Ayotte has harsh words for Obama

By TIM BUCKLAND
New Hampshire Union Leader

Published Mar 15, 2013 at 9:00 pm (Updated Mar 15, 2013)

In a speech focusing on foreign policy, U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire spent her 20 minutes at the Oxon Hill, Md., podium of the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday berating the actions and policies of President Barack Obama as increasingly placing America and its allies in danger.

Ayotte, the junior Republican senator from the Granite State, was harshly critical of the administration's responses and actions to radical Islam, the rebel uprising in Syria, Iran's nuclear ambitions, the attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya and the decision to bring the son-in-law of slain terrorist leader Osama bin Laden to the United States for trial.

"Our allies feel uncertain and our enemies feel emboldened," she said. "That's what happens when we lead from behind."

She identified the Sept. 11 attack on the Benghazi consulate, in which four Americans were killed, as the worst example of the administration's foreign policy. Following the attacks, Ayotte pressed the administration for answers about what happened at the consulate. The attack was initially labeled a spontaneous response to an anti-Islamic video, then later called a coordinated terrorist attack.

"Let's be clear: the administration did not and still does not want to come clean with the facts," she said.

"Unfortunately, we still haven't gotten all the answers of what happened," she said. "But I want you to know that we will keep pushing, I will keep pushing to get to the bottom of this debacle."

Ayotte said the administration also erred after catching Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, a son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, and deciding to try him in a civilian court in Manhattan. Ghaith pleaded not guilty Friday morning to conspiring to kill Americans.

"Unbelievably, instead of taking this foreign terrorist to Guantanamo Bay, holding him in military detention, what does this administration do with him? They bring him to New York City, right near where our country was attacked on September 11," she said. "They brought him to a civilian court. They gave him a lawyer. And they told him, 'You have a right to remain silent.' It is shameful."

She said the administration has further failed to halt nuclear enrichment by Iran, which she said could result in opposing factions in the Middle East scrambling to assemble nuclear weapons.
Video: Sen. Ayotte addresses CPAC:

"A nuclear arms race in the world's most volatile region would be like lighting a match in a tinderbox," she said.

"The Obama administration is sending the worst signal to the ayatollahs at a most critical time," she said. "We talk, they enrich. They don't take us seriously. And this leading from behind strategy? It isn't working."

She said Iran recently announced it was enriching uranium at underground centrifuges.

"How many of you believe that they are enriching all of this uranium for peaceful nuclear power or for medical isotopes?" she said. "I don't believe it either."

She also accused Obama of "undercutting" commanders in Afghanistan and of taking passive roles during the Libyan and Syrian rebellions.

"In Syria, we sat on the sidelines while over 70,000 Syrians were slaughtered, ceding our policy to the vetoes of the Russians and the Chinese and the United Nations to a bunch of United Nations bureaucrats," she said.

Several times, Ayotte invoked the memory of former President Ronald Reagan, who she said was a strong leader on foreign policy. She said the country has to go back to his policy of protecting world peace, "because nobody else can."

"If America fails to lead, we will create a vacuum that will empower extremists and make America less safe," she said.

tbuckland@unionleader.com

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Carolyn Pillsbury said:

Kelly, find your own identity, and stop trying to be John McCain, you are beginning to sound just like Sarah Paylon who was the mouth piece for Mr. McCain when she was running for Vice President.
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Alice McGee said:

Senator Ayotte, Obviously you have gotten the McCain brain washing::As you are so ready to go to war--this time we will need the draft:: Do you think if USA bombs Syria that will ignite Iran??Do you think Nato commanders are for this??Hopefully Saude Arabia would let us be fueled and based in their country??As for Benghieze-- if ambassador Stevens was getting no response from state dept--why did he even go there or stay --his place was in Tripoli!!??Don't blame our president for what he could not prevent??Hopefully you will learn how the Federal Government works soon--we do not have a dictator government!!..Please sit and look and digest a video of your speech--so negative, so neocon!
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John Forrest said:

I sure hope Sen. Ayotte has the guts to get away from the Judd Gregg, John McCain brand of (corrupt) conservatism and move over to the side of the aisle with Rand Paul and his patriots. If not, we will be no better off with a Republican in the White House than with the major stalinist we now have. We need to keep a strong but small military, all at home here in the US with a large Navy, and an even larger and deadly nuke strike force. Stop with all this warmongering talk. Bring our kids home and point the nukes outward, strictly in defense. Alice, your post is nothing but evidence of brainwashing. Pay attention.
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john croteau said:

