Benghazi Special Investigation

You can almost feel sorry for Trey Gowdy. Besides the hideous haircut I am sure the Republican bosses don't like him failing to find anything. This will probably end his career.

farley3k wrote:

You can almost feel sorry for Trey Gowdy. Besides the hideous haircut I am sure the Republican bosses don't like him failing to find anything. This will probably end his career.

I doubt it.

Like I said, they need someone to keep the fight going for the next 8 years.

farley3k wrote:

You can almost feel sorry for Trey Gowdy. Besides the hideous haircut I am sure the Republican bosses don't like him failing to find anything. This will probably end his career.

It's a testament to team politics that Gowdy still happens to be the "no BS, no spin politician" darling of many people in my family.

Bloo Driver wrote:
farley3k wrote:

You can almost feel sorry for Trey Gowdy. Besides the hideous haircut I am sure the Republican bosses don't like him failing to find anything. This will probably end his career.

It's a testament to team politics that Gowdy still happens to be the "no BS, no spin politician" darling of many people in my family.

The same way people felt about Ken Starr?

farley3k wrote:

You can almost feel sorry for Trey Gowdy. Besides the hideous haircut I am sure the Republican bosses don't like him failing to find anything. This will probably end his career.

I can't. He dug his own hole. He personally led this witch hunt because Clinton is a Democrat. I hope this buries him.

Fortunately for Trey Gowdy's career, all the right wing news sources are characterizing the new Benghazi report as a bombshell that continues to prove that Hillary Clinton hates America and all the good, true Americans that love America (ie white Republicans).

Well, the NRA didn't waste much time.

I don't agree with the premise but it was an effective ad.

This morning I saw "Hilary is a liar! Vote for Trump!" on Facebook.

I'm still blinking.

wordsmythe wrote:

This morning I saw "Hilary is a liar! Vote for Trump!" on Facebook.

I'm still blinking.

If you're going to vote for a liar, may as well vote for the one with the most flammable pants.

It is just about hate of Hillary as far as I can tell. It has nothing to do with anything except hate (earned or not)

Podunk wrote:

Fortunately for Trey Gowdy's career, all the right wing news sources are characterizing the new Benghazi report as a bombshell that continues to prove that Hillary Clinton hates America and all the good, true Americans that love America (ie white Republicans).

Yeah, while there's nothing of substance in the report, the GOP gave it a "Hillary is just a douchebag and just... just the worst, guys. That's what we found," cover letter that will end up being more important.

I am reading the report just like Gowdy wants me to and I'm not drawing the same conclusion as him. Well, certainly not to the extent he's trying to make it.

I mean, they are trying to take the phrase “efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others” to only mean the video. Holy crap is that some heavy handed lawyering. Clearly it can refer to the video and all other times people try and denigrate Islam when we get attacked by people who are Muslims. Like, duh.

Then there's where a memo that mislabeled protests as being in "Benghazi" instead of "Cairo". Oops. Conspiracy!

They're hanging most of their argument on stuff like that. It's crazy.

Yes, the Obama administration didn't send our people in to help and yes Rice ended up spinning it as related to the video, but while I find the former pretty horrendous the latter seems almost more like a mistake (or incompetence or bad communication) than a giant coverup:

The fact Rhodes concedes the third bullet point references Libya is important. The bullet point immediately prior references the video, allowing for easy connection and conflation of the video and the Benghazi attacks. This occurred in public statements by the administration prior to Rhodes’ memo, and, having seen this memo, Rice appeared to again connect the video and Benghazi the next day when she appeared on the talk shows.

If anything, it's pretty clear that Susan Rice f-ed up big time as she was poorly prepared for those talk shows (not her fault as far as I can tell) and then said some stuff which blew up.

Anyway, moving on.

moving on.

I bet we don't.

garion333 wrote:

Yes, the Obama administration didn't send our people in...

There weren't any assets--military or CIA--in the area that Obama could have sent in. Multiple Benghazi investigations have confirmed this.

So you admit he didn't send in people.

farley3k wrote:

So you admit he didn't send in people.

Trump would have sent in people. The best people.

farley3k wrote:

So you admit he didn't send in people.

Why you...

It's also why I don't think that the NRA ad was effective. The people who hate Hillary and think that she'd purposefully cause the death of Americans are the same people who would never vote for Hillary.

garion333 wrote:

Anyway, moving on.

