Tag Archives: Bob Corker

May 9, 2013 · 4:27 PM

Benghazi Review Board Chair Says Notion Of Cover Up Is ‘Pulitzer Prize Fiction’

The GOP in congress and their sycophants on Fox News  are espousing the Benghazi conspiracy theories and in fact holding “Benghazi” hearings (on the taxpayers dime) based on those conspiracies theories.  The following article tells a different side to the story…

Think Progress

The co-chair of the State Department’s Accountability Review Board on the Benghazi terror attacks last year said on Wednesday criticized those claiming the Obama administration’s response to the attacks has the elements of some kind of Watergate-style cover-up.

“I think the notion of a quote, cover up, has all the elements of Pulitzer Prize fiction attached to it,” former Ambassador Thomas Pickering said on MSNBC. He also rebutted claims that the review board tried to protect former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from scrutiny:

PICKERING: I saw no evidence of it. She did publicly take responsibility for what happened below her and indeed one of the things the Congress did in preparing the legislation that established the Accountability Review Board was to say we don’t want a situation where heads of agencies take responsibility and then nobody who made the decision in the chain has to suffer any consequences for failure for performance. I believe in fact the Accountability Review Board did it’s work well. I think the notion of a quote, cover up, has all the elements of Pulitzer Prize fiction attached to it.

Watch the clip:

Pickering wanted to testify at today’s House Oversight Committee hearings on the Benghazi attacks, which was billed as letting State Department officials expose an Obama administration cover-up of wrong-doing in handing the aftermath of the attacks. “I am willing to testify,” Pickering said. “I made that clear yesterday and the White House I understand made that clear to [Committee chair Rep. Darrell] Issa [R-CA]. He declined. I don’t know the reasons for that.” Pickering also countered claims that the military could have done more to respond to the attacks:

PICKERING: The aircraft at Aviano were 2 to 3 hours away but there were no refueling aircraft available. I think that speaks for itself. It has all along. I don’t see any contradiction. … There should be no controversy over that. Aircraft were there but they were not available in a time span that could have made any serious difference in connection with the issue.

Earlier on Wednesday, Republican Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) shot down his colleagues’ conspiracy theory laden claims about the Obama administration and Benghazi. “We need to know were these people culpable or not. If they were, why are they still on the payroll? Other than that, I’ve been able to read all the cables. I’ve seen the films,” Corker said. “I feel like I know what happened in Benghazi. I’m fairly satisfied.”

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May 8, 2013 · 5:05 PM

Top Republican ‘Fairly Satisfied’ With White House’s Account Of Benghazi

This was unexpected…

TPM LiveWire

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Bob Corker (R-TN) said Wednesday that he’s “fairly satisfied” with the Obama administration’s account of events that led to the deaths of American diplomats in Benghazi last year.

“We need to know were these people culpable or not. If they were, why are they still on the payroll? Other than that, I’ve been able to read all the cables. I’ve seen the films,” Corker told MSNBC. “I feel like I know what happened in Benghazi. I’m fairly satisfied.”

He cautioned House Republicans to be “respectful” if they probe the issue further.

“Look, if the House wants to have hearings,” he said, “I hope they’re done in a respectful way and hopefully it will shed some light on what happened.”

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April 27, 2013 · 7:29 PM

Gun Group Raffles Off Assault Rifle Model Used In Newtown Shooting To ‘Resist Barack Obama’

The First Amendment’s provision of the Right to LIFE, liberty and the pursuit of happiness/property (depending on whose version of the U.S Constitution you read) actually trumps “2nd amendment rights”.

Those 20 children and 6 adults killed in Newtown had the right to LIFE.

The only “right to life” these folks know is the one that   feeds the fetus but starves the child  not to mention allowing them to get shot and killed with firearms because in their mind the 2nd Amendment is the only Constitutional provision that matters.

Think Progress

The Tennessee Firearms Association is raffling off one AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, the same weapon used by Adam Lanza to kill 20 children and six adults in Newtown.

According to the promotion, “TFA is giving away a BUSHMASTER AR15 to advance the effort to resist Barack Obama, the federal government and even a few in Tennessee state government who are determined to destroy your 2nd Amendment rights!!”

The promotion began earlier in April to coincide with the Senate’s consideration of gun violence prevention legislation. And while contestants do not have to be a TFA member to enter, the promotion notes TFA would “appreciate” donations, ending with, “Our rights under the 2nd Amendment and even the Bill of Rights are not safe in Tennessee! We must act with force and determination to protect, preserve and restore our rights!!!!”

The Tennessean reports that the raffle has already drawn more than 10,000 entries for the Monday drawing.

But Tennessee gun groups have little reason to fear for their representatives’ position on guns. Both Senators Bob Corker (R) and Lamar Alexander (R) voted against the Senate bill to expand background checks — two of 46 Senators who filibustered a safety measure that is approved by 90 percent of Americans.

“This may illustrate perfectly what I’ve been saying all along: They create these issues to raise money. That just stokes the fire to frighten folks,” former state Rep. Debra Maggart said of the motive for the raffle. Maggart herself was a target of both TFA and the National Rifle Association in her Republican primary last year.

