Tag Archives: House Benghazi Committee

International news, national news, political news

Benghazi report timing is, um, dubious

This shouldn’t surprise anyone.

The U.S. House Select Committee on Benghazi will release its report to the world sometime in, that’s correct, 2016. That’s right smack in the midst of a presidential campaign featuring the No. 1 principal in that investigation, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who — by the way — will be running for president of the United States.

I know. You just can’t believe the timing of it all, right?

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/house-benghazi-report-release-2016-117231.html?hp=r3_4

The panel’s chairman, Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, had wanted to release the report no later than the end of the current year. Legal staffers, though, said they needed more time to assimilate everything and compile into a comprehensive report on what happened on Sept. 11, 2012 at the U.S. consulate in Libya.

What did happen? Some terrorists launched an attack on the consulate, a fire fight ensued and four Americans were killed, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya. Clinton’s State Department has been accused of covering up key elements relating to what they knew and when they knew it. Previous findings have concluded there has been no deliberate cover-up. But the Republican-led House launched a select committee probe anyway.

This is certain to muddy Clinton’s presidential campaign, particularly if it produces a proverbial “smoking gun.”

What did she know? When did she know it? Did the secretary deliberately mislead Americans?

I’ve long thought this congressional panel already had pre-determined culpability, but was looking for the path that would reach that conclusion. Then again, I’m not in the hearts and minds of those who are conducting this investigation.

I’ll accept Chairman Gowdy’s assertion that he wanted to release the report prior to the election year.

My hope now is that we can choose the next president on the merits of their full public record, their campaign rhetoric and their pledges to lead the country toward an even brighter future.

My fear is that the Benghazi report is going to plow all of that noble intent into the ground.

 

national news, political news

Benghazi panel to keep on pushing

House Select Benghazi Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy says Hillary Clinton’s expected presidential campaign have no “impact” on his panel’s probe of the Benghazi matter.

Sure thing, Mr. Chairman. I get it.

If anything, it’s only going to intensify your panel’s search for something with which to torpedo the former secretary of state’s quest for the presidency.

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/hillary-clinton-2016-announcement-benghazi-probe-116861.html?hp=l3_3

The chairman says he intends to call Clinton to talk to the committee about what happened — once again — on Sept. 11, 2012, when terrorists stormed the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya.

We’ve been through this already. But by golly, we’re going to go through it again. And again, if necessary. And perhaps even again after that.

Clinton, you see, remains the prohibitive favorite for the Democratic presidential nomination next year. She also remains a strong favorite to become the nation’s 45th president, even though recent polling data suggest her strength may have weakened.

Meanwhile, her congressional Republicans foes — and let’s include Chairman Gowdy in that crowd — want to do all they can ensure she isn’t the nominee.

Will her candidacy have an “impact” on Gowdy’s Benghazi hunt? If, by “impact,” you mean it lessens it … hell no! If anything, it’s only going to get more heated.

International news, national news, political news

Clinton gives Benghazi panel fresh ammo

What in the world is Trey Gowdy hoping to find in those mysterious emails filed by Hillary Rodham Clinton?

I think I know. He wants to find something that incriminates the former secretary of state in that infamous incident now known simply as “Benghazi.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/trey-gowdy-hillary-clinton-email-server-116268.html?hp=l3_3

“Benghazi” has become shorthand for the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Four Americans — including the U.S. ambassador to Libya — died in the attack. Congressional critics of Clinton have contended she covered up what she knew in advance of the terrorist attack. She’s denied any such thing and has rejected allegations that she didn’t do enough to protect the personnel who were attacked.

Those pesky emails, according to Gowdy, might shed light on the incident. Gowdy chairs the Select House Benghazi Committee, which until now had come up empty in its search for Clinton culpability in the attack.

Now that HRC has revealed that she used a personal email account instead of the State Department account while she served as secretary of state, Gowdy smells a rat — at least he thinks he smells a rat.

Gowdy is demanding that Clinton’s lawyer turn over her email server to an independent third party to examine its contents.

I remain quite dubious that Congress is going to find anything that incriminates Clinton. Having said that, it’s probably a good idea for Clinton’s lawyer to do as Chairman Gowdy is asking/demanding/pleading.

Perhaps then we can put “Benghazi” to bed — for keeps.

 

national news, political news

And what if Hillary doesn't run?

This notion of a congressional investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of personal email accounts while she was secretary of state is beginning to sound laughable.

Some of us out here will break out into hysterical howls if Clinton does the improbable — and doesn’t run for president of the United States next year.

Why the guffaws?

Congress will drop the story like a bad habit.

House Speaker John Boehner is considering a congressional probe. House Benghazi Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy is going to peek into whether Clinton’s personal account email use somehow is related to the Benghazi mess of September 2012, the fire fight that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya.

This has all the apparent earmarks of a political hatchet job.

Clinton is likely to run for president. Her Republican critics in Congress and elsewhere don’t want her in the White House. She’d be a formidable candidate and as it stands right at this moment she remains a strong favorite to defeat almost any GOP challenger.

But what if she doesn’t run? What if she decides, “You know, I just don’t think I have the stomach for this. I’ve taken enough of a battering over this Benghazi thing, during my time in the U.S. Senate and, oh yeah, when I was first lady and trying to push through my husband’s health care overhaul — which went nowhere.”

My hunch is that all these probes, these searches for the truth, these quests to find an email scandal where none exists will disappear.

The opposition will pat itself on the back, say “so long” to Hillary Clinton and go about looking for demons behind other closet doors.

 

 

national news, political news

Nothing is secret, Mme. Secretary

Hillary Rodham Clinton has been a public figure for more than three decades, going back to when she was first lady of Arkansas.

She ought to know a fundamental truth about public notoriety: Almost nothing is secret.

Hillary’s penchant for secrecy rattles Dems

But as The Hill notes in the attached report, Clinton has a penchant for secrecy that is driving her supporters to the point of insanity.

The recent email flap is a case in point.

She used her private email account to conduct affairs of the State Department, which she led during the first term of the Obama administration. She likely didn’t break the law. Previous secretaries of state have done the same thing. So have governors, senators, county commissioners — you name it — of both major parties.

The rules have changed since Clinton left the State Department.

Still, Clinton and her team seem to have mishandled the uproar over the revelation about the use of the private account. It’s causing grief among those who want her to run for president in 2016. An announcement is expected within the next month or so.

I happen to dislike the idea of public officials using personal email or other personal media accounts to do public business. Politicians of all stripes talk about the need for “transparency.” Only the most sensitive national security matters should be kept from public view.

Clinton now has asked the State Department to release her emails to an inquiring public, which by the way includes members of the House Select Benghazi Committee that no doubt is looking for that “smoking gun” to shoot holes in her probable presidential campaign.

Whatever. The former secretary/U.S. senator/U.S. first lady knows better than most the price people for seeking to serve the public.

As the cliché reminds us: No good deed goes unpunished.