Not A Cover-Up, A Strategy

The NY Times puts a toe in the swirling waters around Benghazi:

Email Suggests White House Strategy on Benghazi

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR  APRIL 30, 2014

It's nice to think they had a strategy.

WASHINGTON — A newly released email shows that White House officials sought to shape the way Susan E. Rice, then the ambassador to the United Nations, discussed the Middle East chaos that was the context for the attack on the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012.

The email dated Sept. 14, 2012, from Benjamin J. Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser, to Ms. Rice was obtained by the conservative group Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act request. The subject of the email was: “PREP CALL with Susan.”

That email was sent ahead of Ms. Rice’s appearance on several Sunday morning news talk programs three days after the attacks that resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including J. Christopher Stevens, the ambassador to Libya.

Mr. Shear then describes the controversy:

Conservative critics of President Obama have long contended that political considerations at the White House were the reason that Ms. Rice attributed the Benghazi attacks to spontaneous protests sparked by an anti-Muslim Internet video. Critics have said she downplayed the idea that the attacks were linked to terrorism because it would undermine the notion that Mr. Obama was winning the war on terror.

The email from Mr. Rhodes includes goals for Ms. Rice’s appearances on the shows and advice on how to discuss the subject of the protests that were raging in Libya and at other American diplomatic posts in the Middle East.

Hmm, was she sent to explain the protests that "were raging", or the attack that had resulted in four dead Americans on the anniversay of 9/11? Jay Carney explained:

Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, dismissed the new email as irrelevant, saying that the subject of the advice from Mr. Rhodes in the email was not about Benghazi, but rather about the protests that were taking place across the Middle East at the time.

Uh huh. And last night the NBA coverage was about the ongoing playoffs, not the Donald Sterling fallout. Wait, you mean there is an overlap?

 

CBS has a fair and balanced piece. They remind us that there was a State Department cover-up for Hillary which may have pre-empted any White House coverup, and that emphasis on the video may have been wishful thinking rather than outright deception:

 

Finally, there are countless references in the Judicial Watch documents to the video that have nothing to do with finding an explanation for the attack in Libya. The video is at the center of administration fears of a regionwide conflagration. There is a frantic effort to distance the U.S. government from the video and the violence that officials think is associated with it, and of course to show that the president is on the case. Rhodes writes: "[W]e've made our views on this video crystal clear. The United States government had nothing to do with it. We reject its message and its contents. We find it disgusting and reprehensible. But there is absolutely no justification at all for responding to this movie with violence. And we are working to make sure that people around the globe hear that message."

This brings to mind the old story about a man who wants to take a nap, but he can't because kids are playing in the street. To disperse them, he concocts a completely fake story. He opens the window and tells them there are fresh, free oranges being given away down at the dock. The kids run off to get the delicious treats. The man settles back into his bed but finds he can't sleep. He can't stop thinking about how he's missing out on those free oranges.

Could the White House have created the fiction about the video and then been consumed with managing the fallout from the video at the same time, like our man with the oranges? Perhaps, but there is also evidence in the documents for another explanation. The administration was practicing garden-variety self-deception: Administration officials, who came into office on a wave of skepticism about the quality of CIA intelligence, believed what their intelligence agency told them and what was in the president's best political interest to believe.

Incompetence or deceit? I reject these false choices!

Comments

[narciso]

No. i'm not buying it, even the CBS report;

http://narcisoscorner.blogspot.com/2012/10/a-travesty-of-two-mockeries.html?view=magazine

[GMax]

Ben Rhodes BROTHER of CBS President David Rhodes.

And don't forget Jay Liar Carney is the husband of reporter Claire Shipman.

Democrats, liars and journalists are synonyms these days...

[GMax]

And NO CBS, its not self deception, its called LYING to the American people to get an incompetent re-elected, in part do to you failing to do your job or otherwise being a DNC operative with a press pass...

[GMax]

Due do

all smells the the same!

[Comanche Voter]

Incompetence or deceit? Like the fat man who is asked whether he wants a piece of chocolate cake or a slice of apple pie, I say, "I'll have both".

The Obama White House is full of liars (they're good at lying) but durned incompetent at everything else.

[James D.]

