Mike, will your blog be giving us your views on Benghazi one of these days?
And I thought I already did, when I asked a week or so ago:
Is "Benghazi" becoming the new "Whitewater?": A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.
Seriously, what is the "scandal?" What, if anything, is the president or the former secretary of state covering up? They massaged some talking points? Is that it? Really? Honestly, I can't for the life of me figure out what has the Republicans' undies in such a bunch.
My friend went on to say:
I think this Republican push on Benghazi is all about defeating Hillary if she is nominated in 2016.
To which I would reply: Yeah. Bingo! You got it. Isn't that obvious?
But the story is lingering.
When I went to visit my mother last weekend even she mentioned it (and how it would disqualify Hillary for the presidency in 2016). And I thought, So that's what they're saying on Fox News these days.
Okay, so the story won't go away. And my friend Tom wants to know what I think. So I began reading up on what conservatives were saying about Benghazi and I still keep asking myself, "What, exactly, is the scandal?"
I even went as far as reading Peggy Noonan's column in the Wall Street Journal yesterday, "The Inconvenient Truth About Benghazi." And the gist of it was:
What happened in Benghazi last Sept. 11 and 12 was terrible in every way.
No argument from me so far.
The genesis of the scandal?
Great. Now we're getting somewhere.
It looks to me like this:
The Obama White House sees every event as a political event. Really, every event, even an attack on a consulate and the killing of an ambassador.
That's it? That's the scandal? The White House politicizes everything? Really?
Couldn't she have just as easily written:
The Republicans see every event as a political event. Really, every event, even an attack on a consulate and the killing of an ambassador.
Ms. Noonan finishes by saying (my emphasis):
Will this story ever be completely told? Maybe not. But it's not going to go away, either. It's a prime example of the stupidity of all-politics-all-the-time. You make some bad moves for political reasons. And then you suffer politically because you made bad moves.
And I think she's right, although I would have written it this way:
It's a prime example of the stupidity of all-politics-all-the-time. The Republicans make some bad moves for political reasons. And then they suffer politically because they made bad moves.
Really, the right wing needs to get over this Hating-Obama-All-The-Time business. It's not getting them anywhere with that portion of the electorate that doesn't watch Fox.
What the Republican Party needs now isn't a scandal, it's an agenda. What do they want to do for the American people? Because without a positive agenda, the GOP will never return to power.
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