GOP language about Ambassador Rice laced with 'code words'

>>> spending their time targeting ambassador susan rice . senator john mccain actually insulted her intelligence .

>> is this a select committee clears her of wrong doing besides not being very bright because it was obvious that this was not a " flash mob "? there was no demonstration. there was none there.

>> she's a graduate of stanford and also rode scholar. they claim she misled the public about the attack on the consulate in benghazi. rice was actually reporting the intelligence that she had been given. the republicans don't seem to care about the facts. they are worried that the president will appoint rice to be the next secretary of state. john mccain says rice isn't qualified. senator lindsey graham calls rice a political choice for ambassador and it's not a good resume to be secretary of state. 97 house republicans signed the letter to the president accusing rice of willfully or incompetently misleading the public. the republicans are using words like not qualified, not bright, and incompetent. some democrats feel these words are actually code.

>> these are code words . we heard them during the campaign. during the recent campaign, we heard sununu calling our president lazy, incompetent. these kind of terms for those of us who grew up in the south, we have been hearing these phrases all our lives and we get insulted by them.

>> let's bring in michael eric dyson , author of the book "can you hear me now"? and karen finney, who will be guest hosting for martin bah sheer tomorrow afternoon. i'm looking forward to it. this is really down in the gutter. dr. dyson , are republicans using code words to attack the ambassador?

>> very clearly so. this woman is an undergraduate of stanford, as you said. a doctor of philosophy besides a scholar at oxford at the age of 26. so clearly she is an intellectually brilliant woman who is quite capable. it's ironic and tragic that john mccain , who nominated or at least put sarah palin on the ticket as vice president would dare call into question anybody's intelligence . sarah palin 's intelligence could fit into the left fingernail of dr. susan rice . but beyond intelligence , there's a racial hostility that's unchecked here. and the aggression toward people of color here has been unleashed as a kind of compensatory aggression against obama's win. you see all this stuff going on. this is racial code words and we know the manipulation of racial feeling and sentiment here.

>> nobody in the intelligence community has come out and said these things about rice. karen , what about this? why is she a target?

>> i worked with dr. rice in the clinton administration . she is a brilliant woman and a gifted diplomat. so take that off the table. here's the thing. even if the republicans are too stupid to understand that after having just lost an election largely because of -- they lost the woman vote, they lost the young vote, they lost the african-american vote, that taking on a woman of this level of credentials in a hearing with mostly white men, a relatively young african- american woman , it's just a bad idea. and particularly given that she is very well qualified and given that these are also people who tried to say as dr. dyson said, palin and harriet meyers were qualified. here's what's so infuriating on this. these guys all have the exact same intelligence . they knew that there was a cia operation operating out of that facility and that potentially that's part of why there were certain things that had to remain classified. they knew it. so this whole game is all the more politicized. it makes it seem like they just don't want this dynamic woman to rise any higher.

>> here's marsha fudge. she had reaction to the attacks on rice.

>> susan rice 's comments didn't send us to iraq and afghanistan. somebody else's did. but you're not angry with them. it's a shame that any time something goes wrong they pick on women and minorities. i have a real issue with. for you who are haters, your hate is going nowhere .

>> dr. dyson , does john mccain hate susan rice ?

>> well --

>> i mean when he says she's not qualified and questions her intelligence , your thoughts?

>> well, there's no question hate is used as a metaphor to talk about stern resistance and opposition. in that sense, of course, he's haiting on her. i'm not speaking personally as a human being , but it's more disturbing that despite her intelligence , the pedigree of her scholarly achievements and the way she's moved in several administrations to act in a very powerful fashion to represent her diplomatic community, what else can you conclude but the fact that he's trying to go after her because as karen said, she's a woman and black and given that they have not done very well, the republicans with this group, it seems pig headed for them to go after this particular woman who is the representative of the best possibility of american diplomacy being carried on in the absence of hillary clinton . i think we should be quite clear about that.

>> the other thing, think about this. the president of the united states -- this also goes to this deep resentment i think a lot of us have about the lack of respect they have shown the president. the president addressed this issue. he was clear about what happened. then susan rice came out and talked about what happened. when did the gop change their tune? after they heard from general petraeus . they should have taken the word of the president.

>> karen finney and michael eric dyson , great to have you with us. governor scott walker has tried it before and he wants to try it again. voter suppression . just days after the election, he's back at it. we're back. we