Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

This really is a full service blog.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

This blog will pay for itself.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Not all heroes wear capes.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Republicans in disarray!

I really should read my own blog.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / The Benghazi ShitShow

Reader Interactions

192Comments

  1. 1.

    Trentrunner

    One GOPer just asked Hillary if Oswald acted alone.

    My point is that the GOPers seem just a teensy bit off-topic.

  2. 2.

    dmsilev

    They’re convinced that if they just find the right magic words, Clinton will shrivel up and die. Actually, given what they think of Clinton, they’re probably convinced that a bucket of water will melt her. We should probably be thankful that none of the nitwits have tried dousing her during this farce. Or, for that matter, tried asking if she weighs the same amount as a duck.

  3. 3.

    germy shoemangler

    Majority of voters will not see the entire show (eight hours?)

    They’ll be shown brief snippets on the news, edited to make HRC seem sneaky and evasive.

  4. 4.

    Steppan

    @dmsilev:

    I’d love for a Democrat to ask her if she weighs the same amount as a duck, and then say that’s as productive as any other question’s been. Also, lulz.

    ed: spellingfail

  5. 5.

    dmsilev

    @Trentrunner:

    One GOPer just asked Hillary if Oswald acted alone.

    That’s easy. Time-Lord Obama helped Oswald, as part of Operation Fake Birth Certificate.

  6. 6.

    germy shoemangler

    Gowdy’s barber just testified. Swears under oath he did exactly what Gowdy told him to do: short sides and back, leave a little on top.

  8. 8.

    kindness

    re: Republican regrets.

    Depends how deep their closed loop is. If all they watch is Fox they think they’re winning. I had a couple of ‘educated’ friends tell me last weekend Hillary will be in jail because if this (must be a Fox meme as I’ve seen that eleswhere too).

  9. 9.

    logan brown

    They had this on at the sports bar where I had lunch at today and the optics of the split screen were devastating. On one side, there is a congressman who is almost frothing at the mouth and on the other is Hillary who is cool, calm, and collected. She is taking them apart just like the San Antonio Spurs would dissect a Division II College Basketball Team.

  11. 11.

    germy shoemangler

    @logan brown:

    On one side, there is a congressman who is almost frothing at the mouth and on the other is Hillary who is cool, calm, and collected.

    Reminds me of when the crazy neighbor dog goes nuts outside while my cat watches quietly through the window from the safety of our house.

  12. 12.

    JPL

    @germy shoemangler: Hillary’s statement about how they died was so powerful, that I’d be surprised if it didn’t make the news.

    The Guardian has Hillary’s statement at 20:15
    If you didn’t hear it, have a hanky.

  14. 14.

    dr. bloor

    @germy shoemangler:

    Majority of voters will not see the entire show (eight hours?)

    They’ll be shown brief snippets on the news, edited to make HRC seem sneaky and evasive.

    The majority of voters will be watching Here Comes Honey Boo-Boo reruns on another channel when the lowlights are broadcast.

    This isn’t going to have the effect desired by the Anarchist Party.

  16. 16.

    Boots Day

    The Republicans will never regret anything. That would mean they have to consider the possibility that they were wrong about something. But when they’re opposing beings of pure evil like Hillary and Obama, how could they possibly be wrong? They are proud to fight that kind of thing to the death.

  18. 18.

    Patrick

    @kindness:

    I had a couple of ‘educated’ friends tell me last weekend Hillary will be in jail because if this (must be a Fox meme as I’ve seen that eleswhere too).

    If Bush wasn’t responsible for 9/11, then how can Hillary be responsible for Benghazi?

    BTW – why the hell are we as a country spending more time investigating Benghazi than we did 9/11?

  19. 19.

    SiubhanDuinne

    It’s really, really hard for me to decide which of the Republican members of this committee is the most loathsome. Right now it’s a toss-up among Gowdy, Roksam and Pompeo, but it could easily shift to someone else — or one of these three could just grab the lead and run away with the prize.

    Hillary Clinton, OTOH, is impressing me more with every moment that passes.

  20. 20.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I let myself get sucked in….

    Good god, Roskam is obnoxious (ETA), which I note because I saw someone say earlier he’s one of the “smart” Republicans on the committee

  21. 21.

    Jeff

    “They’ll regret shit like this when they start losing seats. Not before.”

    EXACTLY. I’m so tired of hearing about how bad the last, or upcoming government shutdown was for republicans. Same thing here. Unless it seriously backfires (looking doubtful) and boosts Clinton, this is win-win for the GOP.

  23. 23.

    trollhattan

    As to Cole’s point, I felt it was going to blow up in their faces the minute she agreed to appear. By now Hillary has endured so many decades of Republican assaults she has skin of Kevlar. Good luck boys, BTW, If you can’t sink the good ship Hillary, how the hell are you taking out Trump? I sense trouble ahead.

    My dependably Republican acquaintances at best will allow “both sides do it” if not continue believing only they care about and can get at The Truth. Will the bubble ever run out of oxygen?

  26. 26.

    mikefromArlington

    Thier best bet is to conclude there was no wrong doing by Clinton and shut thier traps.

  27. 27.

    cmorenc

    @germy shoemangler:

    They’ll be shown brief snippets on the news, edited to make HRC seem sneaky and evasive.

    On Fox Spews, that is exactly what will happen. OTOH, the quality CNN and MSNBC want in choosing clips is dramatic impact – and they could be equally satisfied with clips showing the GOP inquisitors going *splat* if they are more effectively dramatic than those which purportedly can be assembled to show HRC becoming successfully ensnared in the traps her inquisitors are attempting to set for her – they’ll emphasize the GOP inquisitors going *splat* – and they might choose one relatively minor HRC difficulty in an attempt at showing balance. But the main takeaway for viewers watching their coverage will be the *splat*.

  29. 29.