It seems to me (and this sounds to me like a point that even LIVs would understand) that, regardless of whether or not this was a cover-up, that there's a bigger and more damning truth:

The White House spent far more time, effort and energy debating a PR strategy to put the best face on what happened in Benghazi; then it did in finding the people who actually killed our Ambassador, or on figuring out how to prevent a similar occurrence in the future.

I think that's a more compelling point than "who altered the talking points when".

"The President cared more about not losing a point or two in the polls than about who murdered our Ambassador and four other brave men under his command." The R's need to be repeating that, over and over and over and over...

[jimmyk]

And wasn't this the same NYT that just a few months ago had a long piece claiming the video story was true? Yes, indeed it was:

And contrary to claims by some members of Congress, it was fueled in large part by anger at an American-made video denigrating Islam.

http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/benghazi/#/?chapt=0

[Steve]

Full Video: Jon Karl vs. Jay Carney at the April 30th Press Briefing

http://commoncts.blogspot.com/2014/05/full-video-jon-karl-vs-jay-carney-at.html

[narciso]

well no one takes David 'abbott' Kirkpatrick seriously:

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/05/boom-brig-gen-robert-lovell-ret-to-congress-on-benghazi-this-was-no-demonstration-gone-terribly-awry-video/

so an act on at least three nodes, the school in Tunis, the compound in Benghazi, and the Bastion in Afghanistan, all coincidental?

[Danube on iPad]

Narc, why do you insert the "Abbott" when discussing Kirkpatrick?

[narciso]

Like the Abbott and Costello films, meets the mummy and so on,

[Miss Marple]

Carney briefing will be carried by Fox in a few minutes.

[narciso]

they seem to have just figured out the protests were not spontaneous;

http://www.interpretermag.com/category/blog/

[Rick B]

Narciso,

I really appreciate the level of detail you bring in the analysis above. It highlights the abyssal ignorance displayed in the entire Clinton/Obama FP adventure which they entitled Arab Spring. A coup on the cheap, tweets turning to bleats, kinetic humanitarian aid deliveries which killed more Libyans than Daffy did - a true Marx Brothers epic, produced and directed by Karl himself.

It's almost enough to make one a bit nervous about the next episode from the Underpants Gnomes Production Group.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

The 'next episode', where?

Ukraine? North China Sea?

[GMax]

Karl has a brother? Does he work for CBS? How about the AP?

[Trevor Saccucci]

The White House spent far more time, effort and energy debating a PR strategy to put the best face on what happened in Benghazi; then it did in finding the people who actually killed our Ambassador, or on figuring out how to prevent a similar occurrence in the future.

The Obama administration gives hiding evidence of its incompetence a high priority at all times. In my opinion, they at the very least welcome terrorist attacks; they cause psychological damage out of all proportion to loss of life, limb, and property, and so provide Obama, et al with convenient public justification for expansion of the surveillance and control state with relatively little physical destruction for PR to deal with.

[suburban gal]

It may just be my spotty attention to these things, but it seems that there a lot of LARGE unasked and unanswered questions surrounding this. Perhaps those of you who follow more closely might help:
1. Why did we engage in regime change in Libya? There are lots of unsavory governments.
2. The video languished in obscurity until early Sept. at the same time as "protests" were already being planned. It was announced and shown in Cairo the night before to a very few people. Then there was the strange issuance, withdrawal and replacement statement about Cairo from the Amb. and Sec of State.
3.Why did Stephens have to go to Bengazi to meet the Turkish diplomat UNLESS there was some strangeness about the arms transfers. The deterioration in US-Turkish relations started about the same time.
4. The CIA, the Tripoli embassy, the Libyan govt. and the international press, now the AFRICOM all were reporting organized terrorist attack. What were these more authoritative sources Mr. Carney?

[Jim Eagle]

Good Afternoon.

Big news in the JiB household today. After dropping off Frederick at school we drove down to Ormond Beach to our Vet. Accompanying us were Bandit and Jazz, our two beagle brothers who were finally getting fixed. Just got a call that we can pck them up this afternoon. They have to wear those lamp shade collars for at least a week.

