Making a mountain out of a mole hill
The Benghazi Circus
By ANDREW ROSENTHAL, NYT
There are still unanswered questions about the Benghazi mission killings-remaining fine details about what happened that day, what the intelligence community knew (or didn't know) before the attack, whether better security around American diplomats could have prevented the tragedy. It's not surprising that, directly after the incident, there was some confusion as to what, exactly, had taken place. Just as it's not surprising that questions remain two months later. At least it's not surprising to serious people with a background in military and intelligence matters.
Which, apparently, does not include Republican members of Congress. I wrote yesterday that Senators John McCain and Rand Paul, who've been ranting to the press about Benghazi and declaring their determination to get to the bottom of things, failed to attend a classified hearing on Wednesday dedicated to demystifying the attack.
On Thursday, the Republican members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee did manage to show up for a public hearing on Benghazi, but they turned it into a political circus. Their main, no, their sole purpose was to attack President Obama and Susan Rice, the American envoy to the United Nations. They were far more interested in going over, for the thousandth time, what public statements were made by which public officials on what day than in actually addressing substantive issues.
Among the worst offenders, and that was a tough competition, was Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California: "What is clear is that this administration, including the president himself, has intentionally misinformed, read that lied, to the American people in the aftermath of this tragedy. Now, President Obama has the gall to float the name as possible secretary of state the name of the person who is the actual vehicle used to misinform the American people during this crisis."
I can see how Mr. Rohrabacher, who was a big supporter of President Bush when he "intentionally misinformed" the world about Iraq, using an actual secretary of state as his "actual vehicle," might come up with that scenario. But in the case of Benghazi, it's pure fiction and it's impossible to imagine he doesn't know that.
(More here.)
By ANDREW ROSENTHAL, NYT
There are still unanswered questions about the Benghazi mission killings-remaining fine details about what happened that day, what the intelligence community knew (or didn't know) before the attack, whether better security around American diplomats could have prevented the tragedy. It's not surprising that, directly after the incident, there was some confusion as to what, exactly, had taken place. Just as it's not surprising that questions remain two months later. At least it's not surprising to serious people with a background in military and intelligence matters.
Which, apparently, does not include Republican members of Congress. I wrote yesterday that Senators John McCain and Rand Paul, who've been ranting to the press about Benghazi and declaring their determination to get to the bottom of things, failed to attend a classified hearing on Wednesday dedicated to demystifying the attack.
On Thursday, the Republican members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee did manage to show up for a public hearing on Benghazi, but they turned it into a political circus. Their main, no, their sole purpose was to attack President Obama and Susan Rice, the American envoy to the United Nations. They were far more interested in going over, for the thousandth time, what public statements were made by which public officials on what day than in actually addressing substantive issues.
Among the worst offenders, and that was a tough competition, was Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California: "What is clear is that this administration, including the president himself, has intentionally misinformed, read that lied, to the American people in the aftermath of this tragedy. Now, President Obama has the gall to float the name as possible secretary of state the name of the person who is the actual vehicle used to misinform the American people during this crisis."
I can see how Mr. Rohrabacher, who was a big supporter of President Bush when he "intentionally misinformed" the world about Iraq, using an actual secretary of state as his "actual vehicle," might come up with that scenario. But in the case of Benghazi, it's pure fiction and it's impossible to imagine he doesn't know that.
(More here.)
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