Elizabeth Warren takes to the Senate floor to take on Citigroup and condemn the politicians who seemingly work for them. Amazing speech!

Courtesy of MSNBC:  

“You know,” Warren said Friday, “there is a lot of talk lately about how Dodd-Frank isn’t perfect. There is a lot of talk coming from Citigroup about how Dodd-Frank isn’t perfect. So let me say this to anyone who is listening at Citi – I agree with you. Dodd-Frank isn’t perfect. It should have broken you into pieces.”

I cannot remember when the last time was that I wanted to stand up and cheer for a speech on the Senate floor, but I certainly did yesterday.

Elizabeth Warren has now thrown down the gauntlet for her fellow Democrats, and I really don't think they can ignore it. 

And you can tell that Warren really frightens the Republicans by who is coming after her since this speech.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), responding to Sen. Elizabeth's Warren (D-Mass.) criticism of the $1.1 trillion government spending bill's provision that allows banks to take more risk with taxpayer money, on Friday evening went after Warren and other Democrats who sided against the bill. 

"If you follow the lead of the senator of Massachusetts and bring this bill down … people are not going to believe you are mature enough to run the place,” Graham said on the Senate floor. “Don’t follow her lead. She’s the problem." 

"I'm sure on MSNBC you're going to be well thought of, and on the liberal version of talk radio you'll have your moment with that crowd," Graham said, chiding Warren and other Democrats who deplored what has been called a Wall Street giveaway. 

"You're tired, you're frustrated, you're upset about a provision in the bill you don't like," he added of Warren.

Yeah way to talk down to somebody who is clearly your intellectual superior. 

By the way as you may have noticed from the previous post Warren has at least one well known conservative figure essentially agreeing with her about the Cromnibus bill. Sarah Palin.

Gee I guess we can all look forward to an impassioned ghostwritten Facebook post in favor of Senator Warren. Right?

Right?

Not right?

Benghazi might not be over as an issue in 2016 after all. At least not if Rand Paul has anything to say about it.

Courtesy of The Hill:  

Paul, a likely 2016 presidential contender, criticizes potential rival Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of State during the attacks, and vows to seek the truth about Benghazi. 

"This new Benghazi ‘intelligence’ report is little more than a C.Y.A. attempt designed to protect incompetent politicians and government agents at the expense of justice for the victims of September 11, 2012," Paul writes in an op-ed for Breitbart, a conservative website, using an acronym for "cover your ass." 

The report in question was issued by the House Intelligence Committee before Thanksgiving, and counters several claims made by some Republicans critical of the Obama administration's handling of the 2012 attacks that killed four Americans in Benghazi. 

The report found that "there was no intelligence failure prior to the attacks," "no evidence" of a stand down order to U.S. personnel responding to the assault and no CIA operation to secretly ship arms from Benghazi to Syria. 

Paul expresses skepticism at the report’s findings.

Now this is important because lately Rand Paul has been working pretty hard to portray himself as far less wingnutty than we know him to be. (Remember Paul has a fifteen year relationship with professional lunatic Alex Jones, and was once a frequent guest on his radio show.)

So for Paul to ignore the fact that this is just the latest of several investigations into Benghazi, all of which turned up no evidence of malfeasance on the part of the White House, nor any attempt to launch a coverup.

Now personally I expected certain individual to speak out against these findings, and so they have including Senator Lindsey Graham ("Full of crap!"), former Congressman Allen West, and various other Right Wing types. However I thought that Rand Paul was attempting to resist the conspiratorial whispers from the voices in his head and continue straightening his hairpiece and trying to play the grownup.

However I believe I may have given him too muhc credit. Take a look at how he justifies his reticence in accepting the findings of the report: 

"None of these accusations contain even a modicum of truth?" he asked. 

He points to a Fox News report that U.S. security personnel said the top CIA officer in Benghazi prevented them from responding faster, and to multiple articles on arms smuggling from Libya to Syria. 

"The Obama Administration has tried to paint members of Congress who ask these questions as somehow being extreme or crazy — and perhaps the House Intelligence Committee will now follow suit," Paul writes. "But remember, this is the same administration that called the investigation into the IRS scandal a product of a 'conspiracy theory.' "

So to support his faith that there really is a Benghazi scandal, despite the fact that his has been debunked, Paul turns to the IRS "scandal," which has also been debunked.

Awesome plan.

John McCain "strongly encouraging" Lindsey Graham to run for President. Seriously?

Courtesy of Mediaite: 

It’s no secret that Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham are close compadres. They see eye-to-eye on so much and speak in tandem on so many big issues that it’s actually noteworthy when they publicly disagree on something. So, of course, with Graham actually considering a run for president in 2016, McCain may very well be one of his biggest advocates and tells ABC News he is pushing Graham into running. 

“I am strongly encouraging him to take a look at it,” McCain said. “I know of no one who is better versed and more important on national security policy and defense than Lindsey Graham, and I don’t think these challenges to our security are going away.”

Well good to see that McCain is still just as sharp as always when it comes to picking presidential and vice presidential candidates.

Could you just imagine the histrionic Lindsey Graham as the freaking Commander-in-Chief?

"Oh I do declare, they's attacking us Beauregard. Send out the Army, the Navy, the Marines, oh hell send out everybody!"

Well I know at least one former McCain associate that will be none to happy to know that he is endorsing Graham instead of her.

Senator Lindsey Graham responds to report by the Republican led House Intelligence Committee exonerating the White House over Benghazi as you might expect: "I think the report is full of crap."

Courtesy of The Hill: 

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday blasted a House GOP-led investigation that recently debunked myths about the 2012 Benghazi attack. 

“I think the report is full of crap,” Graham said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” 

After Graham was asked whether the report exonerates the administration, he initially ignored the question, and then eventually said “no.” 

The House Intelligence panel, Graham said, is “doing a lousy job policing their own.” Graham didn’t clearly pinpoint why he dismissed the report’s findings, but suggested its information was provided by people in the intelligence community who had previously lied to Congress about the attack. 

“I don’t believe the report is accurate given the role [former CIA deputy director] Mike Morell played in misleading the Congress on two occasions,” Graham said. 

Host Gloria Borger said the report found no one lied. 

“That’s a bunch of garbage,” Graham replied.

I swear if this keeps up Graham might have to go lie down on his fainting couch with a chilled mint julip. 

After all what part of "Benghazi! Benghazi! Benghazi!" did this intelligence committee not understand?