Republicans are completely obsessed with the statements made about the attack being maybe linked to the video. Doesn't matter how equivocal the statements were, they take it as some kind of horrendous criminal LIE made to the American people, not to mention a failed attempt at a cover up. It's what this whole thing has been about and it hasn't gone away.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Anyway, moving on.

Republicans are completely obsessed with the statements made about the attack being maybe linked to the video. Doesn't matter how equivocal the statements were, they take it as some kind of horrendous criminal LIE made to the American people, not to mention a failed attempt at a cover up. It's what this whole thing has been about and it hasn't gone away.

They are literally holding a report in one hand that says they found no wrongdoing of the sort they expected, but are waving it and saying, "See, we knew all along she was to blame!" Trump has certainly lowered the bar for effort in politics, I guess.

Bloo Driver wrote:

Trump has certainly lowered the bar for effort in politics, I guess.

Trump's so powerful that he established the House Benghazi Committee 13 months before he began his 2016 presidential campaign.

Bloo Driver wrote:

Trump has certainly lowered the bar for effort in politics, I guess.

I wouldn't give him that much credit. Look at some of the muck raking of the 1920s and you see a pretty low bar there. I think people have this illusion that politics used to be more honorable.

farley3k wrote:
Bloo Driver wrote:

Trump has certainly lowered the bar for effort in politics, I guess.

I wouldn't give him that much credit. Look at some of the muck raking of the 1920s and you see a pretty low bar there. I think people have this illusion that politics used to be more honorable.

As noted elsewhere in this thread. Trump is the living embodiment of the journey/path the Republican Party set themselves on more than 2 decades ago. If anything about this committee and Trump can be compared it's just how ridiculous the GOP already was prior to Trump's rise.

farley3k wrote:
Bloo Driver wrote:

Trump has certainly lowered the bar for effort in politics, I guess.

I wouldn't give him that much credit. Look at some of the muck raking of the 1920s and you see a pretty low bar there. I think people have this illusion that politics used to be more honorable.

Or its that we're used to politicians who fake it on TV, playing nice and rarely saying anything gaffe worthy, so much so that Trump is a breathe of fresh air with his generally uncouth manner.

You could have made that argument before the Tea Party. Well, before Newt's Revolution. No, wait, before the '88 campaign...

farley3k wrote:
Bloo Driver wrote:

Trump has certainly lowered the bar for effort in politics, I guess.

I wouldn't give him that much credit. Look at some of the muck raking of the 1920s and you see a pretty low bar there. I think people have this illusion that politics used to be more honorable.

When I mean effort, I mean just at least giving the illusion of something credible. Politics has been dirty and full of myopic idiots for forever, but the truly blatant idiocy was usually confined to the lower tiers of this in recent memory. This whole Benghazi affair has been some relatively run of the mill stuff, but the whole bit with them waving a report around that confirms pretty much nothing they wanted and still acting like it does... I dunno.

Isn't it sad that we agree that politics is terrible but we just dis agree about if it is more terrible now than it was...?

OG_slinger wrote:
farley3k wrote:

So you admit he didn't send in people.

Why you...

It's also why I don't think that the NRA ad was effective. The people who hate Hillary and think that she'd purposefully cause the death of Americans are the same people who would never vote for Hillary.

Of course they wouldn't vote for Hillary, but they need to also vote against her. That base isn't going to energize itself!

wordsmythe wrote:
OG_slinger wrote:
farley3k wrote:

So you admit he didn't send in people.

Why you...

It's also why I don't think that the NRA ad was effective. The people who hate Hillary and think that she'd purposefully cause the death of Americans are the same people who would never vote for Hillary.

Of course they wouldn't vote for Hillary, but they need to also vote against her. That base isn't going to energize itself!

And thus, you get sh*t like...
IMAGE(http://66.media.tumblr.com/2abb1f52277916c85a6c6be2030a745a/tumblr_o9joxgKQ6n1rr5t33o1_1280.gif)

I kind of agree. The media should be talking about it more - about how they found no wrongdoing, about how Republican's used 7 million dollars of taxpayer money to try to sink Hillary in the polls, about how it was just a partisan witch hunt.

Republicans are better off trying to sweep this under the carpet because it shows clearly how they don't give a hoot about fiscal responsibility - instead it is a blatant attempt to use the death of three Americans to sink Hillary's presidential run.