You Want Some Rice With That?

President Obama held a news conference yesterday, in which he ignored the re-elected Republican majority in the House of Representatives (made possible by gerrymandered districts) and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell's concern about a closely divided upper chamber (even though the Democrats gained two Senate seats in the elections), and he laid down the gauntlet over avoiding the automatic tax increases and spending cuts that go into effect on New Year's Day if Congress does not act.  He promised to hold the line on tax cuts for the middle class and hoping for a compromise that increases taxes on upper-income families - maybe to a lower rate than he might like - but allowing for such an increase nonetheless.  He vigorously pointed out that the American people support making upper-income people pay their fair share, citing polls showing that more people support such an idea (60 percent) than those who voted for him (50.4 percent).

The President is also standing by Susan Rice (100 percent).  Nothing was more nauseating than to see Senator John McCain of Arizona and two of his fellow Republican flunkies, South Carolina's Lindsey Graham and New Hampshire's Kelly Ayotte, impugn the United Nations ambassador's character for telling media outlets that the September attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi was spontaneous and not the planned assault that it was.  Never mind that Dr. Rice was going by the information she had at the time, which was given to her and the administration by the CIA - headed by David Petraeus.  Because Susan Rice is a leading candidate to succeed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, President Obama made it clear that he would not allow attacks on her character when she had nothing to do directly with Benghazi and that he would not be intimidated into passing Dr. Rice over for the post of Secretary of State based on Republican opposition.  The Republicans wanted a fight with "No-Drama Obama," and given the President's demeanor, they got a fight.

Two, in fact.

Mitch McConnell won't get in the way of a resolution of the fiscal crisis.  House Speaker John Boehner wants a deal. :-)