what eye thynk: As the Republican propaganda machine known as the Select Committee on Benghazi looks forward to Hillary Clinton's public testimony scheduled for tomorrow, the Committee's veracity continues to unravel. Representative Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) who chairs the Select Committee would like us all to feel sorry for him: "I would say in some ways these have been among the worst weeks of my life."
Perhaps these past weeks would have gone more smoothly if he hadn't decided to act like the hero of the Republican Party by attempting to smear the Democrats' apparent presidential candidate and instead had run a fair and honest (albeit--after seven previous committees--wholly unnecessary) investigation.1. February and March 2015 - Trey Gowdy announced the committee had scheduled interviews with top officials from the State Department, the Department of Defense, and intelligence communities. In March, The New York Times broke the news about Hillary Clinton's use of her private email account for state business. Mr. Gowdy immediately abandoned the scheduled April interviews and any semblance of impartiality to focus the Committee's work solely on Hillary Clinton.
To date, the Committee has never held a single public hearing with anyone from the Defense Department and only one hearing with an intelligence official--and that hearing was so the Committee could complain about the pace of document production.
2. April 2015 - Trey Gowdy announced that he didn't expect to release the Committee's report until sometime in 2016.
I guess we're supposed to believe that there is nothing partisan in his conveniently scheduling the report to see the light of day within the last months of the presidential campaign. But it will be fair and unbiased I'm sure.
Seven Republican led committees have already determined that there was no wrong doing on the State Department's or Hillary Clinton's parts. Perhaps the delay in the Gowdy report can be blamed on the trouble he is having finding evidence to prove the first seven GOP committees were mistaken?
3. May 2015 - One example of how Mr. Gowdy's core purpose changed to publicly discrediting Hillary Clinton is his use of U.S. Marshals to serve a deposition subpoena on Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal (who had already indicated he was willing to testify voluntarily).
In the end, Mr. Blumenthal answered 160 questions about his relationship with Ms. Clinton, 50 questions about the Clinton Foundation, and 45 questions about David Brock of Media Matters. Mr. Blumenthal was asked only 20 questions related directly to the attack in Benghazi, and only four that concerned security of the U.S. mission there, Not one question was asked about Ambassador Stevens or any of the other Benghazi mission's personnel. Mr. Gowdy later admitted that he "never expected Witness Blumenthal to be able to answer questions about the attacks in Benghazi, Libya."
But, hey that U.S. Marshals thing sure looked good on the 6 o'clock news, didn't it?4. June thru August 2015 - An entire Summer of Gowdy vs. Clinton jousting over releasing emails and her refusal to agree to the Committee's insistence that she testify privately.
I am at a loss to understand why she and the Obama administration didn't agree to just give the Committee all the documentation they asked for as soon as it was requested. The delay made it look like there was something to hide when, in fact, now that all the emails are in the Committee's hands, they have found nothing important in them.
As for her agreeing to testify only if her appearance was public--there was no other intelligent choice. And Hillary Clinton is nothing if not intelligent.
5. September 2015 - While rumors have abounded questioning the Committee's real purpose for months, it all really began to fall apart late last month when Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) admitted that the Select Committee's reason for being has little to do with fact-finding or Benghazi and much to do with discrediting Hillary Clinton. A few days later Representative Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.) admitted the same.
6. October 2015 - In an apparent effort to override the McCarthy/Benghazi news frenzy, Mr. Gowdy said that by using her private email account, Hillary Clinton had revealed classified information in the form of the name of a CIA operative. The CIA looked into his accusation and informed all the committee members in writing--both Republican and Democrat--that the information in the email in question was not classified.
7. Mr. Gowdy doubled down by saying former Secretary Clinton had redacted the operative's name only after the email was sent and he had exposed it. As it turns out, the redaction was actually the work of Mr. Gowdy himself, (really, why would Hillary redact a name if the info, as the CIA reported, wasn't classified in the first place). In a further example of his ineptitude, Mr. Gowdy himself may have accidentally revealed classified information during his back and forth snit about sensitive information.
8. A few days later, Bradley Podliska, a former investigator for the Select Committee filed a suit saying he was fired because he resisted pressure to focus exclusively on Hillary Clinton's role surrounding the Benghazi attack.
9. Then last Friday, the Committee continued its all-Hillary-all-the-time focus by calling Ms. Clinton's former deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin, to testify. Ms. Abedin's testimony was so pointless that Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy didn't even bother to show up for it. Instead he flew to Utah for a fundraiser.
10. On Sunday, Mr. Gowdy, in an apparent attempt to shore up his credibility, appeared on CBS' Face the Nation and said "I have told my own Republican colleagues and friends, shut up talking about things that you don't know anything about. And unless you're on the committee, you have no idea what we've done, why we've done it and what new facts we have found."
If he were honest, he would have added: "Except for those little, self-serving tidbits that I've chosen to leak to the press; and besides, you're hurting my feelings by making me look bad."11. Representative Mike Pompeo (R-Kansas), a member of the Select Committee, attempted to give Mr. Gowdy some support when he spoke to Andrea Mitchell on Meet the Press also on Sunday.
It didn't go too well.Mr. Pompeo: We have focused on the central failure. We have focused on the security issues. And we will continue, you'll see lots of questions about that on Thursday... We see now that former Secretary Clinton relied on (advisor Sidney) Blumenthal for most of her intelligence...
Ms. Mitchell: That is factually not true.
Mr. Pompeo: No, it is absolutely true.
Ms. Mitchell: Relied on Mr. Blumenthal for most of her intelligence?
Mr. Pompeo: Ms. Mitchell, take a look at the email trails and you will see--
Ms. Mitchell: That's just--I cover the State Department. That is just factually not correct.
The Select Committee has gotten away with making unsubstantiated claims for months with no one stepping forward to question them. They may still be able to get away with it in some circles, but the rational world is looking at the Committee with open eyes these days.
And so the Select Committee will appear in the committee room tomorrow all polished and prepped for the public testimony of ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. I say: Let the fireworks begin!
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