CARRY ON BENGHAZI: STOP HILLARY 2016, PART 2

Once again, with feeling, the whole issue of Benghazi was aired in the Congress. Chairman, Darrell Issa, of the House of Representative’s Oversight Committee, convened yet another hearing of the Benghazi tragedy. Not content that the initial hearings yielded no political gain it was a case of onwards into the breach. Issa trumpeted these hearings as the final nail in the coffins of the Democratic administration – and of course Hillary’s chances in 2016. He was going to present witnesses, that were originally muzzled. They would tell the real truth about Benghazi and the cover up.  Fox News was set to cover the whole day's hearings word for word.

There is so much hypocrisy in the whole circus that it is difficult to take the protagonists, who are lead by John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Fox News, whose claim that four life’s could have been saved, seriously. In fact Obama has advised the Republicans not to turn the issue into a circus but it is too late they already have. Senator Inhofe from Iowa even suggested that Obama should be impeached over the issue.

These are the same people that don’t give a hoot that 30,000 lives a year are lost from gun violence. These are the same Congressmen who stared the Newtown parents in their faces and did nothing about gun control. Yet somehow those currently governing must be replaced by these goons who, apparently, would not give two hoots if some maniac shot them in a theater having legally purchased a gun on the internet, a gun show or from their friendly neighbor. They also think it is ok not to actively try and prevent some fanatic shooting up political meetings and killing a judge and maiming one of their own colleagues for life. (Blog: The Tuscan Massacre and American Culture - Can There Be a Solution, January 2011).

These Congressmen are also the same crew that had not one criticism of the 21 attacks on embassies that took place during the Bush Administration. Eight of these were in Iraq so let us leave them out for the moment. In the other 13 attacks 84 people were killed. Three of the attacks took place in Karachi, Pakistan. To the best of Jay H. Ell’s knowledge no top professional Democratic diplomat was appointed to investigate these incidents even after the fact that two more occurred after the first one, in the same place, all in the space of 4 years. In the space of two years two took place in Saudi Arabia where were all these people then?

In addition they the same politicos that are responsible for decreasing the government spending for everything and that would include security for embassies!

BEFORE CARRYING ON TO BENGHAZI PART 2

Well first there was “Carry On Benghazi” part one.  (Blog; Stopping Clinton 2016 Starts at Benghazi, January 2013). The following was established there:

• Four members of the American State Department were killed in the consulate at Bhengazi.
• The initial Administration report told the world, with many qualifications and based on early intelligence, that the perpetrators were demonstrators who were protesting an anti Muslim video. Susan Rice, America’s UNO Representative who reports to Hillary, was the Administration’s spokesperson.
• As intelligence came in the report was found to be wrong, Ms Rice, the Secretary of State designate, was banished from political life. Apparently she was not as lucky as Bush, Rumsfeld, Condee Rice, Cheney, Powell and Wolpowitz who lead us into a war where over 30,000 were killed and trillions were spent. (Blog: The Iraqui War Deception and Its Aftermath, March, 2013). All those lucky people who were “mislead” for years by intelligence and then "mislead" everyone else, survived and carried on second terms in office.
• Clinton immediately ordered a report into the Benghazi incident. This was lead by Thomas Pickering a Republican career diplomat. He had plenty to say to prevent a future catastrophe in the form of 29 recommendations and criticisms of security decisions. Hillary accepted them all.
• Hillary said that Obama was not involved and she accepted responsibility
• Pickering maintained that the report into Benghazi investigated security decisions and Hillary Clinton was not involved in any of them.
• Congressional and Senatorial hearings were held where Hillary acquitted herself well. (This after being accused of faking a concussion to avoid appearing).
• Benghazi part one seemed to have settled Hillary’s problem and her approval ratings of over 60% remained steady. Everyone moved on except Issa, Boehner, McCain, Lindsey, McConnell, Fox News and all who believed that this cover up was greater than Watergate and Iran Contra combined. They licked their wounds and searched to find something else to revitalize Benghazi.

NOW CARRY ON BENGHAZI PART 2

Well let’s get back into Issa and his mind set, with all the pressing problems facing Congress, he thought, together with his colleagues, that Benghazi needed a sequel.  He decided to hold another 5 hour Congressional hearing. It was advertised everywhere and anywhere as the final expose of the cover up. Fox News was going to devote the whole day to cover the hearings.

The reason given for the reopening of the issue was that witnesses from the State Department, who had not been allowed to testify on Benghazi, were going to tell all. Darrell Issa predicted startling revelations. The star witness was to be a Gregory Hicks who was in Benghazi and had been ostensibly muzzled. (How Darrell got him unmuzzled to give a day of testimony only Darrell himself knows).

What emerged was that a justifiably angry Gregory Hicks gave his version of what happened that night in Benghazi. His story was not at odds with what is now acknowledged to be what took place. The Embassy was attacked by the Libyan version of El Qaeda. Mr. Higgs called the military for help and they did not come. The military have maintained that they could have not got there in time. Hicks stated that he also told Hillary Clinton what was going on. He was thus “embarrassed” by Susan Rice’s initial statement.

Another, presumably muzzled, witness, Ed Nordstom said he choked up when he heard Hillary Clinton maintain that it was irrelevant what Susan Rice had initially said was not “the issue”. Nordstrom, as had a few others, misinterpreted that this meant that Clinton was publicly expressing that she did not care that four of her department had been killed.  Nordstrom also maintained that the top Decision Makers in the State Department were not interviewed in the investigation ordered by Hillary Clinton. This statement cannot have too much credulity, as there is no corroborating evidence to this effect, The statement implies that the Republican Thomas Pickering was in on the conspiracy selectively interviewing State Department officials. If that is so why was his report so scathing and the basis of four top officials being fired or resigning? Also why have these “top officials” not come forward?

