Cranky Old Man/2 year old boy: The John McCain Story.

So I assume everyone knows who John McCain is, US senator from Arizona, failed presidential candidate, and now officially Cranky Old Man and or a 2 year old boy.

Now whats making John McCain cranky this week? Susan Rice, Benghazi, and the US Secretary of State.

Well before the presidential election current US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton announced her intention to leave her post at the end of the first Obama term. Since Obama's reelection, several names have come up to replace Mrs. Clinton, one of them being Susan Rice, the current US ambassador the UN. And since Mrs. Rice's name has come up John McCain has been opposed.

See after the Benghazi attacks Susan Rice went on TV and made reference to a spontaneous demonstration being the cause of the attacks. Once her name came up as possible pick McCain said that she was “not qualified” and she herself was “not very bright.” He went on to add that:
Anyone who goes on national television and in defiance of the facts, five days later — We’re all responsible for what we say and what we do. I’m responsible to my voters. She’s responsible to the Senate of the United States. We have our responsibility for advice and consent...“She told the American people on every major newscast in America. If a select committee, if appointed, clears her of any wrongdoing — besides not being very bright, because it was obvious this was not a, quote ‘flash mob.’ There was no demonstration.”

Later in the day he added:

“I will do everything in my power to block her from being the United States Secretary of State. She has proven that she either doesn’t understand or she is not willing to accept evidence on its face.”

Now it turns out that last set of comments are rather ironic. See the same day Mrs. Rice made her comments the CIA briefing said the following: “The currently available information suggests that the demonstrations in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault against the U.S. Consulate and subsequently its annex. There are indications that extremists participated in the violent demonstrations.”
Now in all fairness to McCain when he made the above comments the CIA briefing was still classified so he couldnt know that.

So no harm no foul right? Mrs. Rice went on the air and repeated the information she was given that she was told was accurate, rightly or wrongly, even if the information wasn't accurate her job has never been to gather intelligence, her job is relay the information she's handed to the public. So John McCain apologizes for insulting her intelligence and accusing her of knowingly lying and we move on, and actually try to figure out why the intelligence was wrong.

Well yea sure, if your a normal person. But this Cranky Old Man McCain.

See John McCain decided instead to insist Mrs. Rice's talking points "came from the White House, not from the DNI.” (director of national intelligence/part of the CIA) and then held a press conference calling for a "Watergate style Special Committee" to investigate who knew what when, needed he claimed by the lack of briefing currently about Benghazi, and of course implied he and the two co-authors of the idea should run the committee.
One minor awkward thing, at the time McCain was speaking the Senate Homeland Security committee was at that moment in the middle of a briefing by the CIA to help determine who knew what when, including confirming the talking points were from the CIA and Mrs. Rice had followed them. Oh and I should probably mention one of the members of the Senate Homeland Security committee is John McCain.
Yea that's right, he missed the briefing to hold a press conference bitching about the lack of a briefings. And if that wasnt bad enough, what was McCain's excuse about missing the very briefing he was bitching wasnt happening? "I have no comment about my schedule and I'm not going to comment on how I spend my time to the media," When pressed on the lack of comment McCain added "Because I have the right as a senator to have no comment and who the hell are you to tell me I can or not?”

In other words, how dare you point out my embarrassing moments to me and ask me about them.

Which brings us to today, when John McCain went on "Face the Nation" and was asked if he still had any objections to Mrs. Rice in light of the briefing that supported her[that he missed], to which he replied:

"Under the present circumstances, until we find out all the information as to what happened, I don’t think you would want to support any nominee right now. Because this is very very serious and it has even larger implications than the deaths of 4 Americans. It really goes to the heart of this whole light foot print policy that this administration is pursuing. " and then doubled down on the need for a Watergate like special committee.

So now not only does he not support Mrs. Rice, he actually no longer supports the idea of having a secretary of state, unless he gets to have his way and personally gets to investigate if Mrs. Rice was knowingly lying when she made mention of a spontaneous demonstration. (which literally EVERYONE Democrat, Republican and Independent not named John McCain (or Lindsey graham or Kelly Ayotte, the two cosponsors of the idea), agrees she didnt do)

So according to John McCain if he does this all of the following questions should have the same answer until he gets what he wants (which he already got) :

What is the US foreign policy? who are american allies? Who are our Trading partners? are we allowed send goods to any country at all? do we have diplomats? are we at war or peace? All those questions, and everything else the state department does the answer would be the same: "Not Applicable"

Now to be fair, McCain did offer one other alternative. Mrs. Rice could help her own case by going on national TV and admitting she was wrong on the facts and that she knew it at the time (which again she didnt, even if the facts were wrong).

So those are the two options laid out by Cranky Old Man/2 year old McCain: Either lie and admit I'm right or let me personally investigate in an attempt to find facts already found that "I either doesn’t understand or I am not willing to accept evidence on its face." (to paraphrase a guy named McCain.).

Honestly I dont know if this one man crusade against the facts the prove he wasnt wrong on something he was wrong about, is more akin to a Cranky Old Man or a 2 year old, but in either case I think someone clearly needs to put the good Senator down for his nappy.