earlier in week maureen dowd, the great maureen dowd of the new york tim"new york times" ha the op-edage of times and the headline was "why god?" it was largely written about her friend father kevin o'neal a catholic priest in washington who began his mini essay within maureen's column by asking the question how does one celebrate christmas with the fresh memory of 20 children and 7 adults ruthlessly murdered in newtown? father o'neal went on to write, first, i do not expect to have all the answers nor do i believe that people are really looking for them. second, i don't look for the hand of god to stop evil. i don't expect comfort to come from afar. i believe god enters the world through us, and even though i have the why questions, they are not so much why god questions. we are human and mortal. we will suffer and die, but how we are with one another in that suffering and dying makes all the difference as to whether god's presence is felt or not and whether we are comforted or not. >> it was an amazing column. i read the maureen dowd column christmas morning. that's when it appeared

. >>> after a delay noted by none other than "the new york times's" maureen dowd, secretary of state hillary clinton is coming to the defense of u.n. ambassador susan rice, calling her a stalwart colleague. rice is seen as a top pick to succeed clinton in the state department, but is under attack by republicans who accuse her of misleading the public in the aftermath of the september 11th attacks at the u.s. consulate in benghazi. >> and it's important to remember what susan said was based on the information that had been given to every senior official in our administration, and she made very clear in her appearances that the information was subject to change as more facts were gathered and analyzed by the intelligence community. and look, as is often the case, our understanding evolved over time. and we've done our best to keep the american people and the congress informed. that was her goal, that was her mission and she should not be criticized for doing exactly that. >> that, of course, comes in direct conflict with what general david petraeus, the director of the cia, told the co

so as much as the three amigos were out in front, maureen dowd had critical, critical reviews of her, ezra klein, the environmentalist movement started having problems with her. >> that is true and i detected that. there was also a sense when she went up there to see the three amigos and others, she really emerged looking quite weakened as if she got into an obvious trap and been lassoed all over again. it just didn't look very smart politics by her. >> well, no, i think she took one for the team. the problem is that the entire situation has become highly politicized. frankly giuliani saying she may not have been sharp enough is wholly unfair and i think it really is a tragedy, because she really, i would say, is the best woman for the job. she was a trusted adviser to the president and she has done more in terms of putting sanctions against iran, north korea in her capacity as ambassador. is truly a woman who understands 21st century diplomacy and national security. and what she did was go and read talking points given to her by the national security staff and did her job. had she go

maureen dowd. marched in and finished them off. >> dick morris. >> stephanie: no that was a really bad guess. maureen dowd. we have julie bolcer of "the advocate" coming up to talk about doma and the supreme court talking up prop 8 as we continue on the "stephanie miller show." ♪ [♪ theme music ♪] >> stephanie: hello current tv land. jacki schechner thank you for alerting me to this. orly taitz is asking the 80,000 people watching her youtube video to join her for a protest at the white house. >> yeah. >> stephanie: jacki i bet more than 80,000 people watched the video of the dog in the fart machine, and yet i don't know if we can get them together at the white house. >> i'm not sure there is anything to petition there. >> stephanie: well, because they were too busy looking for the monkey in the shearling coat. >> stephanie: i think it must have been from the kids department. >> stephanie: i'm buying that for you for a christmas present so you can wear it to the d.c. sexy liberal in january. becaus

maureen dowd notes she has gathering up the suspects, making speeches about israel, solidifying relationshipsn. tonight, donna brazile and david frum, former speech writer for george w. bush. donna, you know hillary clinton and you know her so well. the poll numbers look pretty stunning, but you know, it's easy to talk about something in the hypothetical, then someone runs and people start finding out all kinds of bad things about you. what do you think? first of all, there are 1,422 days until the next big presidential election. >> who's counting, donna? >> i'm always counting. i think secretary clinton is a phenomenal woman. she has been a proven leader at the state department. she has not only the right credentials if she decides to run, but i believe that right now, she's focusing on the job at hand. tomorrow, she'll be i think she's giving a human rights speech in ireland and beyond that, i think she just want to complete her tenure as secretary of state. perhaps rest, revive and get herself back into the campaign lifestyle that maybe she wants to get back into, but i think she has enoug

character an her disposition came from liberal sources, dana millbank of the "washington post," maureen dowdimes. various human rights groups. there was a whisper campaign coming from left against her that i think mattered as much if anything than susan collins did. >> bret: what about the benghazi situation? is it possible that the story is so bad and that the investigation is starting to uncover so much that the president really can't deal with this kind of story coming out at this time? take a listen to the chairman of the house intelligence committee on cnn today. i should point out that secretary of state clinton is scheduled to testify, on capitol hill next week but the state department is saying that is not a done deal of yet. it's not a done deal that this report will be finished and brought forward to capitol hill. take a listen. >> i feel strongly that there was a gross negligence when it came to the physical security of the ambassador at the mission there in benghazi. that was very clear to me. some very, very bad decigs were made. i think contributed to the death of the ambassado

