Senior Republicans opposed to Susan Rice becoming the next secretary of state softened their tone on Sunday, with one suggesting that he could change his mind if the UN ambassador explained her much-discussed comments on the Benghazi attack of 11 September. 
 
 Senator John McCain had been among those gearing up for a showdown in Washington over the issue, with a series of opponents to President Barack Obama suggesting they would block Rice's nomination as Hillary Clinton's successor in the state department, should it be made. 
 
 Republicans have claimed that Rice misled the public in the aftermath of a deadly assault on the US consulate in Benghazi, in which four Americans, including ambassador Chris Stevens, were killed. Rice suggested in television interviews that intelligence information pointed towards a spontaneous attack, prompted by protest over a US-made anti-Muslim film. It has since been accepted that the attack on the consulate was a terrorist assault. 
 
 However, in evidence given to a congressional committee, the former CIA chief David Petraeus is believed to have said that a report handed to Rice on the day after the attack neglected to mention the terrorist link. 
 
 Moreover, a CBS report has claimed that it was the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that omitted the words "al-Qaida" and "terrorism" from the notes which were handed to Rice prior to her TV appearances. If true, it would appear to absolve the diplomat of any blame. 
 
 Rice has consistently hit out at suggestions that she deliberately misled the public, and Obama has defended his presumed state department pick, saying that attacks on her character were "outrageous". But McCain and other senior Republicans continued to criticise Rice, vowing to oppose attempts to put her into a role that would require Senate confirmation. Their position now looks increasingly clumsy, especially at a time, after its election defeat, when the Republican Party has been characterised as being anti-women. 
 
 Asked on Fox News Sunday if he could change his mind on Rice becoming secretary of state, McCain said: "Sure. She can. I'd give everyone the benefit of explaining their position and the actions that they took. I'd be glad to have the opportunity to discuss these issues with her." 
 
 Another senior Senate Republican, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said on Sunday that Rice had a "lot of questions" to answer, should she reach a Senate confirmation hearing as secretary of state. But he declined to repeat an assertion that Rice's remarks on Benghazi disqualified her from the post. 
 
 Peter King, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives homeland security committee, has also criticised Rice. Asked on Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press about the Benghazi attack, he said "on this she was wrong". He did, however, add that Rice had done an "effective job" at the United Nations. ||||| Rep. Clyburn: Criticism of Amb. Rice includes “code words” 
 
 Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) says he is frustrated by those criticizing Ambassador Susan Rice as being incompetent for her handling of the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. 
 
 Rep. Clyburn says, “These are code words. We heard them during the campaign. During this recent campaign, we heard Sununu calling our President ‘lazy,’ ‘incompetent.’ These kinds of terms that those of us – especially those of us who were born and raised in the South – we’ve been hearing these little words and phrases all of our lives and we get insulted by them. Susan Rice is as competent as anybody that you will find…. It certainly caused a big problem with me. I don’t like those words. Say that she was wrong for doing it, but don’t call her incompetent. That is something totally different. A lot of very competent people sometimes make errors, and to say that she erroneously did it, I don’t have a problem with it. But to call her incompetent, a PHD Rhodes Scholar, being called incompetent by someone who can’t hold a candle to her intellectually. By someone who said, and Senator McCain called her incompetent as well. But he told us that Sarah Palin was a very competent person to be Vice President of the United States. That ought to tell you a little bit about his judgment.” 
 
 Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien airs weekday mornings from 7-9am ET on CNN.
– Nearly one-quarter of the House of Representatives is opposed to Susan Rice replacing Hillary Clinton as the secretary of state. In a letter to President Obama yesterday, 97 House Republicans said Rice's "misleading statements" in the wake of the Benghazi attack "caused irreparable damage to her credibility," Politico reports. The letter goes on to claim that Rice "is widely viewed as having either willfully or incompetently misled the American public." But only the Senate has the power to block administration nominees, and so far only Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham have announced any plans to block Rice. Meanwhile, Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn sees a race flap in the words being thrown around to describe Rice. "These are code words," he tells CNN. "We heard them during the campaign. During this recent campaign, we heard Sununu calling our president 'lazy,' 'incompetent.' These kinds of terms that those of us—especially those of us who were born and raised in the South—we’ve been hearing these little words and phrases all of our lives and we get insulted by them. ... Say that she was wrong, but don’t call her incompetent."