Also, got this in the mail from a friend. Makes sense to me:)

Here are six conundrums of socialism in the United States of America:
1. America is capitalist and greedy - yet half of the population is subsidized.
2. Half of the population is subsidized - yet they think they are victims.
3. They think they are victims - yet their representatives run the government.
4. Their representatives run the government - yet the poor keep getting poorer.
5. The poor keep getting poorer - yet they have things that people in other countries only dream about.
6. They have things that people in other countries only dream about - yet they want America to be more like those other countries. Go Figure!

[Jim Eagle]

Watching Carney at his news conference it appears he is imploding and digging a deeper hole that is just going to make it almost impossible to climb out of it. It is also going to give Boehner more pressure to appoing a select committee. That testimony today by the G2 General under Chaffetz's questioning was powerful and disturbing that we sacrificed 4 people for political purposes only.

The press seems to be turning away from the Administration but for how long and how wide the divide is to be seen.

[MarkO]

Has Boehner sobered up enough to appoint a select committee?

The dead deserve better.

President asterisk, indeed. I recall another President who engaged in a cover up to be reelected.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

TomM-- so CBS News takes a 'balanced approached' by saying it was Red Witch Hillary who put out the lies, not the WH, the WH was just like GWB, naive about intelligent assessments? And who is the innocent, if naive, WH operative who was suckered by Red Witch? .... Why that would be Ben Rhodes, brother of CBS News President David Rhodes. Tell me another one guys.

[rse]

JIB-

Those turns and trends your friend noted really do track back more to the New Deal and the Great Society and poorly known UN actions than we appreciated. http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/educating-for-radical-change-and-new-values-in-an-age-of-abundance-defining-the-new-kind-of-person-to-be-produced/

is my new post that gets into that some more.

What I love about going back in time is discovering the so-called "non-aligned countries" had a meeting in Cuba in early 70s. I consider Cuba to be quite aligned during that time period.

[lyle]

I have one simple question: Why was Stevens et al in Benghazi in the first place?

[Thomas Collins]

NK, CBS Newa has firmly planted itself in the Team Obama camp in the Team Obama-Team Clinton War (I'm trying to think of a catchy name for this war, but one eludes me at the moment). Look for Team Clinton to find a toady at an MSM outlet to strike back.

[Janet - the districts lie fallow, while the Capitol gorges itself]

jimmyk, good link at 11:26.

[Captain Hate]

This guy's standup act is funnier than anything that dimwit Colbert has done. A comedic gem:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/les-moonves-defends-moderate-stephen-700175

[Janet - the districts lie fallow, while the Capitol gorges itself]

I have one simple question: Why was Stevens et al in Benghazi in the first place?

Yes, lyle. Just THAT simple question should be asked of Obama, Clinton,...everyone involved.

[Captain Hate]

I strongly suspected this would be a stinker:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/bullets-over-berkeley_787359.html#

[Dublindave 2016]

There is no other political party in the history of the world who could've bungled this scandal to the degree that the Republican party have,you really are a bunch of retards.

We literally handed you a giftwrapped-scandal and fucked it up on such a historic level future generations will conclude that the GOP just didn't have will to go after President Obama.

This is a running joke on Capitol Hill,'if you get caught in a massive cover-up make sure Daryl Issa's the lead investigator'.

Think of all the scandals and cover-up's we've handed you and you haven't been able to close the deal on any of them.

Valerie Plame was a complete non-issue yet we were able to use it to rip a Republican administration asunder and we laughed our asses off while we did it.

You suck at Politics.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

ThomasC-- as you may remember, I too believe the Obamaniacs and Clintonistas are coming to a showdown over who controls the Dem Party, the Third World Hardcore Progs or the old white Libs. That showdown will playout through the Dem Primaries. I agree with you, both sides are demanding that the Dems all declare which side they are on. CBS/Rhodes are clearly Obamaniac supporters, Hillary will need network backing and it won't be from NBC-Comcast so Disney-ABC it is-- look for WH exposes from them..

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

DubDave-- I knew it, he IS a Tea Partier!
I don't think he'll get any argument here about his 12:51, not even DoT.

[Rick B]

"Why was Stevens et al in Benghazi in the first place?"

