Boehner to appoint select Benghazi committee

[one...two...tree 2,762]

How can the Republican leadership expect to be taken seriously when they're consistently knee-deep in petty partisanship that has done nothing but impede the progress of our economic recovery? No on food stamps and unemployment. No on minimum wage increase. Kept trying to delay/repeal Obamacare. Good grief.

.....

WASHINGTON — House Speaker John Boehner declared Friday he would create a select committee to investigate the Benghazi attack, providing Republicans with a high-profile forum to target the Obama administration's credibility ahead of crucial midterm elections.

Boehner said U.S. officials misled the American people after the Sept. 11, 2012, assault on the U.S. diplomatic post in Libya that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. He said emails released this week showed the White House has withheld documents from congressional investigators and asked, "What else about Benghazi is the Obama administration still hiding from the American people?"

"Americans learned this week that the Obama administration is so intent on obstructing the truth about Benghazi that it is even willing to defy subpoenas issued by the standing committees of the people's House," Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement. "These revelations compel the House to take every possible action to ensure the American people have the truth about the terrorist attack on our consulate that killed four of our countrymen."

Republicans have accused President Barack Obama and his top aides of seeking to deceive the public about the true circumstances of a major, al-Qaida-linked terrorist attack during the final months of the 2012 presidential campaign — charges which the president and other U.S. officials reject. But administration officials didn't mention intelligence suggesting the Benghazi attack was distinct from simultaneous, anti-American protests elsewhere in the Arab world.

The State Department, which ordered an independent review days after the attack, called the notion that it has stonewalled multiple, ongoing congressional investigations "just false."

"We've produced tens of thousands of documents. We've done nine hearings, 46 briefings," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters Friday. She called a select committee unnecessary: "How many more taxpayer dollars are we going to spend trying to prove a political point that in 18 months they haven't been able to prove?"

The White House did not immediately respond to Boehner's comments.

For Boehner, a select committee raises the profile of one of the Republicans' main points of attack against Obama ahead of November's elections, which could swing the Senate to GOP control. Benghazi is a rallying cry for the conservative GOP base and will be critical for fundraising and getting voters to the polls in typically low-turnout midterm contests.

A long-term investigation by a select committee could also provide a vehicle for Republican attacks on former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton ahead of another potential presidential run in 2016. And it could unify the Republican approach, which showed fissures Thursday as two powerful GOP committee chairmen sparred over whether the military was prevented from responding to the attack.

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/2014/05/02/boehner-appoint-select-benghazi-committee/8622419/

Edited May 3, 2014 by Porterhouse

[Jacque67 7,328]

Boehner is satan!

[UncleBeer 244]

The State Department, which ordered an independent review days after the attack, called the notion that it has stonewalled multiple, ongoing congressional investigations "just false."

The emails that were just released were subpoenaed by Congress almost a year ago, and were released not as a result of compliance with that subpoena, but via a judge's FOI order. The State Department has been less than forthcoming on Benghazi, and should be eager to answer any questions put to them.

Edited May 3, 2014 by UncleBeer

[LibCampFireClub 635]

Dude, wasn't that like two years ago?

[UncleBeer 244]

Dude, wasn't that like two years ago?

Maybe that's why the preznit's crew has such a hard time staying within legal boundaries: the Constitution is mysterious and therefore irrelevant because it was written 100 years ago.

[Jacque67 7,328]

Still doesn't prove Boehner isn't the devil incarnate

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Boehner is the hardest ####### the Republicans have.

[LibCampFireClub 635]

Boehner is the hardest ####### the Republicans have.

Did it make you squeal like a pig?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Did what?

[LibCampFireClub 635]

Did what?

It's okay. There's nothing wrong with you enjoying a rooster in or out of his hen house.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Are you being strange?

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Well, I guess that means that Obamacare is finally settled. They're not seeing that as a winning mid-term issue anymore.

[UncleBeer 244]

Well, I guess that means that Obamacare is finally settled. They're not seeing that as a winning mid-term issue anymore.

The GOP may not be finding it a winning issue, but I'd bet money the Democrats are gonna find it a losing issue come the midterms.

[Sousuke 1,214]

Sure I agree that the GOP voting record is abysmal. But I find this strong arming by the administration regarding legitimate requests by congress (on multiple issues / possible cover ups) is frankly threatening how are government operates. They are just continuing and expanding the policies of Bush and what makes them worse then Bush, is that they promised unprecedented transparency.

[UncleBeer 244]

Now that the Benghazi story has been forced to the fore (thanks, Judicial Watch! Congress would never have gotten 'round to it), blogger Andy McCarthy wonders where the preznit was the night of the attacks:

Outnumbered and fighting off wave after jihadist wave, Americans were left to die in Benghazi while administration officials huddled, not to devise a rescue strategy, but to spin the election-year politics. The most powerful and capable armed forces in the history of the world idled, looking not to their commander-in-chief but to a State Department that busied itself writing press releases about phantom Islamophobia. The president of the United States, the only constitutional official responsible for responding, was nowhere to be found.

Turns out the preznit was engaged in the vital task of debate prep, and couldn't be bothered to wander all the way down to the situation room to deal with the Benghazi crisis. I mean: a preznit's got to keep his priorities straight, right?

Edited May 3, 2014 by UncleBeer