Scott Brinton

Remember Beirut? We should.

Posted

Either Republicans on the House of Representatives’ Select Committee on Benghazi are awful investigators, or Hillary Clinton is innocent of the claims against her, or both.

The committee, which has probed the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, since May, has turned up nothing to suggest that Clinton did anything egregiously wrong as secretary of state, despite hours and hours of mind-numbing testimony by a raft of high-ranking officials at a cost of millions of taxpayer dollars.

The select committee, chaired by Trey Gowdy, a Republican from South Carolina, persists nevertheless. We saw it at its nadir last Thursday, when it attempted to rake Clinton over the coals on primetime TV.

This is the 10th congressional committee to investigate Benghazi. Last Thursday’s exercise in futility wasn’t a hearing. It was, as one recent New York Times editorial described this entire farce, an inquisition.

Here’s what I wrote on Facebook the next day: “Truth be told, as Secretary Clinton stated quite correctly, it was the GOP House of Representatives, with its inane adherence to fiscal conservatism, no matter the price, that refused to fund additional embassy security in the first place. Perhaps that is why the GOP reps are so vociferous in their attacks on Clinton. In the end, it all circles back to them.”

A Republican friend replied, “Scott, I think each party has to stop playing the blame game and work together.”

Agreed. Except Republicans and Democrats can’t cooperate until the GOP stands down. Mr. Gowdy, it’s time to let go. The stalwarts in your party’s base will continue to cheer your demagoguery. In the end, though, a majority of Americans have grown tired of the rancor. According to a brand-new CNN/ORC poll, 3 in 4 Americans believe the Benghazi committee is “politically motivated.” Most people understand that you are grasping at straws. There is nothing there. There never was. You should move on.

But, of course, you probably won’t.

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