U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi did exactly the right thing by deciding against boycotting the select committee hearings on the Benghazi controversy.

She has named five Democratic lawmakers to sit with seven Republicans on the panel chaired by Trey Gowdy, R-S.C.

I am, quite honestly, dubious about the hearings. I would be among those who are shocked if they produce any new revelations about what happened on Sept. 11, 2012, when terrorist torched the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, killing four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya.

There have been endless hearings already. Congressional Republicans have spent much energy bashing then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s agency for its alleged mishandling of the incident. There have been hearings already. News reports have gone into exhaustive detail about the incident.

Speaker John Boehner, though, believes it is necessary to convene a select committee to look some more.

To what end? My strong hunch is that the GOP lawmakers want to find enough dirt on Clinton to torpedo her expected 2016 presidential campaign. That’s the motive.

House GOP leaders already have the facts. They know about the firefight, about the confusion, about the talking points uttered repeatedly by then-U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice. The administration bungled the information flow.

Was there an attempt to cover up what happened to protect Clinton, President Obama — or both? All the rhetoric coming from Congress should have revealed that by now. It hasn’t.

Here we are, getting set to convene more hearings.

Democrats need to be at the table to serve as a counterbalance to what everyone in the know believes will be a Republican onslaught.

Now, when all is said and all the bluster has died down, let us hope the select committee comes up with a set constructive recommendations the State Department and the intelligence community can take forward.

If it cannot, then all this will be a waste of time.