The Amiga Filling Lieberman’s Hawkish Shoes
When Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) retires from the upper chamber he will leave behind a gap in the “three amigos” on foreign policy, as he and Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have been dubbed. The three senators traveled the world together for over a decade and were always at the table for foreign policy debates. Through bipartisan measures, these three senators have championed wars and solutions for global humanitarian crises.
It seems that a trio will remain intact even as one member bows out. Lieberman has found a successor in Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R).
Ayotte is the junior senator from New Hampshire. She was elected in 2010 and received wide support from high-profile Republicans who can to campaign with her including Sarah Palin, McCain, Gov. Mitt Romney, Gov. Haley Barbour, and Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa). Ayotte was an important victory for the Republicans in New England as well as adding another conservative female voice to the Senate floor.
Before running for the Senate, Ayotte served as the New Hampshire attorney general for five years. Before that, she was a prosecutor.
In her first two years as a senator her largest contribution was leading the fight for an amendment revoking President Obama’s 2009 executive order restricting American interrogators to the techniques outlined in the Army Field Manual.
“When a member of al-Qaeda or a similar associated terrorist group is captured, I want to them to be terrified about what’s going to happen to them in American custody,” said Lieberman, explaining his support for the amendment. “I want them not to know what’s going to happen, I want that the terror that they inflict on others to be felt by them as a result of the uncertainty that they can look on the Internet and know exactly what our interrogators are limited to.”
The amendment did not ultimately make it into the defense spending bill, but Ayotte emerged as a voice supportive of a strong military, national security priorities, and firm foreign policy.
Although still a freshman senator, she has made her voice heard on many important foreign policy issues and worked her way into the three amigos’ tight group.
The three traveled the country together this past summer as well as made a trip to east Asia. On Nov. 27 at the Foreign Policy Initiative, Lieberman and Ayotte appeared together to talk about “the past and future of foreign policy in the Senate.”
Then when it came time for U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice to answer congressional questions about the attack in Benghazi, Libya, it was McCain, Graham, and Ayotte who met with her in closed room.
After her meeting with Rice, Ayotte told journalists, “I actually came out more troubled than when I went in.”
“If Rice were to be President Obama’s nomination for Secretary of State, there will be a hold,” Ayotte said. “We should hold until we get information, sufficient information.” Last week, Rice withdrew her name from consideration for the post.
Ayotte is about to enter into a new Congress, possibly as the face of future conservative foreign policy. Last week she presented many of her foreign policy ideas, concerns, and criticisms at the American Enterprise Institute.
Ayotte opened cautioning that we have many threats facing the United States yet the Department of Defense is being asked to make significant budget cuts. The senator outlined what some of these reductions would look like including a significantly reduced Navy fleet. “The numbers speak, and message they send is a bad one for American security,” she said.
Regarding the lack of immediate response in the Benghazi attack, she also pointed to a lack of engagement in security after Moammar Gadhafi fell from power. Afraid that this could happen again in places such as Syria, Ayotte warned that it is essential for the administration to maintain security engagement even after the revolution is over.
She maintained, as McCain and Graham have as well, that there were plenty of indicators that Americans in Libya were in danger and should have been granted additional security if not pulled out entirely. “There was no surprise. The British and Red Cross teams had already pulled out after attacks on their teams. The security levels were diminishing and the indicators were all there,” Ayotte argued.
“I am deeply, deeply troubled,” she added.
There were specific signs Ayotte thought the administration should have been quick to respond to. She cited statements from late high-ranking al-Qaeda member Abu Yahya al-Libi encouraging attacks on the U.S. in Libya, plus the facts that the attack occurred on Sept. 11 and the consulate had repeatedly sent requests for increased security.
As a prosecutor of those accused of murder, Ayotte feels particularly strong about bringing justice in this situation as well as taking lessons and learning from the attack.
She expressed frustration with the Accountability Review Board, the State Department group charged with investigating security overseas that just released its report. “They will not fully engage in inter-agency discussions. They will not answer the questions my colleagues and I repeatedly send them,” she said.
Beyond Libya, Ayotte stressed the strategic importance of Syria and President Bashar al-Assad’s strong ties to Iran.
