It's all about the show, not about the know.

Maddow to GOP blowhards who skipped the Bergdahl hearings : 'We're laughing at you' (Click here to read more)

By David Ferguson
Saturday, June 7, 2014 11:15 EDT
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On Friday night, Rachel Maddow took Republican senators like Saxby Chambliss (GA) and John McCain (AZ) to task for skipping briefings about the release of Bowe Bergdahl and using that time instead to grandstand for TV cameras and play politics with the issue.
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Maddow began with North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr (R), who ducked out of a hearing about trouble at the Veterans' Administration getting care to injured veterans who need treatment. Burr wrote a scathing letter on Memorial Day to U.S. veterans' organizations about their testimony before a Senate committee.
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The trouble is, of course, that Burr wasn't actually at that committee meeting. Cameras show him leaving his chair early.
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"He actually got up and walked out as soon as the veterans began their testimony," said Maddow. "And he only returned at the end of their testimony to say 'Thanks very much, you guys, but actually you've got to get out of here.'"

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"It's not that I don't love you guys," said Burr when he rejoined the hearing, "but we're gonna try to get the next panel in before we get to serious votes that will bring a finality to this, so, thank you."

"I should note, though, that this particularly cowardly form of failure is not just a Richard Burr problem," she said, "although he does wear it well. This particular kind of failure happens a lot in Washington right now. This has become a very popular way to make a fool out of yourself as a politician."

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For instance, she said, there was that time in November of 2012 when Sen. John McCain skipped a briefing about the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya to hold a press conference demanding answers about the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
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When a CNN producer asked McCain why he was skipping the hearing about Benghazi, the erstwhile presidential candidate blew up, demanding, "Who the hell are you to tell me when I can or can not" hold a press conference?
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