    Brandon

    @germy shoemangler: Gowdy’s barber just testified. Swears under oath he did exactly what Gowdy told him to do: short sides and back, leave a little on top.

    The fact that the most important thing to come out of the hearings today was that “Gowdy hair” was trending on Twitter says about all anyone needs to know about how serious people are taking his “investigation”.

  30. 30.

    JPL

    @SiubhanDuinne: As difficult as it is, I’d vote for Jim Jordan. The rest can be easily mocked but when you call a sitting President and former Secretary of State, a liar, then it crosses a line.

  36. 36.

    Hoodie

    @germy shoemangler: He looks like Zippy the Pinhead without the ribbon and the clown suit. This hearing should be held in a laundromat, maybe Gowdy can get to the bottom of what happened in Benghazi by passing through another dimension in a commercial dryer with Sid Blumenthal’s boxer shorts.

  37. 37.

    dedc79

    Clinton has been absolutely amazing. It must be taking an incredible amount of self-control and patience to sit through this sham hearing and be subjected to all this nonsense (again) and to respond calmly while avoiding any language that can be turned into an attack ad.

  39. 39.

    Patrick

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Good god, Roskam is obnoxious (ETA), which I note because I saw someone say earlier he’s one of the “smart” Republicans on the committee

    I think any Republican who managed to get elected by the voters, eventhough it is against their own voters interest to have voted for him/her, is smart. They ultimately want to get rid of SS/Medicare, cut taxes for the wealthy, increase subsidies for oil companies etc etc. Heck, kudos to them for managing to get elected. They sure are smart at fooling people.

  40. 40.

    Kass

    The GOP committee members have been ordered to always point out whenever Hillary gets handed a note, and to loudly point that out. I’ve seen that at least twice. What’s that supposed to accomplish?

  41. 41.

    Renie

    Watch Hillary talk for hours in a calm, knowledgeable manner, then try to imagine any of the Republicans running sitting there. Trump would have walked out, Rubio would be downing water constantly, Carson wouldn’t even know where he was and ?JEB? would be a dithering idiot. Pure example of who is better presidential material.

  42. 42.

    jl

    HRC has an unfair advantage in that she was not grossly negligent, was not watching the diplomats die in real time over a remote video feed cackling like a super villain, the email server scandal is bogus and nothing has emerged from the security review so far other than usual problems navigating a complicated and frustrating Kafkaesuqe security classification system.

    So, I just hope everyone remembers that when judging the poor GOP committee members. It is just not a fair fight.

  43. 43.

    goblue72

    @Jeff: Pretty much.

    And the press is reporting that the Freedom Caucus just voted to support Ryan for Speaker.

    The Left thought Boehner was a hard-right Republican. Just wait for Ryan. Boehner was a bought and paid for shill. At the end of the day, he probably didn’t really care. Ryan is a Randian Trust Believer.

    2016 is going to suck.

  44. 44.

    cmorenc

    @kindness:

    Depends how deep their closed loop is. If all they watch is Fox they think they’re winning. I had a couple of ‘educated’ friends tell me last weekend Hillary will be in jail because if this (must be a Fox meme as I’ve seen that eleswhere too).

    Egged on by Fox’s stock legal analyst, Judge Anthony Napolitano, who is ever-willing to provide a veneer of scholarly analysis to whatever memes Fox is pushing.

  45. 45.

    jl

    @Kass: That whatever HRC does, a sure sign of something bad, whatever it is.

    Has someone asked if HRC and her staff are blinking in code to each other yet? That would be really bad.

  46. 46.

    dedc79

    @Kass:

    What’s that supposed to accomplish?

    I think they’re TRYING to make it seem like she’s not giving her own honest answers, but instead is just regurgitating pre-approved talking points. But it’s not working.

  47. 47.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @JPL:

    How could I forget him!? You’re quite right — and I took a particular scunner to him a few weeks ago during that farce of a “hearing” of Cecile Richards.

  48. 48.

    Amir Khalid

    The Republicans seem to have seriously, seriously misunderestimated Hillary. I thought this Harold Watson Gowdy eye eye eye fellow was an experienced prosecutor before he was elected to the House. If this is an attempt to prosecute her, to make her seem guilty of something in the court of pubic opinion, it’s failing abjectly. It’s only making clear why the previous investigations never pinned anything on her or the Obama administration.

  49. 49.

    gelfling545

    @mikefromArlington: Really, that’s their only way out of the revelations that this was a political ploy and one that has been very expensive. Of course, being mostly bare-faced liars they may not care.

  50. 50.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @JPL: There’s a rumor that after the ’96 election Tweety wanted to be WH press secretary. Saying “Tweety has a weird fixation with… ” is somehow redundant, but his obsessive attraction/repulsion with the Clintons has to be one of the most cartoonish demons bouncing around his giant Irish noggin like the haunted house at Disney World (that time I was there in 1977).

    Also, too: good god Brian Williams is awful

  51. 51.

    goblue72

    @JPL: Matthews is a bloviating quasi-misogynistic Reagan Democrat. Which also means that his temper is short when it comes to display of epic derp-itude.

    He’s Mike Royko with a cable TV program.

  52. 52.

    RIley's Enabler

    I’ve been on the fence over the late summer – yeah, I’m going to pull the D lever no matter who the name is because all the reasons – but seeing her today put me solidly into the H camp.

    Every time Gowdy shrieks that this is not a prosecution I hear the buzzer from the old “Operation” game. How can he live in such a state of complete cognitive dissonance?

    I’m gonna have to go with my lyin’ eyes on this one, Trey.

  54. 54.

    Brachiator

    @dedc79:

    Clinton has been absolutely amazing. It must be taking an incredible amount of self-control and patience to sit through this sham hearing and be subjected to all this nonsense (again) and to respond calmly while avoiding any language that can be turned into an attack ad.

    Panel member: Mrs Clinton, are you taking notes?