“What we do in Syria is very important in relation to what we are trying to accomplish in Iran,” said Sen. Ayotte.
She supports arming the rebels and possibly a no-fly zone.
In the midst of fiscal cliff negotiations, the defense budget has come under some scrutiny and is facing massive sequestration cuts. Ayotte was quick to point out our defense spending is not at the highest percentage it has ever been. Also given the amount of threats the U.S. currently faces she does not think the defense budget should be on the cutting table.
“The Department of Defense should not take a bullet for us to be able to afford healthcare costs. However, we are $16 trillion in debt so cutting money anywhere is our priority,” argued Ayotte.
There were rumors when Romney went to campaign with Ayotte in New Hampshire that he was putting her name on the short-list as a potential vice-presidential candidate.
Recently at New Hampshire’s Saint Anselm College, Ayotte said her daughter had dreams of becoming the first female president. Later, New Hampshire Public Radio asked Ayotte about her own presidential aspirations.
“I think I’ll be campaigning for Kate Daley, my daughter, for president — that’s it,” she said.
I saw this lady on Fox news today talking about the Libyan mess. She is incredibly intelligent and articulate. I’m glad to have her as a Republican.
If she’s got an IQ higher than a box of rocks and even an ounce of Reagan in her, she should say “Stay out of internecine muslims fights!”
McCain and Graham must be pretty damn stupid or they are part of the coverup in Benhazi. Fox has been covering this scandal for 8 weeks and all those involved in the investigation (including McCain and Graham) have not mentioned one time that the entire Benghazi MISSION (not Consulate) was a weapons running scandal. The last person Stevens met with was a Turkish represenative who was helping move the Lybian weapons to Turkey and then on to the Syrian rebels. The Canadian Free Press is so far ahead of this weapons running scandal than any organization in America, which includes the Congress of the United States. This is all a pathetic coverup. Our entire government system has been corrupted from top to bottom.
The Republican Establishment is part of the problem. They are part of the cover-up
Rezko’s friend Dr. Ronald Michael and the State Attorney’s Office
http://illinoispaytoplay.com/2012/12/19/rezkos-friend-dr-ronald-michael-and-the-state-attorneys-office/
Oh dear God, more Islamic Nation Building and more supporting Muslim “Rebel Heroes” and more dead troops and thrown away billions.
It would be a good idea if Sen. Kelly Ayotte learned a bit about Ronald Reagan and his foreign policy views. McCain and Graham are too insane.
1. The United States should not commit its forces to military action overseas unless the cause is vital to our national interest.
2. If the decision is made to commit our forces to combat abroad, it must be done with the clear intent and support needed to win. It should not be a halfway or tentative commitment, and there must be clearly defined and realistic objectives.
3. Before we commit our troops to combat, there must be reasonable assurance that the cause we are fighting for and the actions we take will have the support of the American people and Congress.
4. Even after all these other tests are met, our troops should be committed to combat abroad only as a last resort, when no other choice is available.
- Ronald Reagan
This nightmare called COIN, conceived in the hearts of spiritually soiled men and in meetings governed by a coward’s concern for global perceptions! This travesty of strategy, as a principle of theater-wide application ought to be outlawed by this Nation!
The world court opinion BE DAMNED!
Our concern as a people of a nation should be for the well-being of our War Fighters – FIRST! If Afghans, Iraqis, Iranians, Syrians, Libyans, Tunisians, Algerians, et al want to lessen their plight, they have the exact same opportunity as our Fore Fathers did; fight for it! We owe them nothing and certainly not our trust or the blood of our finest! The problem is, they don’t see their condition as a scourge or a plight; they see it as the spiritually enlightened condition of men who have given themselves to the doctrines of a man who claimed to have conversed with a ‘god’. Any man in this country who thinks we have anything to offer people who have given so much of themselves to so vile a religious construct as Islam is simply arrogant – and ignorant! Asking better men to sacrifice themselves for this arrogance is the height, width and depth of moral depravity! Demanding they continue in light of such absolute proof of the total and abysmal failure of such an arrogantly conceived battle plan, is simply criminal!
