Charles Krauthammer is clearly nervous about the House Republicans’ decision to go Full Metal Benghazi by creating a Select Committee to look into…what? So, he has some advice for the congressmen who will be serving on the Benghazi! Committee.
The select committee will be headed by Representative Trey Gowdy, a skilled 16-year prosecutor. He needs to keep the hearings clean and strictly fact-oriented. Questions only, no speechifying. Every sentence by every GOP committee member must end with a question mark. Should any committee Republican instead make a statement ending in a period, the chairman should immediately, by button, deliver an electric shock through the violator’s seat.
Yes, Charles Krauthammer even advocates torture for his own side. He is consistent like that. Give the man credit.
So, we know that the Craphammer is going into this battle with a heavy heart and a gigantic sigh, but he’s game, you see. He’s game. We can see exactly how game he is.
These hearings are a big political risk for Republicans. Going into the 2014 election, they stand to benefit from the major issues — Obamacare, the economy, chronic unemployment — from which Benghazi hearings can only distract. Worse, if botched like previous hearings on the matter, these hearings could backfire against the GOP, as did the 1998 Clinton impeachment proceedings. On purely partisan considerations, the hearings are not worth the political risk.
But the country deserves the truth.
Ah, yes, the country deserves the “truth,” so, obviously, this telegraphed “own goal” is totally worth it. But, pray tell, what is this committee supposed to discover? Krauthammer wants to know what happened before, during, and after the attacks in Benghazi!
Before:
Where and to what extent was there dereliction of duty as memos, urgent pleas, and mounting evidence of danger were ignored and the U.S. ambassador allowed to enter a deathtrap?
This is already known.
During:
What happened during the eight hours of the Benghazi attack, at the end of which the last two Americans (of four) were killed by mortar fire? Where was the commander-in-chief and where was the responsible Cabinet secretary, Hillary Clinton? What did they do?
The White House acts as if these are, alternatively, either state secrets or of no importance.
Once again, the Republicans act as if a consulate in Benghazi was the biggest concern facing the administration that night, even though our embassy in Cairo was under threat and protests were taking place worldwide.
If this Select Committee hopes to justify its own expense by demonstrating that the president placed a phone call to Benjamin Netanyahu and engaged in some debate prep during the attacks, they will discover that the American people disagree.
After:
We now know the White House was pushing the “video made them do it” cover-up, lest the blame be placed on administration policy. Who was involved in that decision, obviously designed to protect a president campaigning that al-Qaeda was “on the run”?
The administration argued, correctly, that the protests that had erupted worldwide were in response to a crazy minister’s anti-Muslim movie, and not an indication that the entire Muslim world was about to rise up and destroy America.
If the Select Committee can demonstrate that, in fact, the attacks in Benghazi! were proof that al Qaeda was on the rebound, that will be an impressive feat.
Krauthammer knows that the Republicans are engaged in a heat-fever bacchanalian feast of stupid. All he can offer is some mitigating advice.