Focus Will Be On Questioners, Not On Hillary
This Thursday, Hillary Clinton will appear (once again) in front of the latest congressional committee to investigate Benghazi. The first seven investigations have turned up precisely nothing, but that didn't stop Republicans from trying one last time to do political damage to Clinton. This latest committee was necessary (obviously) to keep the issue alive right into the 2016 campaign season. But now the committee itself is under the public's microscope, which means that the focus will be more on the Republican questioners this Thursday, and not so much on Clinton.
This turnabout was possible because a few Republicans admitted the true political nature of the committee to journalists. This gave the media permission to stop pretending the committee was created for any other reason than to take Clinton down. The public saw through this a long time ago, but it's now impossible for the media to ignore any more.
Hillary Clinton, of course, has already testified before Benghazi committees before. She's answered all the questions, and it's hard to imagine there are going to be many new Benghazi issues brought up on Thursday, because this ground has already been so thoroughly covered. What was supposed to happen, as far as the Republicans were concerned, was a thorough grilling of Clinton, exposing her for the arch-fiend they truly knew she was. Embarrassing soundbites would be in the news, and anti-Clinton PACs would have lots of fodder for attack ads to run against her. That was the plan, at any rate.
Now, however, the focus will be on the questioners themselves. Hillary can now afford to play offense while they have been reduced to playing defense. The soundbites on the news may be the most partisan and slanted questions asked, and not the answers. Republican committee members may even now be revising the questions they were planning on asking, because they likely won't be able to get away with saying what they really wanted to say.
Much of anyone's testimony before a congressional committee (on any subject) is political posturing on the part of the members of the committee. Read a transcript of any of these hearings to see what I mean -- a congressman will have five minutes to ask questions and get answers, and they'll use over four minutes of that time to essentially read a prepared statement, before offhandedly asking the witness "What do you think about that?" at the end of it. Sometimes committee members use up their entire time blathering, and fail to even ask a single question. That's how the Clinton hearing was supposed to play out, too. Lots of criticism followed by a sneering question designed to have no acceptable answer.
Clinton was sounding pretty confident about her ability to face this hearing, even before Kevin McCarthy and Richard Hanna let the cat out of the bag. Now that they both have admitted what everyone knew anyway -- the investigation is nothing more than a political hit job -- Clinton will have a much easier time of it.
The focus on her emails is also just going to show how far the committee has strayed from what it was supposed to be investigating. "Hillary Clinton's use of classified material in emails" was not exactly the committee's original purpose, to point out the obvious. This focus on the emails is an admission that the committee hasn't found any other scandal worth talking about, in fact.
Throughout its long life, the Benghazi committee has operated in nakedly partisan fashion, but up until now they've been able to get away with it. They take some testimony behind closed doors and then out of many hours of this testimony a few sentences will be leaked to the media without any context, in an effort to cause Hillary Clinton political damage. The media largely went along for this ride, in far-too-credulous fashion. Democrats on the committee scrambled to keep up with these leaks, and demanded that all the testimony be made public. The Republicans running the committee refused to do so.
This week, the Democrats on the committee struck back and released their own extensive summary. This extraordinary document, filled with excerpts of testimony, is a thorough debunking of all the conspiracy theories Republicans have been trading ever since Benghazi happened. This is a mountain of evidence that shows the Republicans have been searching for a smoking gun which simply does not exist.
Hillary Clinton was also asked to testify behind closed doors. She refused, and successfully demanded a public hearing instead. This means leaked soundbites won't be possible, because the context of any statement will also be on the record. As I said, Hillary sounded pretty confident of her ability to face the committee, even before the committee's motives were exposed by House Republicans. This exposure put a lot of pressure on Trent Gowdy, the committee's chair, who tried valiantly to insist (without convincing anyone, of course) that politics had nothing to do with his investigation.
Oddly enough, this may pressure not just Gowdy but all the Republicans on the committee to dial it back a bit on Thursday -- making Hillary's job even easier. The Democrats on the committee will doubtlessly use their question time to pick apart the partisan nature of everything the Republicans say. Now that the media is primed for the story, a few of these might actually become the go-to soundbites out of the hearing.