Lyle,

Marx Brothers (Karl and Barack)/Underpants Gnomes Productions are famous for relying upon extemporaneous ad lib scenes with very tenuous connections to both precedent and reality. I favor the notion that he was trying to get a discount on the Turkish graft necessary for the transfer of a portion of Daffy's arsenal to AQ dominated groups in Syria but I doubt the existence of an actual script.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

RickB-- so Obummer sent a gay guy to run guns to AQ in Syria? That will end well... wait! If that scenario is true... no words.

[Threadkiller]

The General just answered that he knew the response to the ongoing attack was different than what he was trained to expect when, the next morning, certain assets that were deployed were told to stand down and return to their stations.

This flys in the face of the previous testimony that there was no stand down order.

Chafetz was given a golden opportunity to follow up this statement and choose to ask a gossip question.

I think he is a closet fruitcake.

[narciso]

Well the Sy Hersh piece, on the Syrian mass unfriending, provides some insight, why the chief Arabist in the department would go on such a journey,

[Miss Marple]

Going back to that kidnapping theory, is it possible that Stephens was sent to meet with the Turkish ambassador there (without security) in order to leave him open for the kidnappers and to avoid gunfire? Except those CIA guys thought it was a real attack and started opening fire. Whereupon the kidnappers thought they had been double-crossed.

Meanwhile, the State Dept nixed the military because they thought all was going as planned, hence the stand-down order, which they are now denying because someone would ask WHY?

[Extraneus]

Think of all the scandals and cover-up's we've handed you and you haven't been able to close the deal on any of them.

Valerie Plame was a complete non-issue yet we were able to use it to rip a Republican administration asunder and we laughed our asses off while we did it.

You suck at Politics.

You said it, DublinDave.

[Captain Hate]

DD's 12:51 should be stapled to Boehner's foreskinhead.

[lyle]

http://hotair.com/archives/2014/05/01/the-white-house-beat-where-no-one-knows-your-name-but-hates-your-tweets/

Poppin' Fresh is perplexed:

This weekend, the White House and political elite will treat these journalists with more courtesy. The question will be — as it always is — why the White House press corps plays along.

Gee, we're all mystified, Ed.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Dump on the Repub Establishment? we are all DubDaves now!

DD-- are you a Clintonista or an Obamaniac?... Oh sorry, you are whoever will pay you. Got it.

[narciso]

the Turkish consul was a big wig connected directly to the Foreign Minister, likely facilitated the MIT, Stevens could not afford not to talk to him,

[Rick B]

NK,

You'd have to be sentient to believe Thoroughly Modern Mahometans would murder a homosexual in this era of never ending Hope & Change. I can't think of anyone in the Executive branch who qualifies.

[Captain Hate]

Gee, we're all mystified, Ed.

He and Dana PeRINO are what pass for the GOPe version of the journolist. No wonder we get rolled.

[Momto2]

Kudos to you - Jack is Back - for getting those pups neutered. I work with a hound rescue group and if more people would do that - I'd have less heartbreaking situations to deal with.

Is Amb. Steven's family having anything to say about recent developments? IIRC he was big friends with the Clintons...but this happened to my son - all bets would be off!!

[narciso]

the proto Journolist, Ackerman, Judis, sent the Plame thing in motion, as with many of the truthy anecdotes, like the ones Antle relied for his thumbsucking piece I did earlier,

[Captain Hate]

Is Amb. Steven's family having anything to say about recent developments? IIRC he was big friends with the Clintons...but this happened to my son - all bets would be off!!

I haven't been able to figure this out from the get go; you lose your own flesh and blood and don't go thermonuclear when your "friend" comes up with some scam ass covering excuse story? Then again, if I were old man Lewinsky, the Secret Service would have already killed me or taken me in.

[lyle]

Monkey Boy isn't buying The Carnie Barker's pitch:

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2014/05/01/video-even-nbcs-david-gregory-isnt-buying-what-jay-carney-is-selling-on-benghazi/

[Miss Marple]

Captain Hate,

I figure they were either threatened or else are more loyal to Obama than to their son.

What happened to that diary? CNN gave it to them, I think, when they found it.

Why wasn't it turned over to the FBI as evidence? Did the FBI go get it from them? What was in it that they passed it around at State and when questioned about it, that slimeball hillary spokesman went off in a tirade on someone?

What was in it? Hints about the arms trafficking? Details of the fake kidnapping? Lists of gay contacts in the Middle East? His boyfriend's real name?