    HRC: No, I’m taking names. You know, for when I’m president and I come after your sorry ass.

  55. 55.

    dlw32

    Regret? Please. This is juicy red meat for the GOP base. And these are House members; all they need is to win the favor of the most rabid, ignorant wing of their party to get past the primary in their safe, GOP-only districts and they will be safely entrenched in their seat…

    This doesn’t hurt the House members at all. It might hurt their presidential candidate, but it reinforces their lock on the House.

  56. 56.

    Anoniminous

    Given there is no Law of the Universe against it, I grant our Infotainment Mediums don’t have to edit the videos to endlessly repeat, “BURN THE WITCH FOR AN IMPIOUS HERETIC AND MURDERESS!!!” but I am cynically expecting that’s what they will do.

    Either way, I won’t watch it. I have better things to do. Both the drying paint and growing lawn need careful observation.

    Edited for conformity to Englishousity

  57. 57.

    dedc79

    @Brachiator: Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised, but what’s struck me most is how lousy these republicans are at asking pointed questions. I mean, Gowdy was a freaking prosecutor, but he’s asking questions like he learned everything he knows from the last two minutes of Law & Order.

  58. 58.

    Patricia Kayden

    If Secretary Clinton is smart (and I think she is), she would put this investigation in at least one political ad. It’s a great reminder as to how Republicans are not above exploiting the death of their fellow citizens for political purposes. They’re trash and have no shame whatsoever. You would think they would use what happened in Benghazi to argue for more security at American Consulates but no, we have to live through a never ending witch hunt.

  59. 59.

    Renie

    @goblue72: Do you really think the Freedom Caucus is going to go along with Ryan when he’s Speaker? They will go right back to their demands.

  61. 61.

    Trentrunner

    Chuck Todd just quoted Ron Fournier saying today’s hearing shows “both sides play politics.”

    I’m going to go shoot myself now. God, they’re awful.

  63. 63.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @goblue72: He’s Mike Royko with a cable TV program.

    I object! Mike Royko (up until the booze and the bitterness made him a lazy old crank in the last few years) was ten times the pundit Tweety has ever been on his best day.

    Chuck Todd quoting Ron Fournier to the giddy “yup-ing” of Brian Williams. Good Christ

  64. 64.

    different-church-lady

    But they never regret doing anything. Even Wile E. Coyote could figure out when he was about to plummet off the cliff. This is more of a Monty Python Black Knight level of delusion.

  65. 65.

    dedc79

    The supposedly liberal MSNBC is quoting Ron Fournier with approval and faulting both sides for turning this hearing into a partisan mess. Seriously.

    It’s lost on Chuck Todd that the partisanship of the hearing is entirely attributable to the Republicans and that the Democrats are justifiably just playing some defense.

  66. 66.

    Stillwater

    The Republicans are really going to wish they had never done this.

    That’s what makes it so Hillarious, John. They won’t!

  67. 67.

    West of the Cascades

    @jl: Have you noticed the bulge in the back of her jacket? Sydney Blumenthal is giving her all the answers, when she “looks at notes” she’s just stalling until she has Blumenthal’s words memorized to answer.

    I would give even odds this explanation is in some RWNJ publication tomorrow.

  68. 68.

    David Koch

    Big mistake by Hillary.

    She just jumped across the table and impaled Gowdy with her stiletto and screamed something about “sparta!”.

    It’s going to be hard to spin away the “sparta!” comment.

  69. 69.

    trollhattan

    @dedc79:
    he may be going further back than that and expecting the Perry Mason guilty-person-jumps-up-in-court-and-confesses gambit. Hamilton Burger [mmm, Burger…] stands there, shaking his head. Also in the last two minutes.

  70. 70.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    ETA: in response to: The Republicans are really going to wish they had never done this.
    Hillary Clinton has impressed the media, the Republicans have their talking point (“Sidney Blumenthal had Hillary’s email, Ambassador Stevens did not!”). Marco Rubio has already sent out a fundraising blast email… a week from now I think this is something pundits will refer to as evidence of HRC’s strength and nobody but political junkies like us (and your obnoxious right wing relatives and friends’ spouses) will remember

  74. 74.

    Cacti

    @Amir Khalid:

    The Republicans seem to have seriously, seriously misunderestimated Hillary. I thought this Harold Watson Gowdy eye eye eye fellow was an experienced prosecutor before he was elected to the House.

    Trey Gowdy was a prosecutor on the Mayberry circuit of the federal bench, doing meth lab prosecutions in upstate South Carolina.

  75. 75.

    J.D. Rhoades

    @kindness:

    I had a couple of ‘educated’ friends tell me last weekend Hillary will be in jail because if this

    I’ve been hearing this about Hillary literally since 1992. Vince Foster’s death, Travelgate, Cattlegate, Chinagate, Filegate, Whitewater, BenghaziBenghaziBenghazi — the list goes on and on. Every single time, her opponents have rubbed their little hands together, cackling with glee and promising everyone that this time, Hillary Clinton’s going to jail, just you wait and see. And in the end, they come away with … nothing.

  77. 77.

    Elizabelle

    Haven’t read it, but James Fallows put up this Newsweek article by Kurt Eichenwald. Newsweek has labeled it “Opinion.”

    Benghazi Biopsy: A Comprehensive Guide to One of America’s Worst Political Outrages

    It’s long, and seems comprehensive.

    Fallows’ lead in: The One Thing to Read Before Hillary Clinton’s Benghazi Testimony …

    … is this big takedown by Kurt Eichenwald, in Newsweek, about the phony nature of the whole inquiry. (For my previous installment on the fraudulence of this committee, and how the press has allowed itself to be used, please check here.**)

    ** Here’s James Fallows’ previous article. Worth clicking for view of the Gowdy hairstyle du jour.

    How the Press Can Deal With the Benghazi Committee
    When a congressional investigation turns into a partisan operation, the media need to treat it as such.

