Collins next to be critical of Rice

Senator suspects political role of possible nominee in Libya response

United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice (right) smiles as she is applauded as President Barack Obama recognizes her job performance before meeting with his Cabinet on Wednesday in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington.
United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice (right) smiles as she is applauded as President Barack Obama recognizes her job performance before meeting with his Cabinet on Wednesday in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington.

— Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she still harbors serious doubts about the Obama administration’s explanation of its response to the deadly attack on a U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, further clouding Susan Rice’s prospects as secretary of state and dealing another serious blow to the White House.

Emerging from an hourlong meeting with Rice, the ambassador to the United Nations, Collins said Wednesday that she remained deeply troubled that Rice did not seem to have a good answer for why the White House did not immediately classify the attack as an act of terror.

“I continue to be troubled by the fact that the United Nations ambassador decided to play what was essentially a political role at the height of a contentious presidential election campaign,” Collins said after the meeting concluded.

Collins is the latest Republican senator to meet with Rice this week and express significant concerns about her ability to lead the State Department if nominated by President Barack Obama as a replacement for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has said she intends to step down soon.

In an effort to smooth over growing tensions with Senate Republicans, Rice met with Sens. John Mc-Cain of Arizona, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina on Tuesday. Yet all three senators said they were dismayed by what they had heard in the meeting. Ayotte and Graham went as far as to threaten to block Rice’s nomination.

Collins said she would need additional information before she could support Rice’s nomination. But in response to a question about support in the Senate for John Kerry of Massachusetts, who is Rice’s main rival for the job, Collins said, “I think John Kerry would be an excellent appointment and would be easily confirmed by his colleagues.”

After she met with Collins, Rice was also scheduled to meet with Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee on Wednesday.

Congressional Republicans have accused the White House of playing down the possibility that the attack in Benghazi was terrorism because it occurred just weeks before the election and could have seriously undercut the president’s contention that he has undermined al-Qaida.

Collins echoed those concerns Wednesday but said she was also troubled by another issue, which she described as an “eerie echo” of previous attacks on Americans in Africa.

Rice, as a senior U.S. diplomat in Africa the late 1990s, should have known the dangers posed by terrorists there, Collins said, particularly because Americans were attacked while Rice was on the job.

“We seem not to have learned from the 1998 bombings of two of our embassies in Africa at the time when Ambassador Rice was the assistant secretary for African affairs,” Collins said. “These are issues I believe deserve further investing.”

Meanwhile, Obama on Wednesday hailed Rice as “extraordinary” and said he could not be prouder of the job she has done on behalf of the United States at the United Nations. His comments came in response to a reporter’s question about whether Rice was getting fair treatment on Capitol Hill.

Information for this article was contributed by The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 11/29/2012

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