Rice's critics press on

>>> we are wac. susan rice heads to capitol hill to clear the air over benghazi . john mccain is continuing his crusade against the ambassador who is thought to be the president's top choice to replace hillary clinton as secretary of state. rice volunteered to meet with critics and they still aren't satisfied.

>> we are significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got and some that we didn't get.

>> bottom line, i'm more disturbed now than i was before.

>> there's no protest, but rice based her statement on the intelligence provided to her by the cia. rice was accompanied by mike morale, but that didn't stop mccain and others from publicly lashing out against the ambassador and now graham and aye yacht say they would block her nomination. lieberman also met with with rice today. lieberman is leaving the senate at the end of the year. the president indicated he's willing to fight for rice. one democratic senate aid tells nbc news, people are happy to fight for her. she's obviously qualified. no one on our side thinks there's credibility to the republican criticisms. i'm joined by joan walsh , author of the book "what's the matter with white people ?" it it seems like she's walked into a political trap. they made it a political trap after she was the one that wanted to set up and explain things. what do you make of it?

>> she does them the courtesy of going to see them. nothing compelled her to do that. she thought she would show them respect and she gets disrespected. the only thing -- what it it sounded like from mccain , the only thing that would have made them happy is if she had come out that day and divulged classified information . they are more interested in geting to the bottom of what she said than to actually what happened in benghazi .

>> why aren't they calling for more hearings? if john mccain meets with her and they say this there are many answers, just not one report, but many answers nap has my curiosity up. what does mccain want?

>> i think he wants to publicly humiliate her and barack obama . if you have a problem with what the story was with about what happened in benghazi and i'm not saying there was a coverup, but it wasn't about politics, it was about not wanting all the information to come out. that was not her decision. if you have a problem with either the policy or the story about the policy, go to david petraeus . those are the people who should be answering questions about why that information.

>> it's interesting. they didn't mention morale. they mentioned susan rice . he's been around the cia. he's now the acting director. all of a sudden, it's the u.n. ambassador's problem that she didn't put together the dossier that was going to be presented. this seems to really have united the democrats. if she is nominated to the secretary of state's position to follow hillary clinton s this a fight worth fighting?

>> absolutely. if that's what the president wants, she's qualified. she's very intelligent. she's been a great u.n. ambassad ambassador. there's no reason not to fight for her. the theme of your show, democrats are showing some backbone. this is another thing. his plans cannot be hijacked by the the man he defeated in 2008 , john mccain . this is too important.

>> to show you how desperate john mccain is, here he is comparing benghazi to the bin laden raid?

>> we knew within hours all the details when we got bin laden in the raid there. every one of them. they are making a movie out of it. here we are ten weeks later and finally our ambassador of the united nations who appeared on every national sunday show e has now said she gave false information concerning how this tragedy happened.

>> we should point out the bin laden raid was a planned operation.

>> and it was ours.

>> how do they compare the two?

>> they don't. he's sounding more and more deranged. that's a crazy thing to say. that was our operation. of course, we could answer questions. even then they got some details wrong. but this was an attack on us and it's complicated by some discomfort about knowing all the details about whavs going on there.

>> is susan rice in an untenable position? it's unusual for an ambassador to come out and defend his/herself. when do you start defending yourself?

>> e she did defend herself. she made a statement last week and she did go meet with them. i think at this point, she should go about her business and answer questions. but she should let other people speak up for her.

>> thank you, joan walsh .

>>> there's a lot more coming up in the next half hour of "the ed show."

>>> americans believe congress is broken. the only ones who disagree are mitch mcconnell and republicans in congress.

>> harry reid moves towards the nuclear option to stop the obstruction in the senate. steve benan joins me next on the latest on the filibuster showdown.

>> the emphasis on benghazi has been publicized.

>> first thomas risks rolled fox news. today fox news responds by trying to smear thomas risks.

>>> and the right wing bubble on the economy bursts again e.

>> the president's economic policies have failed. the american people know it.

>> i have a new term. it's called obama noma. he's such a cancer to the economy.

>> to call this an economy is an insult to recoveries.

>> the numbers don't lie. we'll lay them out for you,