Kelly is 100% on cue, Obama is the worst leader we have ever had and he has no clue on how to lead a nation, and he is a Putz. Like his wife said, they don't party enough at the White House, so he should go to his parties and let some one lead who knows what he is doing. If we don't pay attention to what is happening some one is going to drop the bomb on some one then we are all going to be sorry that we let Obama in. Kelly may sound like McCain, because he too knows what war is like. The fastest way to stop a war is not let it get started. ...Obama, has no clue.....He is just another "wana be" that has cost us all a lot of money, we can't even pay the old folks with out borrowing the money and ya-all pay into the plan. Think of where we will be when you Obama lovers get to retirement and there is none. Obama will be singing "How do you like me now"
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Bob Lake said:

The dullard is at it again. Firstly, she doesn't even know where Syria is and she is just parroting the old senile senator who should have retired years ago. This dullard is an insult to all sane NH citizens. Ronald Reagan a strong leader? Yea, right. Remember Lebanon and Iran? Most people do.
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Paul Fleming said:

HEY your emperor wanted to say/post something here but he doesn't have the strength because his food taster isn't around. So NH liberals you approve of this waste but hey he closes the WH to the real owners!!!!! COME ON NOW!!!!
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John Forrest said:

Right Tom Sheffield, because the entire DNC staff, the White House and every democrat never even call names. My biggest complaint with most of our GOP mouths is that they just don't get it. They are not conservative and simply align themselves with the old guard. We need integrity and leadership, not the same ties to the money. The DNC and Democrat party is simply corrupt, but well organized.
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Germaine Blanchette said:

All I see here is "name calling and fear". I'm not jumping to any parties rescue there isn't a party in place that runs a country like it should be run, and if we minded our own business we wouldn't need to be looking around corners like the bully is gonna get us
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Gregg Czarnecki said:

@Steve Johnson - If you do your research, you will find that it was the current house reps. under the fiscal leadership of Paul Ryan who voted nay on the bill that would have appropriated more security funds to places like Benghazi.
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Tim Tsantoulis said:

Not really sure what qualifies Plain Jane Ayotte to start spewing from her mouth about subject matter that she is obviously not very well informed about but that is all that the GOP has to offer at this point. The stock market is on fire,unemployment and housing rebounding well and the overall mood in the country is up beat and the party of complainers still beating the same old drum Hey PlainJane ! News Flash ! Your party got trounced last election in part because of just what people like you and McCain have to bring to the table...... Nothing constructive Try a different approach by offering positive contributions to issues As I have said in earlier correspondence Ms Ayotte has teamed up with the gang of the GOP that most Americans are just plain tired of
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Chris Herbert said:

Step back a moment and honestly ask yourself this question "Should America be spending this much money on weapons?" I believe the majority of people would answer "No. We are spending way too much money on weapons." Also, ask yourself if all these weapons we've built and have used the past 11 years are making us safer? I don't know the answer to that one because it's a counterfactual, but I do know that dropping bombs on people is the very last thing we should be doing, not the first. And I also know that those in uniform who have served us in war zones would definitely agree with that attitude. Today's paper contained two pro defense spending news articles, this one from Senator Ayotte and another from Mitt Romney, which is not surprising because they both originated from a 'conservative' organization's annual meeting. 'Conservative' is being used here in a very specific manner, because the amount of money America spends on its military is the opposite of what conservative means--in fact it's extraordinarily aggressive. Unfortunately, neither article bothered to point out what taxpayers are paying for, and how much they are paying, and therefore did not do their job in terms of providing context.
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Eddy Cox said:

Yep very correct Kelly. Obama and all his supporters don't have brain at all and they love to keep their eyes shut so they can't see just where our country is going, on the way to destroction. They do have a brain wash from Obama.
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George LeMont said:

I see the apologists for Obama are out in full force. As always when an administration screws up as Obama's did with Benghazi and the Fast & Furious program democrats are willing to turn a blind eye to the deaths of their own countrymen. There's no need to wonder why the nation is the way it is today when we can't count on people of one party or the other to take responsibility for the failures of their leaders. I hope at least the independent voters are paying attention more than they did a few months ago when the information about Benghazi was kept from the public until the election was over.
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lloyd clement said:

Of course Ayotte is right, but the issue will go nowhere...she is wasting her time.
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Chris Herbert said:

Ayotte referenced Ronald Reagan frequently, the story says. I hope none of these references were about Benghazi because in 1983 222 servicemen, most of them Marines, died in a suicide bombing in Beirut, Lebanon. It was the most Marines killed since Iwo Jima in WWII. President Reagan's response was to withdraw our troops from Lebanon, not to send in more troops to punish the perps. I can only imagine what Senator Ayotte would be saying about President Obama if a similar sized tragedy had occurred somewhere in the Middle East under his watch. And why were our troops killed then? Because they were dispatched as part of a UN peacekeeping effort that inserted them directly into a religious battle between Christians and Muslims that dates back about 1600 years. The beginning of the end of the British Empire can be dated to when Britain tried to 'nation build' Iraq beginning in 1915. The current day Iraq nation, in fact, was formed under British rule. One hundred years later America is repeating the same mistakes, and leaders like Kelly Ayotte are promoting these mistakes, insisting that we continue to play the role of the world's policeman--no matter what the cost in money and blood. One can only hope voters reject these back seat chicken hawks.
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Greg Barrett said:

Ayotte is only interested in what is good for the future advancement of Ayotte. This has always been her goal. In that respect she is quite transparent and sincere. In regards to what benefits NH or the good of the country look to the representation of NH's other 3 represenatives.
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John Shades said:

Ayotte is a "lost in the wilderness" one-termer. NH doesn't need a mouthpiece for sore loser, McCain or that dandy from South Carolina, Lindsey Graham. Let it start here, today, Maggie Hassan for NH Senate in 2016.
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Michael Raleigh said:

You would think after directing us into the misguided and mismanaged war in Iraq the neocons would be chastened. You'd be wrong. Luckily we have a President who managed to get rid of Gaddafi, who had attacked the US, without the loss of a single American life and for a fraction of the cost. That is not enough for the neocons. Now they want us to attack Iran. Bomb away at nuclear facilities that are buried inside of mountains. And we wonder why Iran wants to obtain a nuclear weapon. If you saw both your neighbors destroyed, you being called a member of the Axis of Evil (after providing intelligence to help the US combat the Taliban, a group you had almost gone to war against when it murdered your diplomats) and knew that the US and the UK had overthrown a democratically elected government in the 1950's, you too might come to realize that having nuclear weapons is a way to thwart these neocons. Additionally why is Ayotte so afraid that our federal courts cannot handle a terrorist criminal case that she would trash the US Constitution and submit this man into the kangaroo court system that is Guantanamo? Ayotte should be defeated in 2016. She and her ilk are a threat to our and the world's security.
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John Forrest said:

The welfare checks must have come in, all the liberals are out in force with the lies! You keep believing that we are darn near in heaven economically speaking. I'm not sure if people believing this hype are stupid or just not paying attention. I'm not happy with either as posted by Germaine. This is a country of dopes, who continue to believe the stories told in Washington DC, by BOTH parties. They created the mess, and we keep sending them back there and expecting them to fix it.
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Trent Palmer said:

Looks like Ayotte is angling for a defense lobbyist job in 2017, maybe with some side gigs with the Heritage Foundation or Hoover Institute. She doesn't seem interested in representing New Hampshire.
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mike porter said:

Kelly Ayotte would better spend her time coming up with actual solutions rather than constantly aligning herself with John McCain and Lindsey Graham. She is beginning to sound like a broken record. we get it Kelly. You don't like Obama. The rhetoric coming from Ayotte shows she is not an independent thinker and has no ability to come up with solutions. She is not helping NH and she certainly is not helping the country by constantly complaining. Solutions Kelly. Give solutions.
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Steve Johnson said:

@Gregg Czarnecki, Nice try. The administration got less than they wanted, but just how was the money they got used? Benghazi needed $800K, but Hilary spent $4.5M on art for the embassies. Beyond that, the amount wasted was STAGGERING. They had a $50 BILLION budget. They did not need any more than was funded, just not to waste it Democrat style. http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/state-department-had-no-for-benghazi-security-here-is-what-it-did-have-for/ ************* http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/12/politics/fact-check-benghazi-security
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Hank Pepin said:

It makes no difference how much you fools try to make Obama look good he is a loser plain and simple and so is this country due to him. He lies threw his teeth,most of his policies are killing working people (not the handout crowd) and still you rump swabs try to justify what he does. Another social experiment that was PC driven that failed hands down. Let's get these frauds out at the mid-terms
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Chris Herbert said:

Hank (the hater) Petrin. Got it Hank. Now go away.
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Michael Raleigh said:

This is what the neo cons like Ayotte wrought in Iraq http://news.brown.edu/pressreleases/2013/03/warcostsShe needs to be defeated in 2016. NH deserves better.
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Gregg Czarnecki said:

@Steve Johnson - I can find fact checkers who support what I am saying too. So, who is right? Paul Ryan, as the chairman of the House Budget Committee, put forward cuts in his budget proposal that, running the numbers, embassy security funding would suffer a cut of about $300 million. I think in the end, both sides are at fault. Why is everyone blaming the President. Dems and Reps are both to blame. The difference is that the Reps are trying to be opportunistic. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/oct/16/joe-biden/joe-biden-says-paul-ryan-cut-embassy-security-300-/
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Steve Johnson said:

@Gregg Czarnecki, They had $50 BILLION!!! That pretty much blows your "facts" out of the water. They had PLENTY of money, but they spent it poorly. They did not need another $300M. The reason the President gets blamed is simple: He is the top dog in the Executive branch, and the requests, which went unheeded, went to the people in the Executive branch. On top of that, HE LIED LIKE A RUG. He is a scumbag.
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Michael Raleigh said:

Steve Johnson funny how conservatives like you never blamed Bush for the murder of over 3,000 Americans on 9/11 despite the NIE titled Al Qaeda intends to use planes as bombs. Apparently to the likes of you this only applies to Obama "The reason the President gets blamed is simple: He is the top dog in the Executive branch, and the requests, which went unheeded, went to the people in the Executive branch. On top of that, HE LIED LIKE A RUG. He is a scumbag."
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doug baker said:

Kelly, Find a life---get original---forget acting like the rest of the tribe, they and you lost. Until you realize why you lost, you'll end up with the rest of the losers.
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Steve Johnson said:

@Michael Raleigh, actually most of the planning, and warning signs, occurred under Clinton. Bush had only been in office for 9 months. He gets blame, but Clinton, who passed on getting Bin Laden, gets more.
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Hank Pepin said:

Chris Hebert It's Pepin LMAO good try it still not going to work...Your stuff is WORN OUT bub
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Hank Pepin said:

Ya know Chris you and the other liberal waterboys are hard to match when it comes to hate, but isn't that your garden varity liberal anyway. Say one thing and do another just like your fearless bozo in chief... LOL what a maroon
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Bruce MacMahon said:

"Bob Lake said: The dullard is at it again. Firstly, she doesn't even know where Syria is..." . . . . . Personal insults and name calling. When you possess neither the desire or the ability to debate the facts, whip out the Alinsky playbook and start demonizing your opponent with personal insults, ridicule, and name calling. It's the "progressive" way. Thank you, Bob, for superbly demonstrating this tactic for all to see.
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Allan Trombley said:

Lake and his usual rapier wit, or being an ***** whichever way you want to phrase it. I am growing tired of his misogynist, racist comments. His hate is not constructive to anything but the other haters. Speaking of which, Chris Herbert, talk about a low information voter saying stupid things, Reagan did not stand by and WATCH the Marines get killed. And you of all people should not ve calling anyone a hater, ignorance and hate are liberal trademarks.
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Gregg Czarnecki said:

@Steve, where do you get your facts. Both articles (yours and mine) say $2.64bil, later raised to $2.7bil. Going wqith the latter number, that's 11% of his requested budget denied. That's a significant cut. To a home taking in $100K per year, that would be $833 a month. ***, do you get $50-bil? Its not even close.
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Claire Petuck said:

I see that all Ms Ayotte has are words!! What has she ever done on a national scale ??? Zilch. She has never even done anything memorable in NH. It's nice she feels competent to tell anyone how to handle foriegn policy in spite of this.
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Allan Trombley said:

Gregg Czarnecki ,, there are no cuts in Ryan's budget, merely holding or slowing the rate of growth. You are either uninformed or lying. Fill us in please. I am guessing you are just another low information voter. Turn off CNN and PMSNBC and read something besides the Huff -n-puff post. Claire Petuck, what qualifies you to make that judgement? I suspect Mrs. AYotte, being an intelligent well read woman in Congress (on all the right committees) who actually cares about the Constitution and the Country, is MUCH better informed than you. She also has more foreign poilicy experience than Oblamea/Soros and Biden combined. She has done more for NH than the other 3 elected officials who are supposed to be looking out for NH interests combined.
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Gregg Czarnecki said:

Allan, You have no clue what Steve and I were discussing (obviously). Therefore, you should either A. Go back and read, then respond or B. Keep the pie-hole closed before you embarrass yourself some more. I love how you just tried iinsult me without even reading back into what we were discussing. Lol. And you are telling me I lack information. Jacka55.
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Allan Trombley said:

Gregg, you stated Ryan "put forward cuts in his proposal", THE FACTS: Ryan Has Not Made Any Such Specific Proposal. �Mr. Ryan has not made any such specific proposal. But his broader budget proposal would squeeze the nondefense discretionary budget. Presuming that those budget cuts were applied evenly across federal programs, it would result in a $300 million cut for securing and maintaining embassies, the Obama campaign has argued.� (Annie Lowry, �Fact Check: Budget Cuts And Embassy Security,� The New York Times, 10/11/12) thereby he DID NOT make such a proposal. That is from the right wing extreme NY Times. Nice try.
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Ayotte has harsh words for Obama

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