As long as Clinton doesn't lose her cool or have some other spectacular bad moment on Thursday, she's largely already won the public relations battle. She was helped enormously by the open admissions from Republicans that the committee was partisan in nature. Republicans have spent a monumental amount of time and energy (not to mention the taxpayers' money) chasing conspiracy theories about what happened in Benghazi. They've investigated it over and over again, and unearthed nothing of substance. Their continued insistence on further investigating is probably the biggest argument that the entire thing is a political witchhunt -- because if it wasn't, objective people would have stopped investigating by now. This investigation -- and this testimony, in specific -- were scheduled to do maximum damage to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. However, the ones getting politically damaged by the entire exercise now seem to be the Republicans. This Thursday, the spotlight will be on them, and not so much on Clinton. That's a pretty stunning turnaround.
Maybe they should just be honest, and rename the investigation the "Committee To Politically Defeat Hillary Clinton." When even Republicans are admitting this is the case, why not just call it by its true name?
-- Chris Weigant
Cross-posted at The Huffington Post
Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
Technical Note:
I found a whole bunch of comments in the spam filter that didn't belong there. I just went ahead and approved them all, so for the past few columns if you see repeated comments, that's why -- it was my fault (and the site's fault) and NOT the fault of the commenter.
Sorry for the delay, everyone....
-CW
Yep!
The first seven investigations have turned up precisely nothing,
Really!??
You mean, our ambassador did NOT get killed in Benghazi due to mis-management by Hillary!??
Whew!!! That's a relief. I but the loved ones of all those who were brutally killed are relieved that their loved ones are still alive!!
This turnabout was possible because a few Republicans admitted the true political nature of the committee to journalists.
No, the turnabout was forced because a few Republicans rendered their OPINIONS...
That's the problem with the Left Wingery.. They are all about "truth" (THEIR "truth") and know nothing of the FACTS...
She's answered all the questions, and it's hard to imagine there are going to be many new Benghazi issues brought up on Thursday, because this ground has already been so thoroughly covered.
Actually, this is not factual.. There is a lot of new information that the committee FINALLY dragged out of the White House and the State Department..
The emails from the ambassador BEGGING for upgraded security arrangements for one..
Maybe they should just be honest, and rename the investigation the "Committee To Politically Defeat Hillary Clinton." When even Republicans are admitting this is the case, why not just call it by its true name?
The fact that the Left Wingery has called it that since DAY ONE really proves where the partisanship is... :D
Michale
Ya'all got to ask yourself one question..
If ALL of Hillary's woes are nothing but a "vast right wing conspiracy" (ya'all STILL haven't explained how Obama's FBI could be part of the VRWC, but no matter) why is it that over 60% of Joe/Jane Sixpack Americans think the best word to describe Hillary is "LIAR"??
To deny that Hillary has a BIG problem unrelated to Republicans is to deny reality...
Michale
The complete and utter BS of Hillary's claims is easy to see if ya'all would just step outside ya'all's partisan box and look at the facts...
Hillary claims that she sent NO CLASSIFIED emails thru her private homebrew insecure bathroom closet email server..
We now know for a FACT that this is total BS..
But, let's examine that statement and assume it's true...
OK, for the sake of the argument, Hillary did NOT send any classified information thru her private homebrew insecure bathroom closet email server..
We also know that Hillary used her private homebrew insecure bathroom closet email server EXCLUSIVELY...
So, are we to believe that Hillary NEVER sent ANY classified material to ANYONE via email..
EVER!???
Com'on people!! I know for a fact that ya'all are NOT THAT dumb!!!
Hillary sent classified information thru her private homebrew insecure bathroom closet email server..
Anyone who denies this is simply denying reality...
Michale
Here's the problem as I see it..
Hillary Clinton has a credibility problem..
Anyone who supports Hillary Clinton has a credibility problem..
But hay.. It ain't my problem.. :D
"What's with the cat??"
"The cat? Oh yea, there's a problem with the cat. Sign here.."
"What's the problem??"
"It's your problem.."
Men In Black
:D
Michale
Winning!
You noticed that too, eh?? :D
Ya know, for someone who is constantly claiming I am a "chatbot" and a "troll", you sure do get suckered in a lot, eh?? :D
Michale
We can do The Innuendo
We can dance and sing
When it's said and done we haven't told you a thing
Don Henley
The GOP really should follow the Trump model. Just assert that Hillary was SecState on Benghazi! Day. At least that assertion would be true.
The GOP really should follow the Trump model. Just assert that Hillary was SecState on Benghazi! Day. At least that assertion would be true.
Every other assertion about Hillary is ALSO true..
She lied about her email server..
She lied about sending and receiving classified information..
Her incompetence as SecState got our ambassador killed...
She lied about the cause of our ambassador's death..
Like I said... Those who support Hillary Clinton have a HUGE credibility problem..