    I think this Benghazi debacle is instructive. Tells you who is a worthwhile Congresscritter (Elijah Cummings for the win!) and which press outlets have been informative, rather than spin and controversy providers.

  79. 79.

    Amir Khalid

    @Mike in NC:
    When they investigate you eight freaking times and still don’t find anything, you’re not going to jail. Hillary going to jail is about as likely as Bernie turning out to own a time-travelling Delorean.

  80. 80.

    srv

    Even Ben Bernanke is tired of Sander’s crazy talk:

    He says that far-left Democrats “suffered their own delusions” about the facts of the financial crisis. In the very next sentence he says: “Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont…seemed to see the world as a vast conspiracy of big corporations and the wealthy.”
    …
    Bernanke not only disagrees with Sanders on fundamental issues, he says Sanders’ style of politics is bad for the U.S. government. He argues that Sanders and others in Congress used public anger during the financial crisis to blur the facts of the crisis and the Fed’s role.

    “A dose of populism is healthy for any democracy,” Bernanke writes, “But in extreme forms, populism can also lead to cynical manipulation of legitimate public anger…when these aspect of populism dominate political discourse, good governance is nearly impossible.”

    How long will Democrats wait to do something about this guy?

  81. 81.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    @Amir Khalid:

    Most successful prosecutors in the US get that record with plea bargains that they get to count as wins. If they have to go up against a decent defense team, they usually end up in over their heads. Here in LA alone, see the disastrous attempted prosecutions of John Landis, the Menendez brothers, and OJ Simpson, just to start. And on the “successful” side, there’s the utter clusterfuck of the McMartin preschool molestation case, among others.

  82. 82.

    Cacti

    @Amir Khalid:

    When they investigate you eight freaking times and still don’t find anything, you’re not going to jail. Hillary going to jail is about as likely as Bernie turning out to own a time-travelling Delorean.

    This.

    You can tell that there’s no “smoking gun” re: Benghazi because they’re on their 8th investigation. 3 years, 8 investigations, hundreds of hours of testimony, millions of dollars spent, zero evidence of malfeasance from anyone in the Obama Administration.

  83. 83.

    Elizabelle

    Haven’t watched more than 4 minutes of the whole smart dog talking to jackasses show.

    Will catch some of it on C-Span later. Clinton’s demeanor comes through well. Might check out what the networks say in their 2-3 minutes of “news” about it on their evening newscasts.

  84. 84.

    Elizabelle

    Has Ambassador Stevens’ family ever had anything to say about this?

    Have any of the families of the dead public servants weighed in?

  85. 85.

    dr. bloor

    @Trentrunner:

    Chuck Todd just quoted Ron Fournier saying today’s hearing shows “both sides play politics.”

    That’s Fourniesque for “I got jackshit here.”

    Todd is quoting him because he can’t even come up with jackshit.

  86. 86.

    J.D. Rhoades

    @Mnemosyne (tablet):

    Most successful prosecutors in the US get that record with plea bargains that they get to count as wins.

    Even if they plead trafficking in heroin as an habitual felon down to possession of drug paraphernalia, they count it as a win. And no, that’s not hyperbole. I’ve literally seen that happen.

  87. 87.

    Elizabelle

    Wonder if the Morning Joke crew will be chastened tomorrow.

    Can they spend the whole 3 hours talking about Don Mattingly getting fired?

  88. 88.

    David Koch

    Even the wingnutz know they’re losing

    Bridge2nowhere ‏@bridge2nowhere 5m5 minutes ago

    The fact that @foxnews is not covering the #BenghaziCommittee non-stop tells you that @HillaryClinton is winning

    7 retweets 5 favorites

    John Podhoretz @jpodhoretz

    Why doesn’t Pompeo just go over and swear her in for president now–if he goes on like this he’ll practically get her elected

    Retweets
    105
    Favorites
    123

    12:19 PM – 22 Oct 2015

  89. 89.

    Amir Khalid

    @Amir Khalid:
    By the way, I’m amused that none of you guys saw this typo

    the court of pubic opinion

    which I forgot to correct before hitting submit.

  90. 90.

    srv

    Texas has had it with clinics:

    Texas officials raided several Planned Parenthood facilities on Thursday, the group said, in a move that comes days after the state’s Republicans leaders barred the women’s health group from receiving state Medicaid money.

    The raids were carried out at Planned Parenthood health centers in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio by representatives from the Texas Office of the Inspector General.

  91. 91.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Trentrunner: MSNBC is no longer a progressive network with the exception of Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell. I guess the writing was on the wall when they fired Martin Bashir.

    Plus, how can anyone stomach the odious Chuck Todd?

  92. 92.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Sweet Christ, Brian Williams and the correspondent are spending airtime fluffing Ron Fucking Fournier again

  94. 94.

    dedc79

    Oh my freaking god. If they mention Fournier once more and it’s not to call him a hack and a moron, I am swearing off MSNBC forever. Even on election night.

  95. 95.

    David Koch

    @dr. bloor: yup. the second you start saying “both sides” it’s an admission of defeat along with a desperate attempt to deflect personal responsibility to “it’s the system’s fault”

  96. 96.

    Patricia Kayden

    @David Koch: Yes, if Fox News isn’t covering it, you know it’s not going well for Republicans. That pretty much says it all about the Benghazi “scandal”.

  97. 97.

    lefthanded compliment

    @benw: “They’ll regret shit like this when they start losing seats. Not before.”

    If Gowdy gets the boot, I think he has a future in Hollywood. He’d be a natural for the lead in a remake of Nosferatu.

  99. 99.

    Bokonon

    @dedc79:

    The supposedly liberal MSNBC is quoting Ron Fournier with approval and faulting both sides for turning this hearing into a partisan mess. Seriously.

