let's watch gary ackerman. >> this might be my final six moments to speak in my 30-year career here,nd i want to first start by apologizing to the deputy secretaries because you have been brought here as a ruse. you are being used as foils to the conflicting intentions of some people on our committee and others in washington for partisan, political purposes. >> i have always liked gary ackerman. i went to ethiopia with him. i like him even more now. what do you think of these assessments? are these hearings a witch hunt? what are they about? >> they're about political politics, and we saw that with the episode preceding involving susan rice, but at the heart of this, the congress -- resource is not the only answer. the congress bears some responsibility here. when a defense budget goes up to the hill, congressmen trip over themselves thinking what can i add to this budget? when a state department budget goes to the hill, they look at what can i subtract from it? the chairwoman of that committee has been very outspoken about chopping the significant sums of money out of foreign assist

leadership that was quite a lot and on the subject many of them jewish american democrats howard berman gary ackerman others going and being replaced by people of whether republicans or democrats who frankly are less less informed less enlightened and have a simpler view of things and i do think that on all sides in the run up to the israeli election on the public's the political scene whether hamas or even to some extent the way the p.l.o. handled the un bid and in congress you see people. appealing to the base of the baser instincts of their constituency in a way that is at the expense of getting killed and how do you see this working with regard to the american political dimension of our relationship both with the palestinian authority and with israel i think dr bush has it right there is broad bipartisan support for israel and that's a very good thing and the united states the problem comes when members of congress and to some extent administrations don't understand exactly how to express their pro israel attitudes through good policies there's a definite misunderstanding of what is actually in i

gary ackerman of new york said congress has become a partisan bickering bunch of grousing old people.trying to quibble around here on this particular issue of the narrative rather than how we work together to make things better to quibble over somebody said a particular word or didn't use the right word, rather than figure out how to avoid the mistakes that might have been to not lose american lives on into the future. >> reporter: amid the furor, ambassador rice has withdrawn herself for consideration as secretary of state. and four state department security officials resigned on wednesday. >> suarez: retailers are hoping to finish the holiday shopping season strong, particularly given some forecasts warning of a slowing economy in 2013. as we reported earlier, consumer spending helped spike better growth this fall. but in light of the last recession, some are asking whether less personal debt and perhaps some more austerity might be a better approach. "newshour" economics correspondent paul solman has been exploring that question. part of his ongoing reporting on "making sense" of f

both of our out going chairs and two ranking member who was on the list daily and my good friend gary ackerman i just have to follow up with a no when we were talking about libya there was an argument that we needed arms for the rebels. the same kind of argument is going on right now in syria, some saying we had to armed the rebels. but anyway let me, i have often said that over the years our diplomats are really the unsung heroes of the united states security. they should no longer be unsung. the attacks on our mission and benghazi's should tell congress to better recognize that her diplomat are critical to our nation's security and that we must do better to ensure they have security. it is time for us to acknowledge not just with our words but also with our deeds the importance and the danger some of america's finest public servants face abroad, with a over 80 -- at any given time. our diplomats are often in the same kind of harm's way as our military is. without the same kind of body armor and firepower to protect themselves. we here in congress have a role to play in giving them the resour

gary ackerman ridiculed her by saying, just because they spend a little bit of money on culinary diplomacy does not mean that security in benghazi was shortchanged. the state department does a wide range of things from foreign aid, to economic support, to arms sales, to educational and cultural diplomacy. all of these things have different values. either you believe these things are important and support american influence and power in the world, and advance american interest by improving america's image, or you do not. many people in congress to not, many do. wherever you start from, that is where that leads you. a separate question is whether these funds are being spent appropriately and efficiently. many argue they are not. the state department is trying to move their focus to things they think can be better justified national security, shifting foreign aid to countries that are unstable. that is their argument. we are not doing this just for the fun of it. we are doing it because it is important to our economic and national security. that battle is being fought right now. >> we welcome