Michale
Dance!!! Dance Little Puppet, Dance!!!! :D
Michale
This is a mountain of evidence that shows the Republicans have been searching for a smoking gun which simply does not exist.
Sorry ta burst ya'all's bubble, but Hillary's private homebrew insecure bathroom closet email server *IS* the smoking gun..
And it's a smoking gun that's going to keep firing and firing and firing until all her emails are revealed...
The only real question is this..
Is Hillary going to get coronated first??? Or indicted first...
Michale
In OTHER political news, Jim Webb just became the first candidate to drop out on the Democratic side. Who didn't see that coming??? But there is speculation he may run as an independent. In which case, what little votes he gets he is more likely to siphon off from the Republican side.
In OTHER political news, Jim Webb just became the first candidate to drop out on the Democratic side. Who didn't see that coming??? But there is speculation he may run as an independent. In which case, what little votes he gets he is more likely to siphon off from the Republican side.
Yea... Sure.. He runs as a Democrat and he will siphon off REPUBLICAN votes...
Yet, when he won the Senate Election as a Democrat, he was the Democrat cat's meow....
:D
Once again, I wish ya'all could take a step out of yourselves and see how utterly partisan and ridiculous ya'all sound.. :D
Michale
The one point Jim Webb made -- if I am properly understanding him and I may not be -- is that lots of white people are poor and struggling too. He can't seem to make that point effectively but I think it IS a point. I have no idea what he would attempt to do about it. What we don't need is any variation of divide and conquer -- that's what the Repubs have used for so long. We need the powers-that-be to grasp the degree of insecurity and struggle that exists across the board in America today and we need serious approaches for dealing with it. Repub trickle-down has failed, failed, failed. Dem buy-in to Repub trickle-down has failed, failed, failed.
Black Lives Matter intersects with the overall insecurity/struggle issue as well as several others and needs to be addressed alongside our broken economy, not "instead of" or "in place of". Hillary and Bernie seem to have grasped this.
What we don't need is any variation of divide and conquer
You mean, like getting the Left Wingery to hate rich people?? :D
Black Lives Matter intersects with the overall insecurity/struggle issue as well as several others and needs to be addressed alongside our broken economy, not "instead of" or "in place of".
Black Lives Matter is nothing more than a racist hate group, no different than the Democrat Party's KKK...
You do yourself and your cause a GRAVE injustice by trying to tie your point to a racist hate group..
Hillary and Bernie seem to have grasped this.
Bernie?? yea, OK, I can see that..
But HILLARY????
Mrs $300,000 DOLLAR speeches Hillary???
Mrs Two Mansions Hillary???
Mrs I Had To "EVOLVE" On Gay Marriage Hillary??
Why on earth would you think that Hillary "grasps" your concept??
Because she has SAID so???
Mrs 60% Of Americans Think The ONE Word To Describe Her Is LIAR Hillary??
Take away what Hillary has said and where is your evidence that Hillary "grasps" your concept??
{{chiiirrrrrpppppp}} {{{chirrrrrppppp}}}
Yea.. That's what I thought...
Michale
Oh, and congratulations on Trudeau's stunning win in Canada.
Yea... Another "HOPE AND CHANGE" candidate..
http://www.chrisweigant.com/2015/10/16/ftp366/#comment-65346
What could POSSIBLY go wrong.. :D
Michale
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CE5h0xmUEAECYdW.jpg
Canada's Putin..
Without the muscles... Heh
What is that tattoo?? A crab??? :D
Michale
Oh, and congratulations on Trudeau's stunning win in Canada.
Trudeau supports the Keystone Pipeline project.... :D
Michale
Liz,
On the other hand....
The vast majority of the Left Wingery calls Republicans "terrorists" and "arsonists" and "enemies"....
Joe Biden??
He calls them "Friends"....
Joe Biden is a class act.....
Michale
Michale,
Joe Biden is a class act.....
Absolutely, positively, unequivocally.
Absolutely, positively, unequivocally.
Common ground.. A beautiful thing... :D
Michale
Indeed. :)
As I've been saying all along, Joe Biden is not running for President.
Elizabeth: I've written about this before in connection with Biden and it remains one of my biggest objections to him: http://www.salon.com/2015/10/21/joe_bidens_greatest_betrayal_the_one_senate_vote_that_makes_it_hard_to_support_a_biden_run/
I followed the legislation at the time and knew it was bad and it illustrated beautifully the disconnect between the beltway and most Americans. Joe may be Mr. Nice Guy but he was out of touch then (or worse) and I think he's out of touch now.