    Because apparently, the Democrats are supposed to sit back and be patsies while the Republicans howl and tear the place up like a pack of baboons on acid.

    Hell … the Democrats would get the “both sides” treatment from the mainstream media even if the Democratic members were bound and gagged, and chained to their seats, and all they could do is writhe and wiggle and issue muffled “mmppph” sounds. Because the narrative must be fed! And the media MUST pull this bullpucky game, to pretend dismay while refusing to fix blame.

  102. 102.

    Arcnor

    In contrast to Mr. Cole’s comment, I actually doubt the Republicans will regret hosting a kangaroo court of this nature, simply because that implies that they fear electoral consequences or losing the ability to govern as a result of this little farce. I’m not saying there won’t be electoral consequences, mind, but given that the GOP’s sole purpose is now to simply prevent the U.S. federal government from functioning, as long as they maintain enough seats in either the House or the Senate to obstruct all attempts to accomplish anything they don’t like, that will be enough for them. Meanwhile, their colleagues who have complete control of the majority of state legislatures in America will be free to rampage about the landscape imposing their inimitable brand of crazy on everything they see. It’s in the state legislatures that the can really run amok without any kind of inhibition.

    I think the problem is that reasonable people are viewing these hearings through the lens of “what electoral advantage does this give the Republicans?” or “how is this proving any wrongdoing on the part of, well, anyone at all?” or “why do they insist on embarking on such massive wastes of everyone’s time and money?” But as has been displayed many times, Republicans are not reasonable and don’t care about such trifles. They are looking merely to rile their base and preemptively de-legitimize Ms. Clinton as a candidate for president and, if she is elected, as president. And in those aims, they’re probably succeeding, simply because any testimony she offers is entirely irrelevant. For Republicans, accusations frequently ARE evidence in and of themselves — after all, if someone’s done nothing wrong, no one will accuse them of anything, right? A demented viewpoint, but a lot of them tend to hold to it, especially where a Clinton is concerned.

    It’s much the same as when the Planned Parenthood hearings were held — the testimony DOESN’T MATTER to them. At all. They have already convicted their targets. If their little fishing expeditions actually turn up something genuinely damning, wonderful. But that’s not the point of any of it. The point is to have the target of the week in front of a bunch of stern-looking Good White Christian Male Republican Lawmakers denying repeatedly that they did the Bad Thing of which they’re accused. Because when you’re dealing with a howling mob of an electoral base who are already convinced that the crime has been committed, evidence is no longer relevant. Making your targets deny in public they’ve done anything wrong is the point. Because that, for the people at whom this performance is really aimed at, is evidence of wrongdoing. Denials are proof now for Republicans. To paraphrase a line from Catch-22, for them, the case against their enemies is open-and-shut. The only thing missing is something to charge them with.

  103. 103.

    bystander

    @germy shoemangler:

    Gowdy’s barber just testified. Swears under oath he did exactly what Gowdy told him to do: short sides and back, leave a little on top.

    He has a barber? I figured he was just using a pencil sharpener.

    HuffPo has a hilarious pic of Hillary looking bored out of her mind.

  106. 106.

    Cacti

    @Bokonon:

    Because apparently, the Democrats are supposed to sit back and be patsies while the Republicans howl and tear the place up like a pack of baboons on acid.

    Natch.

    The Village definition of “bipartisanship” is: Democrats doing what Republicans want.

  107. 107.

    Brachiator

    @srv:

    Texas has had it with clinics

    Seems like an exercise as empty, pointless and stupid as the Benghazi hearings.

    The raids were carried out at Planned Parenthood health centers in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio by representatives from the Texas Office of the Inspector General.

    The Inspector General’s office declined to comment. Its agents were seen on local news reports entering a Planned Parenthood facility in San Antonio….

    Texas Governor Greg Abbott said this week “the gruesome harvesting of baby body parts by Planned Parenthood will not be allowed,” but so far the state has released no evidence of illegal activity by the group.

    What a bunch of dopes.

  108. 108.

    Tim C.

    @Amir Khalid: This has been another problem for the GOP going back to at least Bill Clinton. The opponents they fight in their head aren’t the actual people that exist. It’s like they don’t know they are LARPing.

  109. 109.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Elizabelle: I only know that they (families, including Ambassador Stevens’) were not pleases with the attack ad featuring “victim speeches” and the Ambassador’s grave.

  110. 110.

    srv

    Even great men have employees who make mistakes:

    Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 3h hours ago

    @mygreenhippo #BenCarson is now leading in the #polls in #Iowa. Too much #Monsanto in the #corn creates issues in the brain? #Trump #GOP

    Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 2h hours ago

    The young intern who accidentally did a Retweet apologizes.

  111. 111.

    J.D. Rhoades

    @Bokonon:

    The “both sides do it” trope is Plan B for the Rethuglicans. Discourage the people they can’t persuade by convincing them there’s no point in taking a side because everyone’s awful.

  112. 112.

    Bokonon

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Sweet Christ, Brian Williams and the correspondent are spending airtime fluffing Ron Fucking Fournier again

    I love the way they cite beltway bandit publications like Politico and journalists like Fournier as oracles … and act like everyone must defer to their expertise about politics. No decent person can think otherwise! All bow down now!

    Pathetic and sick and incestuous and self-indulgent media circle jerk, that’s what it is.

  113. 113.

    David Koch

    Nick Martin ‏@nickmartin 2h2 hours ago

    Lawrence O’Donnell on the #BenghaziCommittee: “If this is all they have, they have nothing.”

  114. 114.

    Mandalay

    @bystander:

    HuffPo has a hilarious pic of Hillary looking bored out of her mind.

    Yep, and she is so obviously rolling her eyes without actually rolling her eyes. Marcel Marceau would tip his hat to her for her low key theatrics.

    She’s destroying them.

  116. 116.