If this is going to change, men currently serving in the Halls of our great governmental institutions are going to have to enlist the help of men dedicated to this discussion who actually understand the topic. Our Representatives and Senators are going to have to decide to act in a way that may not be politically feasible and say things that may cost them an election. But one thing is certain, unless these men who claim to have a heart for the troops and say they understand that the current direction is wrong, act furiously to change it, our forces will continue to suffer the same life-altering injury and pay with their lives as have those before them. And the price they will pay, in the end, will be in vain because Afghans are not going to change what they fervently believe to be the state of being required by their ‘god’ and his spokesman.
Afghanistan is a cesspool of humanity; a mass grave for honorable men compelled to serve in her sewage by the arrogant, delusional and cowardly politicians of the day. Nothing good has come of our efforts; nothing good will come out of the next two years.
Our political establishment has lost its way or maybe the American population has lost its moral compass and have consciously chosen men of unscrupulous character and such a deplorable lack of courage to represent them. In either case the affect is the same on our War Fighters.
How many more lives must be destroyed before those who dare call themselves “Statesmen”, will muster the courage to draw that metaphoric line in the sand and demand this fratricide committed by our leaders against our War Fighters, end?
” Ayotte emerged as a voice supportive of a strong military, national security priorities, and firm foreign policy.”
If she is like McCain and supports Islamic Nation Building and “Winning Muslim Hearts and Minds” and thinks the Libyan and Syrian Jihadies are “Heroes” then she is in support of the exact opposite. The EXACT opposite.
“Ayotte is about to enter into a new Congress, possibly as the face of future conservative foreign policy.”
How can this possibly be if her foreign policy views are the opposite of Ronald Reagan’s? This is absurd.
“Regarding the lack of immediate response in the Benghazi attack, she also pointed to a lack of engagement in security after Moammar Gadhafi fell from power.”
If it hadn’t been for insane people like her buddies McCain and Graham (and Rubio too) and Obama “Leading from behind”, Gadhafi would likely still be in power and the Benghazi attack would never have even happened. God God! These people don’t have the foresight of a 2 year old and now they want to repeat their idiocy in Syria.
“She supports arming the rebels and possibly a no-fly zone.”
This woman has gone off the deep end to put it very charitably. BTW, for her information, under Obama, America is already arming those she calls “the rebels” (Shariah Jihadies who hate all non-Muslims and think women should have less rights than dogs have in America). This woman, in effect, supports Shariah Law. Somebody needs to do an intervention with her, but failing that she could just read Ronald Reagan’s Foreign Policy Principles. She has heard of Ronald Reagan, hasn’t she?
I like Ayotte way better than those 2 bozos. Hopefully we can show both McCain and Grahamnesty the door, in 2014.
Lieberman is one of those Democrats that I have respect for, not quite to the level of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, but in the same vein.
At least with Leiberman we know we have:
1. An honest man.
2. A gentleman.
3. A patriot.
We disagree with them on almost everything, but he’s not intentionally America’s enemy, unlike most of the Democrat Party.
The same John McCain who just killed an amendment to limit the president’s arbitrary power to indefinitely detain American citizens in the NDAA? That guy? He isn’t my Amigo. If Ayotte’s as bright as advertised, she’ll stay well clear of him and uber-Rino Lindsey Graham.
I respect Lieberman one of the Democrats that I do
I’ve attended several of Mrs. Ayotte’s public events. Whenever she speaks at length, there’s always a tremble in her voice, like she’s trying really hard not to cry. I know another female NH politician who talks this way, and I suspect April Glaspie used the same tone of voice when she told Saddam to play nice with Kuwait.
I know all I need to know about Kelly Ayotte now that she has joined with two of the most detestable and pathetic members of the most corrupt house of congress. Does it surprise anyone that these two creeps support the even more detestable creep john kerry for secretary of state? Look for Ayotte to happily support kerry as well. It’s all a giant scam.
Retiring Senator Jon Kyl brought her to Arizona when she was running for election She spoke at one of his breakfast meetings and was very impressive and extremely well recieved. Unlike many of the senators, she has common sense.