Also flying around the web is commentary on his saying that he likes Dick Cheney personally -- once again, it seems to me, missing the larger point. By making these kinds of statements ("I'm friends with Republicans", etc.) what he does is essentially say "my personal relationships are more important than the results of these people's actions on Americans' lives".
"It's a shame Repubs keep shutting down the government, causing all kinds of hassles for Federal Employees and for their various dependents, but hey! I have lunch with those guys and they're nice once you get to know them! "
He's actually solidifying the beltway disconnect concept at a point in time when the rest of the country is screaming that it's had enough with myopic insiders neglecting the interests of the citizenry. Tone deaf.
Well -- within minutes of my last comment the news came up that Joe ISN'T running.
I am relieved. I think he would have lost, would have been hammered, and it would have been a sad conclusion to his career.
Paula,
Are you looking forward to more partisanship permeating US politics, domestically and internationally?
How do the American people and their leaders break the cycle of dysfunctional politics?
I'm glad you're relieved.
Mopshell,
As I've been saying all along, Joe Biden is not running for President.
You have been very prescient. :)
Paula,
I just took a look at the article you highlighted Re. the bankruptcy bill. Yeah, that's an issue that has always been poorly understood by Democrats, in general and progressives, in particular ... at least insofar as Biden's vote is concerned.
Your article left out quite a lot about how that bill got passed and why Biden supported it.
You should do yourself a favour and research the history of the passage of that bill. You might rightfully conclude that it is hardly an issue that should prevent you from supporting Biden.
Elizabeth: Not interested in reviewing Biden's motivations for the bankruptcy bill at this time -- if you know something meaningful, post it.
Re: partisanship. The extreme partisanship at loose in the land emanates from the right. Dems have had all efforts to reach across the aisle squashed. You can't have peace when only one side in a conflict wants it. You can't have peace when one side sees it as a disagreement and the other side sees it as WAR!!!
So things will remain partisan until the extremists on the right are defanged and put out to pasture. That will take a few more elections, although they may speed things along by continuing to self-destruct. But until they are firmly marginalized we need strong Dems to hold the line and refuse to cater to them. Obama figured that out and is actually regaining some popularity as a result. Hillary (and I think Bernie) know this. Any Dem who doesn't is out-of-touch.
Elizabeth
Re: partisanship. The extreme partisanship at loose in the land emanates from the right. Dems have had all efforts to reach across the aisle squashed. You can't have peace when only one side in a conflict wants it. You can't have peace when one side sees it as a disagreement and the other side sees it as WAR!!!
So things will remain partisan until the extremists on the right are defanged and put out to pasture. That will take a few more elections, although they may speed things along by continuing to self-destruct. But until they are firmly marginalized we need strong Dems to hold the line and refuse to cater to them. Obama figured that out and is actually regaining some popularity as a result. Hillary (and I think Bernie) know this. Any Dem who doesn't is out-of-touch.
Re: partisanship. The extreme partisanship at loose in the land emanates from the right. Dems have had all efforts to reach across the aisle squashed. You can't have peace when only one side in a conflict wants it.
The sad thing is, you actually BELIEVE this..
You actually BELIEVE that Republicans are Lucifer incarnate and Democrats are as pure as the driven snow..
You can't have peace when one side sees it as a disagreement and the other side sees it as WAR!!!
And yet, it's the DEMOCRATS who refer to Republicans as "terrorists" and "enemies"...
Why is that?
Obama figured that out and is actually regaining some popularity as a result.
Despite ALL the facts to the contrary.. :D
Michale
Hillary! Hillary! Hillary!
A mob of Republican blowhards pile on her -- a modern inquisition -- and she's still standing. Over eleven hours of spittle-flying stupidity by these guys. Yay Elijah Cummings and All Hail Hillary!
I'm reading lots of people commenting about how much MORE they like her now after seeing her handle this day (on several blogs and FB). Thanks Trey! Nice work!
Whatever helps ya sleep at night, Paula. :D
It still doesn't change the FACT that over 60% of the American people think Hillary is a liar...
Michale
Looks like Hillary's health is none too good either...
Michale
Here's a question for you to answer, Paula..
Gods know HILLARY didn't have any answer..
WHY did Hillary blame an obscure YouTube video for the attack in Benghazi when she knew FULL WELL that it was a terrorist attack??
Why did Hillary lie about that???
I know I won't get an answer.. Just like the American people won't get an answer...