    Hurling Dervish

    @Pie Happens (opiejeanne): Hammer: all along the river, those are all levies.

    Chico: That’s the Jewish neighborhood?

    Hammer: (pause) Well, we’ll Passover that…You’re a peach, boy. Now, here is a little peninsula, and, eh, here is a viaduct leading over to the mainland.

    Chico: Why a duck?

    Hammer: I’m alright, how are you? I say, here is a little peninsula, and here is a viaduct leading over to the mainland.

    Chico: Alright, why a duck?

    Hammer: (pause) I’m not playing “Ask Me Another,” I say that’s a viaduct.

    Chico: Alright! Why a duck? Why that…why a duck? Why a no chicken?

    Hammer: Well, I don’t know why a no chicken; I’m a stranger here myself. All I know is that it’s a viaduct. You try to cross over there a chicken and you’ll find out why a duck.

    Chico: When I go someplace I just…

    Hammer: (interrupts) It’s…It’s deep water, that’s why a duck. It’s deep water.

    Chico: That’s why a duck…

    Hammer: Look…look, suppose you were out horseback riding and you came to that stream and you wanted to ford over…You couldn’t make it, it’s too deep!

    Chico: Well, why do you want with a Ford if you gotta horse?

    Hammer: Well, I’m sorry the matter ever came up. All I know is that it’s a viaduct.

    Chico: Now look, alright, I catch ona why a horse, why a chicken, why a this, why a that…I no catch ona why a duck.

    Hammer: I was only fooling…I was only fooling. They’re gonna build a tunnel there in the morning. Now is that clear to you?

    Chico: Yes, everything excepta why a duck.

  117. 117.

    David Koch

    Robert Sandy ‏@frodofied 3h3 hours ago

    Wow. The overwhelming opinion of the callers on @cspan is that #BenghaziCommittee needs to disbanded, and now.

    62 retweets 61 favorites

    When the gop has lost CSPAN’s teatard callers it’s time to pack up.

  118. 118.

    Cacti

    The Republican slime machine has been after the Clintons since Harold Gowdy, III was fresh out of law school.

  119. 119.

    David Koch

    Dan Pfeiffer @danpfeiffer

    Gowdy is not holding up well under the pressure of the moment

    Retweets
    49
    Favorites
    49

    10:14 AM – 22 Oct 2015

    yup. only a select few can handle the big leagues.

  121. 121.

    David Koch

    Paul Fell @fell_spfell

    @GottaLaff I had a great problem with Hillary and Benghazi. Now it is easy to see this is blatant political assault on Hillary.

    Retweets
    23
    Favorites
    20

    10:49 AM – 22 Oct 2015

    Even rank and file wingers are throwing in the towel

  122. 122.

    Bokonon

    @Arcnor:

    It’s much the same as when the Planned Parenthood hearings were held — the testimony DOESN’T MATTER to them. At all. They have already convicted their targets. If their little fishing expeditions actually turn up something genuinely damning, wonderful. But that’s not the point of any of it.

    These circuses are a stupid person’s idea of how a serious legislative proceeding gets conducted, and how important facts get discovered by Congress.

    It helps if you have already taken sides, and decided that one side is bad and the other side is good. Then you can suspend disbelief and ignore the horrible behavior of your own side (because … then they are just being TOUGH on the bad guy, who has it coming, and little things like lies or fabricating evidence can be brushed off).

  124. 124.

    Patricia Kayden

    @J.D. Rhoades: But how do both sides do it? When have Democrats dragged Republicans in front of committees to solely to exploit the death of Americans? Both sides don’t do it. Republicans do it — and they keep going until they’re forced by sheer embarrassment to stop.

  125. 125.

    Mack

    There was a long exchange between Hillary and idiot Congressman (forgot his name) about some emails in which her staff sought to spin a victory into political capital…and she kinda wiffed that one. I was screaming at the television for her to ask him if he had staff members whose primary job is to look for good public relations opps, and then to point out that every elected official on the planet has someone like that, and sometimes you take their advise, sometimes you don’t. Instead, she denied that “anyone” was looking for sole credit and that was clearly untrue.

    I intend to vote, contribute, and possibly volunteer for her in the general…but sometimes I lose my patience with the parsing and triangulation. Just admit to being human and rock the fuck on already.

  126. 126.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Amir Khalid: He’s a great man to Republican tools like srv. My fingers and toes are tightly crossed that he will be the Republican nominee. Republicans so deserve him and the beat down he’s going to get next November.

  127. 127.

    Mandalay

    @Patricia Kayden:

    I guess the writing was on the wall when they fired Martin Bashir.

    And Ashley Banfield. And Phil Donahue. And Keith Olbermann. And Cenk Ungur.

    MSNBC hosts are on a tight leash, and are under strict orders not to stray off the reservation. If they do they are gone.

  128. 128.

    dedc79

    @Mack: I respectfully disagree. She couldn’t afford to give up an inch in this setting. The GOP was after soundbites and at least so far she hasn’t given them any. One of the main ways she’s managed to play such good defense is by refusing to accept the underlying premise and assumptions in the questions.

  129. 129.

    gian

    A criminal prosecution gets to a lawyer after the case has been investigated. When the prosecution starts with witnesses they’re basically asking them to repeat what was already said to the cops.
    Howdy Gowdy doesn’t have the evidence to ask real questions with real answers. Well kind of. The evidence doesn’t support the answers he wants to hear.

  131. 131.

    dedc79

    @David Koch: Re Rep. Pompeo – I must say I’m having trouble reconciling his absolute incompetence in conducting this questioning with his impressive academic/workbackground:

    Pompeo attended the U.S. Military Academy where he majored in Mechanical Engineering, graduating first in his class in 1986 and subsequently serving in the Regular Army as an Armor Branch cavalry officer from 1986 to 1991.[3] He subsequently graduated from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He then worked as a lawyer for Williams & Connolly.

