Rice Bombs On The Hill

Susan Rice, the Obama Administration’s ambassador to the United Nations, is making the rounds on Capitol Hill this week. It is widely expected that President Obama will nominate Rice to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. Part of Rice’s mission to Capitol Hill is to introduce herself to the men and women who will be voting on her confirmation. The other part is damage control.

It was Susan Rice whom the Obama Administration sent out on five Sunday television shows after the Benghazi terrorist attack to deny it was a terrorist attack and to blame it on an obscure anti-Islamic film.

General David Petraeus testified that the CIA knew immediately that Al Qaeda jihadists were responsible. But Ambassador Rice’s talking points were edited by top Obama officials. What we don’t know is why those edits were made, and who in the administration made the decision to promote a fairy tale.

Republican Senators, led by John McCain (AZ), Lindsey Graham (SC) and Kelly Ayotte (NH), are demanding answers from Rice and threatening to block her confirmation if she is nominated as Secretary of State.

Yesterday, Rice met with Senators McCain, Graham and Ayotte after Sen. McCain said he was willing to hear her explanation for deceiving the public. It was assumed that Rice’s critics would be calmed by the meeting and that she would emerge in a stronger position.

But Rice bombed. Following their meeting, Sen. Graham said, “We’re not even close to getting the basic answers. …Bottom line, I’m more disturbed than I was before.”

Sen. McCain told reporters, “We are significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got, and some that we didn’t get.” And Senator Ayotte went so far as to declare that she would “place a hold on anybody who wanted to be promoted for any job who had a role in the Benghazi situation.”

One reason the meeting went so poorly was that the senators were given bad information, which had to be retracted later in the day.

Religious Liberty & The Arab Spring

Here’s more evidence of the bitter fruit of the Arab Spring: Reuters reports that an Egyptian court has convicted seven Egyptian Christians for their alleged role in the production of the anti-Islamic film that was used as an excuse for riots throughout the Middle East.

Judge Saif al-Nasr Soliman declared, “The seven accused persons were convicted of insulting the Islamic religion through participating in producing and offering a movie that insults Islam and its prophet.” Their sentence: Death.

Remember, friends, this didn’t happen in Iran. It happened in Egypt, a country that receives $1.5 billion of your hard-earned tax money each year. It happened under the leadership of Mohamed Morsi, who has now claimed dictatorial powers.

The “good news” is that the seven Christians were tried in absentia because most of them now live in America, where they are free to speak and believe as they wish. This is why tens of thousands of Coptic Christians, perhaps as many as 100,000, have fled Egypt since the Arab Spring.

By the way, Coptic Christians have greater roots in Egypt than the Islamists. The Apostle Mark brought Christianity to Egypt and was martyred in Alexandria. Egypt was a largely Christian nation for hundreds of years prior to the birth of Mohammed and the 7th century Arab invasion.

You Like Rubio/Pence

We had a great response to yesterday’s request for feedback. Thanks to everyone who responded and took the time to encourage me and our team. I appreciate that.

There was also a surprising amount of support for going off the fiscal cliff. Politico reported this morning that Speaker John Boehner urged House Republicans to hold their ground. Here’s an excerpt of his remarks:

“It’s important that everyone in this room continue to be clear with our constituents about what [our] position is. We’re fighting for spending cuts. We’re fighting against increases in tax rates that destroy jobs. And we’re fighting for pro-growth tax reform and entitlement reform, the keys to economic growth.”

As for 2016, some folks were understandably annoyed that we were already asking. Among those of you who offered a preference, Florida Senator Marco Rubio was the clear favorite with Indiana’s Governor-elect Mike Pence finishing a strong second.