Political panel: Blasting Bachmann

>> from which they are drawn are nothing less than an unwarranted and unfounded attack on an honorable citizen, a dedicated american and a loyal public servant.

>> that was senator john mccain on the senate floor giving a lengthy statement in defense of huma abedin , a long time aide to hillary clinton . mccain denounced allegations by republican michele bachmann that abedin's family was connected to muslim ex trooemists. let's bring back the panel. karen, i'll go to you off the bat. huma was your intern, you told me.

>> in our office, yeah.

>> does this fire up the democratic base that john mccain comes to the defense of a senior aide to hillary clinton with this investigation, almost mccarthyism in a sense that she's connected to muslim extremists.

>> for someone like me who has known her almost 20 years, it's horribly offensive. if you know her heart and her character. but also, it's really disgusting to see this kind of zeen phobia coming out now. it's not just the whole thing with bachmann and huma. it's about the press conference about proving the birth certificate isn't true and sununu take -- when you go to racist --

>> is this a problem for the gop and what do you do about michele bachmann come convention time? there's a lot of folks that she's a darling to.

>> john sununu immediately apologized said he was referring to his conception of wealth creation, american enterprise . to your question, i don't think this is a party way problem. michele bachmann will be a michele bachmann . but i think they have to be careful about who is on the stage and what they say at the convention. this is no different than any convention. we have to be very careful about who you send out to portray the image of the party. once they put that person out there on the stage, then there is some ownership that has been --

>> there is a percentage of the republican party that still believes that this president is not an american citizen , that is still pushing this whole ideology about him being a muslim as if that's an evil bad thing. you guys, the people who are doing it no what they're doing, it is dog whistle politics . nobody but john mccain has had the courage to stand up --

>> no.

>> two questions for you. you think the folks on the hill who are bachmann supporters and from this ilk, has john mccain come back to maverick status?

>> he will still be a thorn in the side of the obama administration for as long as the president is in office. he's a guy when something is under his skin, he'll speak out. you've seen him do that from time to time. i think this will sort of end any -- anyone who is thinking about joining michele bachmann on this effort on the republican side , now that john