain and Graham warned they’d oppose her nomination to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton as Secretary of State.  Barack should have told McCain and Graham he welcomes their opinion but lets roll the dice.  “I’ve always said that the buck stops with the President of the United States,” McCain wrote in a statement, blaming Obama for contradictory statements.  McCain had no problem when Bush administration officials couldn’t say who was responsible for Sept. 11, when it was obvious to just about everyone

 John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.

©1999-2012 Discobolos Consulting Services, Inc.
(310) 204-8300
All Rights Reserved.