What was in the diary and where did it go?

[Extraneus]

This may shed some light, Captain:

"If she had lived, Mary Jo Kopechne would be 62 years old. Through his tireless work as a legislator, Edward Kennedy would have brought comfort to her in her old age."

--Charles Pierce, Boston Globe, 2003

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/rich-noyes/2009/07/18/40-years-chappaquiddick-ted-kennedy-would-have-brought-comfort-mary-jo-k

[Thomas Collins]

The War Between the Obamaniacs and the Clintonistas. It has a certain ring to it, NK.

[jimmyk on iPhone]

"jimmyk, good link at 11:26."

Well, it's the NYT, which I try never to link, but at least this was to their everlasting shame. Has a correction ever been issued? I guess they never corrected their non-coverage of the holocaust either.

Has no one in the administration ever been asked Lyle's 12:37 question?

[jimmyk on iPhone]

Yes, extraneus, I was going to cite the Kopechne family silence and suggest following the money.

[lyle]

"If she had lived, Mary Jo Kopechne would be 62 years old. Through his tireless work as a legislator, Edward Kennedy would have brought comfort to her in her old age plus free contraceptive coverage."

--Shit some prog reporter would write now.

[Captain Hate]

Ext,

I hope Mary Jo doesn't have any surviving relatives that would've read that filth.

[narciso]

that's designated NPR weasel, Charles Pierce, now with Red Squaw on his trapper keeper,

one could easily 'run out of bubble gum' waiting for Carlos Slim's scratchpad to come to the truth;

http://www.sharylattkisson.com/new-benghazi-docs-april-29--2014.html

[Captain Hate]

Plus has anybody asked about sending a homo State Dept asset into an area teeming with radical mooooooslim activity without massive security? Even CBS did a token amount of soul searching on sending Lara Logan into an insane situation. At least enough to prevent a lawsuit.

[jimmyk on iPhone]

CH, I'm reluctant to speak ill of that family, but all appearances point to their having sacrificed principle for some kind of payoff. They could have pursued charges (civil if not criminal), but instead allowed that pig to have a career in the Senate.

[Danube on iPad]

I don't think the GOP has bungled anything; this episode simply exposes how little power a party has when it controls only the house. Recall that it took over two years to nail Nixon even though there was a) an actual burglary; b) a federal judge determined to squeeze witnesses; c) solid Dem majorities in both chambers; d) a special prosecutor statute; e) a turncoat willing to tell all; f) a high-level FBI source willing to leak to a hostile and aggressive press; and g) audio recordings of internal discussions of the matter.

As we have seen, congressional oversight is not an efficient tool for exposing malfeasance in the executive. Subpoenas are ignored or slow-walked; witnesses take the Fifth; documents are belatedly produced with such wholesale redactions as to make them unreadable; a corrupt attorney general declines to prosecute anyone, inclusing those (like himself) who have been held in contempt; and a slavish MSM is determined to ignore or downplay the evidence.

I don't think the convening of a select committee would change much i would counsel patience, because I can't think of anything else.

[Jane]

Is the hearing still going?

[Captain Hate]

I don't know, jimmyk; there is such a thing a suffering in silence. I know of a family in this area that suffered something roughly similar and I think quietly moved out of the area. I'm not sure I could have done that but everybody respected them and felt horrible for their loss.

Then there's this reaction: http://twitchy.com/2014/05/01/would-love-to-be-in-a-room-with-this-guy-fncs-adam-housley-rips-into-worm-jay-carney/

[narciso]

It was mostly narrative, as Holland's bio of Felt points out, Geoff Shepherd's view of the legal shenanigans pursued against Nixon's crew, (clarice had a first hand view of that)

[DrJ]

What possibly could go wrong?

Fifty-five colleges and universities — big and small, public and private — are being investigated over their handling of sexual abuse complaints under Title IX, the Education Department revealed Thursday.

The Education Department's decision to release the list is unprecedented and comes as the Obama administration seeks to shed greater transparency on the issue of sexual assault in higher education and how it is being handled.

...