But the failure to answer is proof positive why Hillary will not be President.
Because the American people cannot trust ANYTHING Hillary says...
It's that simple..
Michale
Yea... That's what I thought... :^/
Michale
A mob of Republican blowhards pile on her -- a modern inquisition -- and she's still standing. Over eleven hours of spittle-flying stupidity by these guys. Yay Elijah Cummings and All Hail Hillary!
Yea... Hail Hillary..
Americans were brutally murdered on her watch and her incompetence made it happen..
Isn't that what you Hysterical Left Wingers said about Bush...
At least Bush didn't blatantly lie to the American people and blame some obscure and mythical YouTube video..
But sure... "Hail Hillary"... Why not...
Who gives a rat's ass about Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods..
Hail Hillary...
:^/
Michale
Michale [3-6] -
I thought of you when I read this article:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/10/26/morning-plum-republicans-are-in-denial-about-hillary-clinton/
Shades of the whole "skewed polls" thing from 2012. I heartily encourage Republicans to pat themselves on the back and agree with each other than Hillary couldn't POSSIBLY be electable.
After all, it worked out so good for Romney, right?
Heh.
:-)
I notice you're getting significantly more worried about Clinton, going from brushing off her chances to desperate attacks. Such will be the Republican campaign, no matter who is the nominee...
John From Censornati [9] -
After actually watching Gowdy's performance:
"It's interesting when people die / Give us dirty laundry..."
Heh.
[10] -
HAH! OK, that made me laugh, I admit...
John M [14] -
I wrote, awhile back:
Of the three, I think O'Malley is actually running to be Hillary's veep, so I expect him to stay in for a while to remind her who he is, but then to gracefully bow out after the initial primaries, and immediately throw his support behind her campaign. The other two men running have little chance of attracting either voter attention or campaign dollars, since they're both essentially running vanity campaigns. Picking who drops out first is a coin-toss, but I'll go ahead and say Chafee drops out before Webb. I think Webb's got a few bigger donors than Chafee, to put it a different way.
http://www.chrisweigant.com/2015/08/11/who-will-exit-the-race-first/
So my coin-flip didn't work out right, but so far I'm doing pretty well on the Dem side....
:-)
Paula [16] -
You have put your finger on a key point. Yes, that's what Webb was (quite awkwardly) trying to say. It's also what Bernie Sanders was trying to say, before he had to moderate his language after the BLM ambush. It's NOT a racial issue, it's a CLASS issue -- plenty of white people are poor. Those poor white people also don't have any champion. Webb made his point ham-handedly, championing white poor people without regard to anyone else. Bernie thought he was making his point clear -- class differences matter more than racial differences -- but then he had to moderate this stance.
But Webb was just not nimble enough (or articulate enough) to ever get this point across.
Michale [17] -
Um, no. When Black Lives Matter control the law enforcement system and the judicial system in large portions of the country, then possibly you might be able to make some sort of comparison to the KKK. Since they don't (and never have), your comparison is both odious and laughable at the same time. Look up the term "institutional racism" to see the difference.
JohnM [18] -
Hear Hear!!! Liberals triumph in Canada! LizM, our applause is for your electorate!
:-)
Michale [22] -
Wow -- kind words for a Democrat! I think I'll bookmark this comment for future reference...
Heh...
LizM [31] -
Keep in mind, Biden represents Delaware. Look up "Delaware corporation" to understand why many on the left have a healthy amount of suspicion of Biden's corporate influence. He represented the state for a long time, including all those Delaware corporations.
Michale [34] -
Do I have to bring up the Bush/Cheney comment about how the teachers' union was the same as terrorists?
See: "plank in own eye; mote in others'" for context....
-CW
I'll keep that in mind, Chris, if you promise to look up why and how Biden came to vote for that particular piece of legislation ... deal?
CW,
Wow -- kind words for a Democrat! I think I'll bookmark this comment for future reference...
Heh...
I keep telling ya'all, INDEPENDENT... NPA :D
Do I have to bring up the Bush/Cheney comment about how the teachers' union was the same as terrorists?
And how did the Left react to that??
Michale
Um, no. When Black Lives Matter control the law enforcement system and the judicial system in large portions of the country, then possibly you might be able to make some sort of comparison to the KKK.
Oh, I am sure you can find MANY dis-similarities between the groups..
But they BOTH are hate-mongering racist groups..
That's enough of a similarity for my purposes..
Look up the term "institutional racism" to see the difference.
Institutional racism is dead... It died the day we elected a black POTUS..
Michale