    For those who may not be aware, Williams & Connolly is one of the most prestigious litigation firms in Washington DC.

  133. 133.

    Rising Above

    Hillary looking bad, combative and shrill under pressure. The Blumenthal Connection is a new wrinkle in this scandal and will provide endless reams of material for the GOP.

    It’s more bad news for Democrats. “Leaders lead”, as a wise man once said…and Hillary hasn’t.

  134. 134.

    Corner Stone

    Why does Gowdy look like he just finished three rounds of sparring during the break? Can no one dust that sheen off his head?

  136. 136.

    Mandalay

    Marco Rubio thinks he knows a winning cause when he sees it.

    If Rubio ever got the nomination Clinton would eviscerate him for all the unbelievably stupid shit he has said and done in the past couple of months.

  137. 137.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @David Koch:

    Conservative men are always convinced that they’re way smarter than any lowly woman or lowly minority, no matter how many times Obama or Hillary (or Sonya Sotomayor, for that matter) hands their asses to them.

  138. 138.

    jl

    Trolls are cute and adorable lawn ornaments. They give us all a chance, during out hectic daily routines, to take an amusing even though brief flight of fancy into our own make believe world that never was!

  139. 139.

    Pie Happens (opiejeanne)

    @Amir Khalid: An online friend who has lost his mind over the past 7 years was yammering at me about it a week ago on Facebook, insisting that she was guilty of treason for the emails, lying about them or erasing them, and that she’d be in jail very soon.

    This friend used to be very nice and rational before Obama was elected. Now he’s been sucked really deep into the RW nonsense, probably because of his church which also went even more nuts in 2008 (it was always a bit nuts). It’s his wife’s church, and he told us that before he joined he believed in evolution; now he doesn’t. I don’t understand how you “unbelieve” science that you once understood. Now he participates in training for the revolution… excuse me, training for catastrophes, learning how to treat sucking chest wounds and help refugees of war and survive in the woods. He lives just outside DC in a long-developed area that’s kind of short on forest. It’s a dystopian fantasy, almost fit for YA fiction but not much more.

    The disconnect from reality is jarring. He took us on a tour of the Pentagon not long after the repairs were completed, but before tours were available to the general public. He was a contractor who had just finished installing new communications systems in that wing of the Pentagon during the first week of September, 2001. He knew a lot of the people who died, was both sad and angry about it, and yet was rational two years later when we talked in person as well as online.

    He is no longer that rational person and I don’t see that he ever will be again.

  141. 141.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Rising Above: Right 2 Rise, is that you? Must be because between you, “A guy” and “srv”, there are only a few trolls roaming around these here parts. LOL.

    How’s Jebs! campaign going for you? All the cash hasn’t appeared to help him much but you know better than us how someone as brilliant and savvy as Jeb! will win the Republican nomination.

  142. 142.

    Arm The Homeless

    @dedc79:

    I have to agree. You acquiesce to the premise that your employees are engaged in politics, then that becomes the next vector of attack. Especially considering the committee is being attacked from the left for playing politics.

    Tell em to pound sand, because 50%+ of the voting public has shown they don’t give a fuck about emails.

  144. 144.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Prediction: Sindey Blumenthal is the newest member of the Saul Alinsky Club, along with Bill Ayers, Reverend Wright and Tony Rezko (sp?). The list of names right wingers will spit out as proof of a Democrat’s pure evil, while people who don’t read political blogs say “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  146. 146.

    Cacti

    I’m very much looking forward to Brad Podliska’s whistleblower suit against Gowdy, and the possible DOJ investigation of whether he violated the Congressional Accountability Act.

  147. 147.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    What the fuck is this woman from Alabama talking about? “Why didn’t you call your friend?” These people do know we have more than one ambassador in the world, don’t they?

  149. 149.

    bluehill

    @dedc79:

    Because he has a no case and knows it but he has to do something because that’s his “job.” They all keep hoping for her to slip, but she’s not so they continue to throw stuff out there. In their process, they are only confirming what McCarthy admitted and the longer this goes on the obviously it becomes.

  150. 150.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    My TV just froze when Roby interrupted Cummings to ask if he would yield, it froze on an expression on Cummings’ face that sure looked like he was gonna turn to her and say, “Are you fucking kidding me with this?”. I’m gonna assume he did not indulge me to that degree.

  151. 151.

    jl

    It gives me no pleasure to contradict sage eminences, but the Blumenthal connection is now a new element, and his names has popped in and out of stories describing the obsessions of Benghazi fantasy fiction devotees for months.

    I remember something about Blumenthal pushing some corrupt business deal in N Africa and conflict of interest on HRC’s part. And similar stuff.

    But like everything else s far, following this trail lead to absolutely nothing, and has morphed into “Why did this buy send you so many emails!?”

    Damn, I promised not to watch it, but am reading stories about it instead. No more Benghazzi for me today, I swear it.

  152. 152.

    dedc79

    @bluehill: Yeah, one of the Dems on the committee put it well – that even the Republicans don’t have an actual alternative theory of what happened and why. That’s why (or at least one reason why) this has all been so aimless. There’s no there there.

  155. 155.

    Poopyman

    If swords are outlawed, only outlaws will have swords:

    Sweden has reacted with shock and horror after a teacher and pupil were stabbed to death in a school with a high number of immigrants by a masked man who was reported to have far-right sympathies. The man, who posed with students before starting his killing spree, was shot dead by police.

    There were scenes of panic in Trollhättan, an industrial city near Gothenburg, on Thursday as parents and pupils crowded outside Kronan school in the aftermath of the killings among large numbers of police and ambulances.

    Horrific, but who among us didn’t think “Only two”?

  160. 160.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Patricia Kayden: say what you want about src, but s/he’s had fifty different personalities and always kept the same nym. Makes the posts easier to ignore

  161. 161.

