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This causes me to despise John McCain even more than I already do…….Did he really say Tony was “totally unqualified”?!?


Eric D. Schwerin
Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC
1010 Wisconsin Ave., NW
Suite 705
Washington, DC 20007
(202) 333-1880
eschwerin@rosemontseneca.com
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http://news.yahoo.com/mccain-blocks-obamas-pick-no-2-diplomat-over-173317776.html

McCain blocks Obama's pick as No.2 diplomat over Iraq policy

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator John McCain said on Thursday he is blocking President Barack Obama's nomination of Anthony Blinken as the country's number two diplomat, citing sharp disagreement with the nominee's past statements on Iraq.

"He's totally unqualified," the Republican senator told Reuters, when asked why he was holding up Blinken's nomination to be deputy Secretary of State.

"He's the guy who said we're leaving behind the richest, safest Iraq in history. Look it up," McCain said, referring to Blinken's reassuring comments two years ago about the decision to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq.

McCain, a frequent critic of Obama's foreign policy, has repeatedly voiced strong opposition to the decision to end the campaign in Iraq, where U.S. forces are currently battling the militant fighters of the Islamic State.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee was to have voted on Blinken's nomination on Thursday, amid heated debate in Congress over the campaign against the Sunni Muslim group in Iraq and Syria.

McCain's action puts off that vote until next week, at the soonest. If the committee approves Blinken, as expected if the vote is able to go ahead, the full Senate must still vote to confirm him before he can take office as Secretary of State John Kerry's understudy.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by James Dalgleish)