Maddow's Bizarre Defense of Susan Rice: McCain, Not Rice, Offers 'Made-Up' Charges

As she moved into an interview with former Obama spokesman Bill Burton on Wednesday night, Rachel Maddow claimed it was somehow insane to resist the idea of Susan Rice being the next Secretary of State after Rice lied on five Sunday shows about Benghazi. Maddow claimed somehow John McCain was the one inventing Benghazi stories: "But if it's made-up -- like the John McCain crusade against Susan Rice -- that made-up stuff will no longer be entertained at the level of national policy."

Maddow vowed "the idea that Susan Rice is going to be your scapegoat here when she has done nothing wrong, that's the part that is nonsense and I`m not going to go along with that. And you're not using something made up about her to destroy a career that is still on its way up." Picking a Krugman or Spitzer, now maybe that could be a fight:

MADDOW: I mean, picking a fight is what they're calling this in the Beltway media, right? Picking a fight would be installing Paul Krugman at Treasury. Picking a fight would be like picking Eliot Spitzer for attorney general, right? Picking a fight would be moving Camp David to Hawaii so the president could get in more beach time.

Picking Susan Rice for Secretary of State, if the president decides he wants to do that, would not be picking a fight. It would be more, drawing a line in the sand, saying, starting now -- starting day one of this second term, which I just won in a big national election that you lost, starting now, we will fight about policy, we will fight about differences of opinion, we will fight about priorities, but we will not have any more fights based on nonsense that the right made up to entertain itself. If we have a real beef, we will fight it out.

But if it's made-up -- like the John McCain crusade against Susan Rice -- that made-up stuff will no longer be entertained at the level of national policy.

Perhaps Maddow could have liberal Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank on the show to debate her. He thinks Obama could do much better than Rice, a very undiplomatic diplomat.