The schools range from big public universities like Ohio State University, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Arizona State University to private schools like Knox College in Illinois, Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and Catholic University of America in the District of Columbia. Ivy League schools like Harvard, Princeton and Dartmouth are also on the list.

daddy? Dartmouth?

[lyle]

The guy from The Breakfast Club rounds out the screaming mendacity:

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/376952/obamas-blame-video-fraud-started-cairo-not-benghazi-andrew-c-mccarthy/page/0/1

[Jim Rhoads f/k/a vnjagvet]

Bingo, DOT. That is the most trenchant summary of the current state of things political I have read. The confluence of events that undid Nixon two years after one of the biggest landslides in history has happened precisely once the the nation's history. AFICT, your 1:55 is a very accurate analysis of power and realistic possibilities under our system of government that should be kept in mind when assessing the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of one house's ability to control events in any meaningful way.

[henry]

What's the problem they are investigating DrJ? Is the problem that male students still have rights at these places?

[Captain Hate]

I'm sorry, Jim, but after Scooter Libby got convicted of a barely related crime after the Bush administration caved to calls for a special prosecutor, which they didn't have to give in to, I'm not feeling as charitable to the GOP as you and DoT are.

[narciso]

Watergate was watered down O'douls, compared to this, political intelligence, really that surprising, campaign finance irregularities, shirley you can't be serious,

[narciso]

Recall how Ken Starr, possibly the best appelate lawyer, outside of present company, was demonized into this demonic creature, and this was before Monica, they stonewalled, misdirect and other squirrel tactics,

[Captain Hate]

Nobody died in Watergate and the result that the plumbers wanted, McGovern over Humphrey, is what the left favored.

[lyle]

What's the problem they are investigating DrJ? Is the problem that male students still have rights at these places?

Beat me to it, henry. Somehow I doubt the investigation is about how due process for males is steadily vanishing across campuses.

[Captain Hate]

Whitewater got some real convictions; it was only the stonewalling of Susan McDougal that saved Slick.

[narciso]

they actually thought it was McGoverns mad skillz that had won them the nomination, snorfle, btw, we should have 'Yeargh' Dean
win,

[Jim Rhoads f/k/a vnjagvet]

I am not sure I understand how an accurate analysis of relative power equates to being charitable to the GOP, CH. I share your frustration with the inability to mobilize effectively what power the GOP does have to get at the crooks currently running the Executive Branch.

[Danube of Thought]

I'm not feeling as charitable to the GOP as you and DoT are.

I am only talking about their oversight efforts since retaking the house, which I understood to be the thing that was allegedly bungled.

[jimmyk]

there is such a thing a suffering in silence.

Hence my reluctance, CH, but decisions do have consequences, and in this case a consequence was Charles Pierce's obscenity.

Also, there is this, from wiki:

The Kopechne family did not bring any legal action against Senator Kennedy, but they did receive a payment of $90,904 from the Senator personally and $50,000 from his insurance company.[43] The Kopechnes later explained their decision to not take legal action by saying that "We figured that people would think we were looking for blood money."

Fair enough, but they could have donated any proceeds to charity.

[jimmyk]

What's the problem they are investigating DrJ?

I read somewhere (Taranto, maybe?) that it was actually the unfair treatment of males that was being investigated, believe it or not. In other words, the universities were being a bit overenthusiastic in symmetric situations (he and she both drunk, they have sex, only the man is punished for the 'lack of consent').

[Captain Hate]

I am not sure I understand how an accurate analysis of relative power equates to being charitable to the GOP, CH.

I just feel that by not convening a select committee instead of these ad hoc things that Issa is running, the GOP has squandered what power they have. I don't argue with the numbers involved but when you have the facts on your side in situations like Benghazi, the IRS and Fast and Furious you can overcome a numerical disadvantage. I think the donks are better at marshaling their available forces to achieve political goals than the GOP is.

Maybe it can't be done; but if you don't try it won't be done.

[Jane]

The Andy McCarthy piece is riveting. I think he nails it.

[lyle]

This person actually sits in the House of Representatives. I weep for my country:

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/377016/rep-eleanor-holmes-norton-thinks-iraq-war-was-worst-20th-century-josh-encinias

[MarkO]

A select committee would keep Hillary's lies in the news. That's enough for me.

I'm not really the patient sort.

