Republicans Seem not to Understand What 'Rationale' Means

They have been hysterical because John Kerry referred to a 'rationale' to the January Charles Hebdo attacks.

In their feverish Medieval minds that see everything in terms of Manichean Good and Evil, they imagine that 'rationale' is just aother word for 'great reason and justification for doing the Hebdo attacks.'

That's not what Secretary Kerry said. But as usual, the GOP is using the only weapon it has available-McCarthyism.

"There's something different about what happened from Charlie Hebdo, and I think that everybody would feel that," Kerry said of the Paris attacks. "There was a sort of particularized focus and perhaps even a legitimacy in terms of -- not a legitimacy, but a rationale that you could attach yourself to somehow and say, 'Okay, they're really angry because of this and that.'"

Christie blasted Kerry's comments as a sign of the Obama administration's weakness.

"For the secretary of state of the United States to stand up and say that there's some rationale for what happened in January -- these are the kind of weak, mixed signals that this administration sends that helps to really make the American people think that there's no one is watching the store, and there isn't," the New Jersey governor said on Wednesday.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/christie-kerry-charlie-hebdo_564cd3c0e4b00b7997f8b913

What exactly does Christie think rationale means? It doesn't mean justification. It's just that this was more indiscriminate-that was his point. 

As usual, this is the best the GOP can do-taking people out of context and putting words in their mouth that weren't said. 

So they are distorting what Kerry meant by rationale. Another thing they're taking out of context if Obama's use of the word 'setback.' Notice how things always descend into silly word games. 

He wont' say Islamic terrorists. he said rationale, he said setback. Oh the Humanity!

Remember You didn't build that?

"Conservative media deceptively took President Obama's comments following the November 13 terror attacks in Paris out of context to argue that he is being "apathetic" and "cavalier" about the threat of ISIS. However, in his full remarks, Obama referred to the acts as "heinous" and "a terrible and sickening setback" in the fight against ISIS."

http://mediamatters.org/research/2015/11/18/right-wing-media-take-obama-out-of-context-clai/206936