Almost 100 House Republicans have signed a letter opposing Susan Rice’s possible nomination to be secretary of state. 
 
 Led by South Carolina Rep. Jeff Duncan, 97 GOP members wrote a letter to Obama on Monday announcing their opposition to Rice’s potential appointment to State. 
 
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 reset McCain to Rice: Admit wrong 
 
 “Though Ambassador Rice has been our Representative to the U.N., we believe her misleading statements over the days and weeks following the attack on our embassy in Libya that led to the deaths of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans caused irreparable damage to her credibility both at home and around the world,” the letter reads, later adding: “Ambassador Rice is widely viewed as having either willfully or incompetently misled the American public in the Benghazi affair.” 
 
 While Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have indicated they will seek to block any Rice nomination, other Senate Republicans have not yet joined a filibuster pledge. Both Obama and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein have defended Rice, arguing she was using the best intelligence supplied to her at the time. 
 
 Under the Constitution, only the Senate has the power to give advice and consent to the administration on nominees. 
 
 Besides Rice, Obama is said to be considering Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) as Hillary Clinton’s successor at State. ||||| 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."