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March 6, 2013 · 12:15 PM

Obama Circumventing Republican Leaders To Revive Sequester Talks

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Well, I say Bravo!  Nothing wrong with trying something different.  GOP “leaders” are hog-tied by the Tea Party.  Good luck Mr. President!

Alan Colmes’ Liberaland

With the Republican leadership not engaging with the president, Obama is reaching out to a dozen Republicans to revive talks.

Mr. Obama has invited about a dozen Republican senators out to dinner on Wednesday night, after speaking with several of them by phone in recent days, according to people familiar with the invitation. And next week, according to those people and others who did not want to be identified, he will make a rare foray to Capitol Hill to meet separately with the Republican and Democratic caucuses in both the Democratic-controlled Senate and the Republican-controlled House.

Since the weekend, the president has called at least a half-dozen Republican lawmakers, mostly senators, in a bid to revive talks toward a long-term deficit-reduction agreement and to press for action on other issues, including immigration, gun safety and climate measures.

“Maybe because of sequestration and frustration with the public, the time is right to act, and what I see from the president is probably the most encouraging engagement on a big issue since the early days of his presidency,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who received a call from Mr. Obama on Tuesday.

Speaking of the deficit reduction impasse, Mr. Graham added, “He wants to do the big deal.”

Mr. Obama’s call to Mr. Graham followed other conversations with Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Rob Portman of Ohio and Bob Corker of Tennessee, all Republicans. Mr. Corker called his conversation with the president “constructive.”

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December 29, 2012 · 2:09 AM

GOP Senators Want To Take Debt Ceiling Hostage In Order To Raise Retirement Age

Those guys are such creeps.  Someone needs to tell them about the results of the last General Election.  They appear to be stuck on stupid…

Think Progress

Two Republican senators want to use the threat of an economic meltdown to raise the retirement age and cut Medicare. Sens. Bob Corker (R-TN) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) introduced a plan today that would raise the federal debt limit by $1 trillion in exchange for $1 trillion in cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, as The Hill reported:

The Corker-Alexander dollar-for-dollar plan has several components.

It would structurally reform Medicare by creating competing private options giving seniors greater choice of healthcare plans. It would not, however, cap Medicare spending.

The plan would also give states more flexibility to manage Medicaid programs and prevent states from “gaming the federal share of the program with state tax charges.”

It would gradually raise the Social Security retirement age and use the “chained CPI” formula to calculate cost-of-living adjustments, curbing the growing cost of benefits.

In exchange, it would direct the debt limit be increased by the same amount as the savings generated from entitlement reform.

The U.S. will hit its debt limit on or around December 31st. The Treasury Department estimates that, using extraordinary measures, it could avoid default for another two months or so. Allowing the U.S. to default on its debt via not raising the debt ceiling could cause a complete financial meltdown. The 2011 debt ceiling debacle — during which House Republicans nearly pushed the country into a default due to their intransigence on taxes — cost the country about $19 billion in higher interest payments and at least one million jobs.

Corker and Alexander are threatening more economic chaos in order to achieve one of the most regressive potential policy changes. Though lawmakers point to America’s increasing life expectancy in order to justify raising the retirement age, life expectancy is only increasing for wealthier workers in non-physical jobs. As the Center for Economic and Policy Research put it, “there has been a sharp rise in inequality in life expectancy by income over the last three decades that mirrors the growth in inequality in income.”

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November 26, 2012 · 11:26 PM

Grover Norquist Makes ‘Tony Soprano-Like’ Threats to Republicans Who Dare to Break His Pledge

I was looking for this particular video to embed on TFC and found a pretty good  political You Tube© channel in the process.

Grover Norquist appears to be panicking a bit since several Senators have said they would not honor the Norquist Pledge which most of them signed upon entering office.

NewsPoliticsNow

After defending his anti-tax pledge to Soledad O’Brien on CNN this morning, Grover Norquist turned to Fox News this afternoon to continue the damage control.

Pressed by Neil Cavuto to explain why Republican leadership seems to be indicating they are open to some tax increases to reach a deal to resolve the fiscal cliff, Norquist returned to his line that GOP legislators have a had some “impure thoughts” over the last few days but have not actually voted to raise taxes yet.

Over the course of the interview, Cavuto described Norquist as both a “unique, powerful Wizard of Oz figure who has been able to keep Republicans in lock step with your way of thinking” and as a “Tony Soprano-like” mob boss who will “remember these guys who turn on you.”

As he tends to do, Norquist adopted a modest posture, saying that the pledge is not about him but it is about the American people. But that did not stop him from issuing veiled threats to Republicans who have begun to turn away from him.

Norquist recalled President George H.W. Bush, who failed to secure a second term after breaking his “no new taxes” promise. He also chalked up Tennessee Senator Bob Corker’s election to his embrace of the pledge and questioned how Corker’s constituents will react if he breaks the pledge now.

As the country approaches the fiscal cliff deadline at the end of this year, it appears that a compromise can only be achieved if Republican leaders effectively cast off Grover Norquist and his anti-tax pledge. Whether they ultimately dismiss Norquist and his pledge or stick by it in an attempt to save their seats remains to be seen.

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