WASHINGTON — House Speaker John Boehner Thursday defended a senior adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after five members of his caucus claimed her relatives had ties to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.
Boehner, an Ohio Republican, told reporters in Washington that while he doesn’t know Huma Abedin personally, his impression is that she has a “sterling character.” The accusations made against her in a June 13 letter to the State Department were “pretty dangerous,” the speaker said.
A day earlier Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., criticized five House Republicans, including former Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, who sent the letter alleging Abedin’s family had connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and questioning whether she promoted the organization’s cause within the U.S. government.
McCain, in a Senate floor speech Wednesday, called the allegations “an unwarranted and unfounded attack on an honorable citizen, a dedicated American and a loyal public servant.”
“When anyone, not least a member of Congress, launches specious and degrading attacks against fellow Americans on the basis of nothing more than fear of who they are and ignorance of what they stand for, it defames the spirit of our nation, and we all grow poorer because of it,” McCain said, adding that he has known Abedin for more than a decade.
In the letter, Bachmann and the other House Republicans cited a report from the Center for Security Policy, a Washington policy group, claiming that Abedin’s mother, brother and late father had connections to the Muslim Brotherhood. It is Egypt’s largest Islamist organization, from whose ranks the country’s new president, Mohamed Mursi, was selected.
The letter said Abedin’s position “affords her routine access to the secretary and to policymaking” and that the State Department has “taken actions recently that have been enormously favorable to the Muslim Brotherhood and its interests.”
Bachmann Wednesday said she stood by her inquiries, which she said “are unfortunately being distorted.”
“The intention of the letters was to outline the serious national security concerns I had and ask for answers to questions regarding the Muslim Brotherhood and other radical groups’ access to top Obama administration officials,” she said in a statement.
McClatchy Newspapers reported Friday that Bachmann broadened her allegations Thursday, accusing Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., of associations with the Muslim Brotherhood.
“He has a long record of being associated with (the Council on American–Islamic Relations) and with the Muslim Brotherhood,” Bachmann told right-wing radio and TV show host Glenn Beck.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a potential running mate for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, said Thursday in an interview with National Public Radio’s Diane Rehm that he didn’t “share the feelings that are in that letter.”
“I am very, very careful and cautious about ever making accusations like that about anybody,” said Rubio, a tea party- backed member of the Foreign Relations Committee.
Abedin, the wife of former representative Anthony Weiner, a New York Democrat, has been an aide to Clinton since 1996.
State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell told reporters Wednesday, “the secretary very much values her wise counsel and support, and we think that these allegations are preposterous.”
Weiner resigned from Congress in June 2011 after a lewd picture of himself that he had sent to another woman was posted on the Internet.
Weiner, Abedin and their six-month-old son were featured in a July 18 People Magazine article in which the former congressman said he was “very happy” and “not doing anything to plan a campaign” for future public office.
We need to have each congress person pass a crazy test, Michelle would never have passed, she needs to go to the funny farm and be placed in the rubber room.
When are we, as a nation going to stop sending these idiots to Washington?
Alan West, Michelle Bachmann, Joe Wilson are the three top nuts but I am sure there are others.
Bachmann is a lunatic. I can’t believe she was the front runner for the GOP nomination at one point.
And she claimed that her Migraine Headaches wouldn’t cause a distraction!
I really think that they are caused from the Tin Foil Hat that she employ’s to recieve alien messages!
And the fact that Bachmman was a founding member of the Tea Party, and is somehow being ignored, is not such a huge surprise either. She is the Queen of Political Scream and is rapidly, right up there with Joe Wilson, being seen as the next 2 McCarthy’s when it comes to their declaring themselves ‘Real American’s’. The McCarthy’s are an embarassment and the sooner that the GOP, and Boehner is taking the lead in this, distance’s themselves from these political kookoo’s, the faster the Moderate Wing of the GOP is going to start coming back. It’s also going to call an end to these constant public crying festival’s from such nut’s as Trump and Arpaio over the Birth Certificate issue. This stuff is nonsense and the fact that Boehner is publicly calling it for what it is, namely bullpoop, and that the rest of the GOP Leadership is being silent in consent, tells me that this political hysteria is finally being seen by the rest of the GOP for what it really is, that being a White Supremist attempt at infiltration of the GOP. Bachmman and her crowd are being called out and Boehner is doing the calling. That the rest of the GOP hasn’t come out in support of Boehner is the real tragedy. The time is coming when the GOP is going to have to decide if it’s going to be a political party or just another ‘shill’ for a bunch of hysterical racist’s that are abusing The Constitution for their own end’s and thrill’s. In Maine we know better. Now it’s time we joined with Boehner in making the case for it for the rest of the Country.
Send letters to the newspapers of these people’s districts expressing your concerns that such kooks could be elected by the normal people of the district. Call the talk show radio stations in those same districts. Ramp up the attention of these idiotic charges. Voters will wise up eventually and not want this type of representation.
Apparently and unfortunately, not a chance of ousting Bachmann in her district.
Wacka dooddle Doooo!
Consider that McCain proved himself a WIMP many times over, and John Boehner has been known to have a jelly spine. This is actually old news, and it has been substantiated, along with various reports of the same. Being too quick to call true conservatives lunatics seems to be the going theme.
Do you have a defense for Bachmann’s remarks or will you just rely on attacking McCain and Boehner?
4, for what it’s worth, personally, I never have considered McCain a wimp and never will. With the exception of Rumsfeld, and he’s a huge disappointment, I have never in 30 years known of a Naval Aviator that was a wimp, carrier or ground-based. That goes for the Lady Aviator’s as well. Has he always had the clearest vision of the consequences ‘down the road’ of his decision’s ? Not always but then no one ever has 100 % perfect foresight. But he does have the guts to stand up and make his case, popularity and Party be dammed, and defend it. That’s what’s lacking in Boehner.
Boehner needs to quit playing GOP and House Speaker and concentrate on being House Speaker, period ! That and start hauling some of the House GOP Leadership Caucus into the Republican cloakroom and remind them that everytime they start these kind’s of antic’s and circus show’s for the evening news that they are making the arguement, for EVERYONE to see, for the voter’s of these Congressman’s District’s to remove them come November. And the fact that the House GOP Leadership has not come out and stood up to these ‘nutcase’s’ is even more evidence that the current GOP House Leadership is incapable of keeping their own House in order, much less be able to responsibly deal with the entire Country’s problem’s. Boehner needs to decide, and declare publicly, that his job is to be The Speaker and quit trying to be on both side of the fence at once. Control The House and move the current legislation along, like it or not. That’s the Speaker’s job description and to date he’s been noticably lacking by letting Cantor and McCarthy do it instead of himself. He had the chance last year in the Debt Ceiling debate, and ‘choked’ when he let the Tea Party crazies loose instead of standing up and making the compromise that would have solved this problem for the next 5 years. Now we get to see him ‘choke’ all over again, and just in time for the media to make it public just before the Election’s. God, you gotta love Boehner’s sense of timing !
Finally, at least a couple of R leaders with guts.