I don't know the outcome of convening a select committee. I fear the outcome of patience is President Clinton II.

[Jane]

I'd like to take a vote on a special committee in the house, name it, and let it silently investigate until after November.

Hell after we take the senate, the mood for impeachment may change.

Then I'd like to see a few people go to jail - a few thousands maybe.

[Jim Rhoads f/k/a vnjagvet]

As I said, I share your frustration with the GOP's inability or unwillingness to martial whatever power they have to get the ba@@ards.

[Captain Hate]

This person actually sits in the House of Representatives.

Rarely has a person with no real power used it so poorly.

[lyle]

It's not the powerlessness, it's the sheer, jaws-dropping ignorance, CH.

[Danube on iPad]

I don't know enough about how a select committee is convened, nor how it operates, to know how much good it would do. I do know that it is "bi-partisan," meaning that there will be a bunch of Elijah Cumminses dragging rheir feet at every turn.

[jimmyk]

I fear the outcome of patience is President Clinton II.

I would like an amendment to the Constitution that says that the two-term limit on presidents applies to the spouse, meaning that between the two of them they can only serve two terms. It seems to me only banana republics elect spouses of former presidents, and more important, it could be a loophole around the 22nd amendment, the way some governors got around term limits by having their wives run.

[narciso]

Nixon had no one this devious on his side;

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/04/benghazi_white_house_emails_did_the_obama_administration_engage_in_a_cover.html

[narciso]

Is the coverup of the murder of an American ambassador, in a country we had intervened just the previous year, not worth an inquiry

I'm isolating the Noel and Moore killing,

[Jane]

I don't know enough about how a select committee is convened, nor how it operates, to know how much good it would do. I do know that it is "bi-partisan," meaning that there will be a bunch of Elijah Cumminses dragging rheir feet at every turn.

As I understand it, it has to be voted on by one body (thus Boehner has to bring it to a vote.) You can dictate the duties, powers and the procedures for selecting people. The point of it is investigation, not law.

A special prosecutor would be better if Congress could choose who it would be.

[narciso]

Judge Napolitano suggested Michael Chertoff for chief counsel,

[Frau Indianerherz]

Rick @ 11:58 -FP adventure...
I'm still spotting old "Voter for a new Foreign Policy" bumper stickers around Cleoville. No shame at all, it seems.

[Beasts of England]

DublinDave nails it again! Couldn't agree more!

[Danube on iPad]

"You can dictate the duties, powers and the procedures for selecting people."

Does the other body have to approve? How are the members selected?

It's my understanding that there is no special prosecutor statute on the books st this point.

[Beasts of England]

It seems to me only banana republics elect spouses of former presidents governors...

Lurleen Wallace would likely disagree. ;)

[rich@gmu]

Posted by: lyle | May 01, 2014 at 02:29 PM-

think as time goes on the pendulum is going to swing back. a couple of issues is that the overly broad rules decreed from the Dept of Ed are going well beyond the scope of a school's rule making and conduct authorities (under state laws). another issue is the disparate impact of the rules between student athletes and other students-seems odd that a scholarship athlete can get special treatment (and a separate disciplinary hearing) and another student in a similar situation would not.

[jimmyk]

Lurleen Wallace would likely disagree.

I had Lurleen in mind when I said "the way some governors got around term limits by having their wives run."

In any case, isn't Alabama sort of a banana republic? :)

[Danube on iPad]

Browns sign Vince Young.

[maryrose]

Danube:
Who is Vince Young?
I agree with Jane. I want a select committee and as Marko has stated so well I want the Clinton lies front and center.
Why Is Issa going to call Kerry to testify? He needs to call the 3 stooges-Plouffe, Palmieri and Pfieffer who gave Rhoades the video talking points and her marching orders.
Of course because life is unfair Obama will skate and proclaim like Sgt. Schultz that {I know nothing!" but his legacy will be null and void as the economy tanks further and his ACA implodes.Plus now- nobody with any brains really likes him including his big bottomed wife.

[MaxB]

Baghdad Jay Carney, for months, repeated over and over that there were no White House talking points.

Did he not know about the Ben Rhodes talking points? Did Ben Rhodes never call Baghdad Jay and say, "Hey Dude, you gotta stop saying that there were no White House talking points"?