Senate Dems rally for Rice against GOP opposition

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats are rallying to the defense of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice as Republicans say that after meeting with her in private they are even more troubled by her account of the deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya.

GOP senators are signaling they will try to scuttle Rice's nomination if President Barack Obama taps her to be the next secretary of state.

The Senate's top Democrat, Harry Reid of Nevada, said Tuesday that attacks on Rice by some Republican senators were "outrageous and utterly unmoored from facts and reality."

As Democrats defended the possible diplomatic nominee, Rice was meeting Wednesday with Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, who's next in line to be the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.