Asking the same question over and over again and expecting a different response

Republican Myopia

NYT editorial

Congressional Republicans like nothing more than beating a dead horse if it might embarrass the Obama administration — like their unceasing attempt to accuse the administration of lying to the American people about the attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.

The allegations are specious, but that didn’t stop some Republicans from repeating them on Wednesday during Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Congressional testimony. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky was particularly out of control, rather absurdly comparing the scope of the Benghazi attack to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

It’s not clear what drives this obsession after the Republicans’ failed attempt to derail President Obama’s re-election over Benghazi. Is it the prospect, however vague it now is, that Mrs. Clinton might run for president in 2016?

Mrs. Clinton was professional and authoritative for hours in the witness chair before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and, later, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. But she understandably reached her limit when Senator Ron Johnson pummeled her with the same questions Republicans have hammered at repeatedly since Mr. Stevens and his colleagues were killed in September. These have nothing to do with what happened, why and how to prevent a recurrence, but whether various statements — especially by Susan Rice, the United States ambassador to the United Nations — proved to be perfectly accurate.

(More here.)