Hillary Clinton
Related: About this forumGOP's Benghazi Committee comes unglued: (HILLARY GROUP)
Its easy to forget that when the Republicans Benghazi Committee initially sought testimony from Hillary Clinton, GOP officials wanted her to provide private, closed-door testimony. The former Secretary of State was eager to answer questions publicly, for all the world to see, but Republicans desperately wanted the discussion to be kept far from public view.
And after watching this farce unfold today, we now know why.
Its hard to say exactly when todays hearing descended into total farce, but it was arguably when Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), for reasons that didnt appear to make any sense, quizzed Clinton repeatedly on her correspondence with informal adviser Sidney Blumenthal. The New Republics Brian Beutler highlighted the problem.
Republicans have intoned darkly about this relationship and played up, in deceptive fashion, Blumenthals influence over Clintons policy in Libya despite the fact that he has no Libya expertise, and has apparently never been there. Republicans even deposed him for hours. But heres the catch: while they continue to make an issue of Blumenthals relationship with Hillary Clinton, and their email correspondence, theyve refused to release the transcript of that deposition, where he had a full opportunity to contextualize it.
Today, after Gowdy pressed Clinton on this reinforcing every suspicion about the entire exercise being brazenly partisan and political Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) couldnt take it anymore. The Maryland Democrat insisted that if Republicans are going to reference Blumenthals role, then the committee has a responsibility to release the full transcript of Blumenthals testimony to the public.
Gowdy refused and a shouting match ensued. The far-right chairman, however, simply couldnt defend his position or explain why GOP lawmakers insisted on keeping relevant information hidden from view.
It was arguably a low point in the hearing, but it had plenty of competition in the category.
Its practically impossible to go through the several hours worth of exchanges weve seen so far, but I sincerely hope that its dawned on Republicans that this hearing was a dreadful mistake.
Whether GOP lawmakers realize it or not, they created a platform for the leading Democratic presidential candidate to speak before the nation and appear knowledgeable, articulate, compassionate, and competent. Simultaneously, the committees Republicans, who spent months preparing for todays epic showdown, were hopelessly clueless and small.
Which strategic genius in Republican Party thought itd be a good idea to pit Hillary Clinton against obscure, unprepared, far-right members of Congress? Why on earth would the GOP go out of its way to make the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination look like the adult in the room?
Clinton has often been blessed with incompetent opponents, but this is ridiculous....
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/gops-benghazi-committee-comes-unglued via Steve Benen, via msnbc
phantom power
(25,966 posts)And it's because what they did to Bill Clinton wasn't very different, and ultimately it worked. They kept throwing shit against that wall until they got lucky with the Lewinsky thing.
I think they were all basically thinking they'd do the same thing with Benghazi. Keep hammering and eventually something would crack open.
gohuskies
(1,153 posts)The GOP members of this committee are too blindly stupid and arrogant to put away their partisan knives in hopes of cornering Sec. Clinton into an 'oops' moment. The country needs to vote out these rude misogynistic a-holes and find legislators willing to govern responsibly. Christ, they can't even propose a sane budget other than slashing taxes on the 1% and killing middle-class Americans. Truly a sad day for all Americans.
Walk away
(9,494 posts)this weekend.
Please please PLEASE!!!!!!
Agschmid
(28,749 posts)riversedge
(69,730 posts)NYTNarrative Retweeted
#Hillary2016 ?@CareyOrcutt 3h3 hours ago
My reaction to the #BenghaziCommittee @TGowdySC as well!
workinclasszero
(28,270 posts)stonecutter357
(12,682 posts)Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)Cha
(295,929 posts)Steve Benen is has a good way of putting it!
Thank you DM M!