Why they're after Rice

As I suspected. The Republicans have an ulterior motive for using nonsensical conspiracy theories about Benghazi to prevent Rice from becoming Secretary of State: They favor John Kerry for the job.

Gone are the criticisms of Mr. Kerry as a waffler who tried to have it both ways on the Iraq war and the caricature of him as a windsurfing symbol of privileged East Coast liberalism. Instead, Mr. Kerry, a Democrat, is depicted as a deeply knowledgeable statesman who would breeze through confirmation on his way to Foggy Bottom. 

I think the world of John Kerry; always have. (Yes, yes -- I already know that you disagree.) But the GOP favors him for reasons differing from mine. They like the idea of a Democratic senator resigning his seat. This is all about getting Scott Brown back in.

About Benghazi: Some Republicans really believe all of the paranoid horsecrap they've been saying, while others have used a ginned-up controversy in a sneaky, disingenuous fashion. From day one, the Obama administration has always made clear that the attack on the embassy was a pre-planned assault by a group armed with heavy weaponry. In previous posts, I've cited news stories proving that point. At the same time, it appears that there was also a spontaneous local demonstration against the Innocence of Muslims video, and that this demonstration provided the attackers with cover.

When the CIA gives conflicting information about an event, it's always fair to presume that they have received conflicting information from their sources. Such things happen. Nothing about this is very puzzling.

A moment's thought should tell you that Obama had no motive to hush up a terrorist attack, since rallying the country against terrorists is always good electoral politics. The people trying to cobble together a Benghazi conspiracy theory are loons who sincerely believe that Obama is a secret Al Qaeda sympathizer. Because, y'know, he's really a Moooze-lim.

Back to Rice: There is a legitimate argument against her, because her investments contain a potential conflict of interest.

Rice would bring to making decisions regarding the Keystone XL pipeline: Rice and her husband own “at least $1.25 million worth of stock in four of Canada’s eight leading oil producers,” including Enbridge, the “oil company extracting the highly toxic tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada’s boreal forest”; “major holdings” of between $300,000 and $600,000 in TransCanada; “holdings between $5.0 to $11.25 million dollars in the Royal Bank of Canada” and other Canadian financial institutions funding the pipeline project.

One should point out that a lobbyist for TransCanada also had uncomfortably close ties to Hillary Clinton.

So the question before us comes to this: If not Rice, and if not Kerry -- then who should Obama pick? 

Tom Donlilon has been mentioned -- but his background as a former officer for Fannie Mae would open up still another can of worms. Colin Powell would be an interesting choice in many ways, but the WMD fiasco will always work against him.

Wesley Clark? Just sayin'....

The ideal choice would be Bill Clinton. But he'd never go for it.