a report by maureen dowd attributes it's struggles to a stubborn refuse to adapt to a world where poorple, sick people, black people, brown people, and female people and gay people count. it's survived by fox news and the heritage foundation. joining us now for our wake, goldie taylor, ron christie, who is a republican strategist, both with me here in new yorkened a dr. james peterson, an associate professor at lehigh university, a regular contributor to thegrio.com. welcome to all of you. ron, the gop has announced a new party, quote, grow the party and win. how effective will it be when the only recognizable names are ari fleischer and haley barbour's nephew henry who believe the polls are skewed against mitt romney. >> i don't agree with that. i think politics is about addition not subtraction. we did a very bad job with outreach with people of color, we alienated college educated women, the gay vote and the hispanic vote. if the republicans are serious about growing as a party and about moving forward not only for 2014 but the presidential election, we need to grow and expand our b

maureen dowd called her too ambitious, too unprincipled for the country. mill banks said that she had an attitude problem. this kind of reaction was totally inappropriate. jon: kirsten, we also heard from andrea mitchell who said this was not going to help republicans, forcing a woman of color out of the consideration to become secretary of state. where does that play into all this? >> it's irrelevant. it has nothing to do with anything. first of all, we've had a woman african-american secretary of state, you know, a republican, actually, who was confirmed by the same people who are criticizing susan rice. and can, you know, i think that the storyline that somehow -- and this was what susan rice said in her withdrawal -- was that she somehow got caught up in partisan politics isn't a true story. because as judy just said, there were liberals that came after her in very personal terms. the criticisms from the republicans were actually about benghazi, and, you know, the criticisms from the left were much more perm, and i think -- personal, and i think, was t

maureen dowd said rice is too automaticbitious and unprincipled.ana milbank said her attitude was a problem . hillary clinton begin the choice between john kerry and susan rice. said i would rather have john kerry. he can talk for hours and not say anything and speaks french. >> gretchen: i was doing studio b . and he was probably uncorking the champagne. there is supposedly a report on benghazi coming out. usually they make the announcements on friday. could it be the report is coming out today as the friday release or sometime soon? will that mean hillary clinton will not testify on december 20th if she wants to run for president, and moderate republican susan collins, the senator, maybe she was the final nail in the coffin. when she came out and said she still had questions. if moderate republicans would not say yes, it was over. >> brian: i don't agree with charles krauthammer. i - a lot of nave i seals and military people want to know why they were sacrificed. an drea mitchell has a staggering review what this means for republicans that ambass

. >> stephanie: maureen dowd had a great piece yesterday on lost civilization. new york. he would hit him in the left ball. hal makes everyone hot. >> by the way stephanie styles tweeted i'm pretty sure it is flavin 7-23 where jesus said i'm down with the gay. >> stephanie: flavin is my favorite chapter. >> actually, those are the books >> stephanie: shedd and floyd. >> jim's not here to correct your german. >> stephanie: i'm going to get as many in as i can in this segment. >> better be careful. bucky may correct your german. >> bucky the beaver. >> stephanie: michael hill sick with a piece in the "l.a. times." the election is over but super pacs are still a threat. just as the devil's finest trick is persuading you he doesn't exist, it may be persuading us that citizens united doesn't matter. we've been like thank god that didn't matter. he said one of the big post-election is it showed big-time spending couldn't help donors like sheldon adelson get their way and might have worked against them. the conclusion was wow did he waste his money. or is it sheldon fr

some people, including maureen dowd, would suggest maybe that took a little longer than was necessarylong it took. and it didn't go unnoticed, obviously. >> she's traveling. >> you see john kerry being embraced by republicans. i think a lot of democrats would also like him to be the next secretary of state. where are we in that fight? we have so many issues that are on the front pages now. i think the president needs to get his person in as soon as possible. >> well, my sense is that secretary clinton weighing in perhaps suggests that the nomination is coming soon. i've talked to people on all sides of this. there's no question that benghazi continues to be litigated. even on the democratic side, there is some division on this. i've talked to democratic senators who have questioned whether she has the standing, the stature, to be secretary of state. so obviously there's some division about how people view susan rice. but here's the bottom line. she's very close to the president of the united states. she is a key voice in his national security team. that's what could ultimately win the

. >> i'll read to you a line from maureen dowd's column in "the new york times" yesterday. she was talking about the future of the republican party. you guys are going to be taking a closemayans were right, as it turns out, when they predicted the world would end in 2012. the world of arrogant, uptight, entitled, bossy, retrogressive white guys. when it came to white guys, the republicans still do well. >> that's why i salute chairman wright's pribus for forming this. if you don't change with a country while maintaining your countries and your ideology but making those principles more believable, you're not doing your job. ronald regular be wasagan was a that. keep a conservative base and make it attractive to the middle. there's room to be a conservative party that has ideas thidea s ideas that sell not only with the conservative base but with a group much bigger because the ideas are good ones. we cannot just be a party of white people. when reagan was elected, 88% of the voters were white. today, it's 72%. you do the math. >> how do you go out and reassure nonwhites out