DARREL’S DAMP SQUIB

It soon became obvious that nothing new was emerging from Issa’s spectarama and Fox News must have heard the clicks of all those remotes and stopped their ongoing coverage of the spectacle. To add insult to injury none of the other channels were giving it too much attention either. MSNBC would have had under the normal course of events covered it to give it’s mostly Democratic leaning political pundits an opportunity to comment on the proceedings.

The problem was not only nothing new happening at the Capitol but two sensational news stories were breaking. The salacious Jodi Arias murder trial was coming to a climax and the rescue of three Cleveland women that had been held captive for 10 years was being aired so that even Rush Limbaugh must have called it quits.

WHERE ARE WE NOW IN CARRY ON BENGHAZI?

• There is no doubt, for whatever reasons in those early days the Administration in the immediate aftermath, when they were receiving mixed messages, ascribed what Obama characterized as an “act of terror”, as having been perpetrated by protestors to an Anti – Muslim video. The initial Rice statement was qualified leaving room for a change in the aforementioned theory. No- one is denying that the initial theory was wrong so what is the deal?
• There is a new call that Obama should release the e- mails that he gave to both House and Senate Committees months ago. There obviously cannot be any political dynamite there or Darrell, or John, or Lindsey would have told us. So without much ado Obama released them. All they showed was how yhe various agencies involved bickered over what to give Rice to say.
• On the basis of the above the Republicans are still rating Hillary chanceless in 2016 and invoking the possibility of impeaching Obama.
• No one is too interested in this circus. According to a Pew report only 44% of the electorate are taking any notice.
• The Republicans really have to be desperate making this a central issue. Maybe it is one of the few issues that both wings of the party agree upon.

THE PREVIOUS ATTACKS ON THE CLINTONS AND RESULTS

The Clintons appear to be a particular red rag to the Republicans. The Republicans appear irrationally terrified of them. They created a massive bohaai over both Hillary’s and Bill’s involvement in a Whitewater land deal. Also they focused on the firing of Whitehouse travel agents and usage of FBI files.  After months and months of investigation and literally tens of millions spent, the Special Prosecutor, Kenneth Starr, found not one jot of malfiscience. However Starr, going off at a total tangent which had nothing to do with his mandate, found that Clinton lied under oath in a matter relating to a sexual relationship with an intern.

There were also endless smears that the Clintons had killed a former law partner of Hillary’s, presumably because he knew too much about Whitewater. No one could find a jot of evidence that that was true and every investigation lead to suicide.

If the objective was to impress the electorate it failed miserably. Only one third of the country supported the impeachment process in the first place.

The upshot of all that was that Bill Clinton was not removed and left office with the highest approval rating of a recent President. He is currently the most popular figure on the political scene, by far, and in every survey of Presidents he is rated just behind Lincoln, Jefferson and Washington. He now is internationally recognized for his Foundation that has tackled numerous problems such as AIDS. He was appointed by the UNO to be its ambassador to Haiti. He is also credited with ensuring Obama’s reelection.

Hillary at this stage is the favorite to be the next President. Her ratings have never been higher. It is thus obvious that the smear campaigns on the Clintons, thus far, have boomeranged and have merely served to increase their popularity.

WHERE ARE THE ATTACKERS NOW – LET HE WHO IS WITHOUT SIN CAST…

• Kenneth Starr, the Conservative jurist, who with tens of millions of tax payer money, pursued the Clinton’s to the nth degree and finally “got him” on a “lie” on his relationship with an intern, is currently the Dean of a Law School which charitably can be called second tier. It is fair to say that had he not been involved in this sordid affair and appeared to be so partisan he would have been the most viable Republican candidate for Chief Justice after Rehnquist had died. Mercifully the country was spared.
• The Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich had to resign as a result of ethical issues as well as his own extramarital affairs. His appointed successor Bob Livingston resigned almost immediately after his appointment as his extramarital affair was exposed. He had just called for Clinton’s resignation.
• Helen Chenowski, one of the first Republicans to call for Clinton’s impeachment and resignation, was exposed as having a six-year affair with a married man. Dan Burton another of the impeachment front-runners similarly had the tables turned on him.
• Henry Hyde, the self righteous and sanctimonious, Head of the House Judiciary Committee suffered the indignity of the exposure of his protracted extramarital affair with a married woman splashed all over the media. To his credit, (?), this did not deter him one jot.
• Bob Barr, a really vocal Prosecutor in the impeachment process, had to suffer the humiliation of an ex- wife saying that this vigorously pro life Congressman had forced her to have an abortion.
• Lindsey Graham, who has since moved onto the Senate, is out there on the fringe with his colleague John McCain going nowhere very fast.

So it is fair to say that no accuser nor the Republican Party have come out of these types of smear campaigns very well. On top of all of this the Clintons are very tough politicians. They do not believe in the Obama philosophy of “Teams of Rivals”. The Clintons take no prisoners. So Rand Paul and the like before you try and use this as your main plank in your 2016 election bid beware. You will mobilize the base, which is becoming less and less of a percentage of the electorate, but you will be thrashed in a General Election by an electorate which is growing more and more tired of the politics of smear when there are so many real problems facing the Country.

There are other issues with the Obama administration that Jay H. Ell will deal with in the future but he has the distinct impression that the Republicans will overplay their hand. (Major Republican media supporters like Bill O' Reilly and Charles Krauthammer agree with Jay H. Ell). 

The Republicans have to believe that the issues such as immigration, women’s rights, jobs, guns and the economy are far more important. Jay H. Ell is convinced that they will not as borne out that on Boehner’s legislative agenda is the 37^th motion to reverse Obamacare! Boehner has already spent 15% of the House Legislative time on an issue that is already law.....