    Cacti

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    Oh man, I’m loving it. HRC looks great, and the committee members are practically spraying spittle in their frustration. Plus Elijah Cummings is my hero.

    Cummings would make a fine U.S. Senator for Maryland for the seat being vacated by Mikulski.

  162. 162.

    Donut

    @Mack:

    The dope was lil’ Petey Roskam, my homeslice from Illinois.

    I actually disagree with you, and thought she handled him pretty damn well. I didn’t see triangulation. I saw her suffering an idiot, and she plainly told him so. She ended the exchange forcefully, with a remark along the lines of, “I don’t understand what any of this has to do with what this hearing is supposed to be about.”

    Sometimes I think we Democrats are too quick to reach for the word “triangulation” when it comes to the Clintons. I didn’t see it here. YMMV, it should go without saying, but again, I saw (and have seen all day) poise and calm. I’ve been stuck in the airport all day and watching this shit, and every minute I’ve seen, she’s been on-fucking-point, and after the last break she walked in smiling and looking fresh. She is outclassing them and sticking to the facts, and talking about what she did and did not do in very clear, concise and stark terms – and she’s totally above the fray. The Teahadi in Congress have finally blown their Benghazi wads. It’s just a little sticky, wadded up tissue, tossed in the corner and soon to be forgotten as an “issue.”

    It’s a sad fucking shame that the veil finally fell because Kevin McCarthy admitted what every Village wag already knew but pretended they couldn’t say out loud. McCarthy gave them permission to finally talk about this farce in political terms. It’s finally over except for the fevered swamp dreams of the goons commenting at WND.

  164. 164.

    trollhattan

    @JPL:
    Am saddened by the savagery. “Make cars, not swords”?

    That maniacs are serially drawn to schools is impossible to comprehend.

  165. 165.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    One can’t help but notice a certain trend of, er, foreignness in those names, can one? (I looked him up in Wikipedia and Rezko is a Syrian Catholic immigrant, like the people spouting his name would care about such details.)

    You know. Non-WASPiness, shall we say. Purely a coincidence, I’m sure.

  166. 166.

    Donut

    @Rising Above:

    Hillary looking DERP, DERP and DERP under DERP. The Blumenthal Connection is a new DERP in this DERP and will provide endless DERP of material for the DERP.

    It’s more DERPDERPDERPDERPDERPDERP.

    There. FTFY.

  167. 167.

    hamletta

    Sometimes I think we Democrats are too quick to reach for the word “triangulation” when it comes to the Clintons.

    Shit, some people around here don’t even know what the fuck the word means.

  169. 169.

    dedc79

    This Westmoreland guy has actually managed some of the more effective questioning of the day. That’s admittedly an exceedingly low bar, and I’m sure Clinton is exhausted. She’s still not volunteering any soundbites, but she’s not as smooth as she’d been for the first 6 hours or so.

    ETA: Rep Schiff from California has been pretty great at needling Gowdy.

  171. 171.

    kc

    @srv:

    Even Ben Bernanke blah blah blah

    “Even” Bernanke? Golly, that’s a shocker, because I would expect Bernanke to lavish praise on Sanders. Wow, this is a real deal-breaker for me. A game changer.

  173. 173.

    bluehill

    Saw this on another site in response to a comment that a dem rep made. He pointed out that Congress has spent more time investigating Benghazi than 9/11.

  174. 174.

    Mack

    @dedc79: Yes, I was thinking the same thing…that strategically it was probably the prudent way to handle the ridiculous line of questioning. That said, sometimes you can win the argument but lose public opinion. Sigh, I’m calmer about it than I was as it was unfolding.

  176. 176.

    dedc79

    @Mack: I hear you. The fact that this is even happening is absolutely infuriating, and there’s obviously a lot on the line, given that she’s the likely nominee.

  179. 179.

    Gravenstone

    @Mike in NC:

    I saw a “Hillary to go to Jail” headline just today. It was in the National Enquirer.

    One of our secretaries at work has a “Hillary – for prison in 2016” *bumper sticker. It’s definitely a thing.

    * I was initially surprised at what I took to be a pro-Hillary sticker from a distance, since her other one is one of those insipid “2016 – the end of an error” things.

  181. 181.

    dedc79

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): He’s clearly very bright, and has a nice way about him. And I think he hit exactly the right tone. He managed to ridicule the republicans without coming across like he wasn’t taking this all seriously.

  182. 182.

    Cervantes

    @Amir Khalid:

    Gowdy eye eye eye fellow was an experienced prosecutor before he was elected to the House.

    He was a federal prosecutor for six years during the Clinton Administration. Then he was elected to some position or other in South Carolina — I can’t remember what — and after that he was elected to the House.

  185. 185.

    Roger Moore

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone):

    He is my former rep

    My former rep, too; I stayed still but got redistricted into Judy Chu’s district. When he was first elected, he was a Blue Dog in good standing, but still an improvement from the odious Jim Rogan. He’s moved gradually leftward since then, presumably as his district has gone from a toss-up to a D+20.

  187. 187.

    cckids

    @Patricia Kayden:

    My fingers and toes are tightly crossed that he will be the Republican nominee. Republicans so deserve him and the beat down he’s going to get next November.

    This. I’m so fed up with Trump’s ridiculously exaggerated self-image. Every time I hear him dissing Romney & talking about how he could have “easily” beaten Obama in 2012 I scream “but you didn’t have the balls to take on the big guy, did you?” Chickenshit bastard thought 2016 would be easier, I guess. I’d love to see Hillary run him into a wood chipper.

    Metaphorically, of course.

    ETA: Shit, metaphorically my ass. I’d raise a glass to watch him literally run into a chipper.

  188. 188.

    Paul in KY

    @srv: That 1st tweet was a mistake. Maybe some cracks in The Donald’s yuge & classy armor beginning to show.

Comments are closed.

Trackbacks