Republicans have no new ideas but denigrate those lost in Benghazi

Democrats must come out swinging against Republicans who waste time denigrating the people who died in the Benghazi attack on September 11, 2012, when Ambassador Stevens and others were killed in a fire fight. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was not in Benghazi, Libya when Ambassador Sullivan was tragically killed with others, but Republicans want to put her at the scene of the incident, because they don't want her to run for the office of President of the United States.  

Rather than create inspiring ideas to help the American electorate to have confidence in their right wing leadership, Republicans are, instead, obsessed with denigrating the Benghazi deaths. They're bringing the ghosts of those who were killed back from the dead, exploiting them as hearsay evidence, in an investigation where no credible witnesses are able to provide first person accounts about what happened at that deadly attack. Congress is intending to conduct even more hearings about the horrible Benghazi tragedy.   

Let's get this right. Republicans don't care what happened in Benghazi. Obviously, they're insensitive to the feelings of the families of those who were killed in the Benghazi attacks. Republicans don't even care about what happened in Benghazi.  

Instead, Republicans are intent on a campaign to intimidate Mrs. Hillary Clinton, by creating a massive misinformation campaign, so she'll be pressured against a 2016 run for President. 

The Christian Science Monitor reports that the Republican-led congressional investigations of the issue known simply as “Benghazi” are becoming a major political irritation for the Obama White House. It gets in the way of the “Year of Action” – government by executive order – President Obama is touting as his way of dealing with what he sees as an obstructive Congress.

Consequently, rather than governing or supporting jobs creating legislation, Benghazi is taking up wasteful time and become a priority in their list of obstructionist tactics against Hillary Clinton. They're more interested wasting money on a Benghazi investigation, a 2012 tragedy, rather creating new ideas for moving America forward.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R) of California, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, issued a subpoena intended to force Clinton’s successor – Secretary of State John Kerry – to testify before the panel on Benghazi.

Meanwhile, House Speaker John Boehner says he'll establish a special committee to investigate the Benghazi attack.

Will Clinton, Secretary of State at the time of the Benghazi attack, be invited (or compelled) to testify? She’s not one to shrink from a political attack, and the former US Senator certainly knows how to navigate a politically-charged investigative committee room.

But as Slate’s Dave Weigel tweeted, “The nice thing about having a Benghazi select committee is you can roll it over into the Hillary presidency.”  (In other words - Republicans will use Mrs. Clinton's Benghazi testimony in negative campaign ads. But they won't invest money in educational campaign infomercials to help Americans to understand how Republican can improve our human condiditon. For a political party fixated on tax cuts, the Republicans sure know how to waste tax money on chasing Don Quixote style windmills.)

The recent revival of the Benghazi blame-game came with the unearthing of an e-mail written shortly after the attack by deputy White House national security advisor Ben Rhodes. The purpose of the e-mail was to help prepare then-national security advisor Susan Rice for a round of TV news show in which she would be the first senior official to offer the administration’s view of the attack.

The e-mail stressed that Ms. Rice should say Benghazi was prompted by a video insulting to Muslims that had sparked widespread protests in the region. Rice’s goal should be to “underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure of policy,” Mr. Rhodes wrote. Another goal should be to “reinforce the President and Administration’s strength and steadiness in dealing with difficult challenges.”

Republicans have jumped all over that. Meanwhile, the facts abotu Benghazi are no clearer today than they were on September 11, 2012,  when the tragedy happened.

"What was the purpose of this email?" Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) of South Carolina asked on CBS's "Face the Nation" Sunday. "To protect the White House politically from the damage that could've been done from the truth coming out about Benghazi, six, seven weeks before the [2012] election…. They created a political smoke screen."

Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D) of California suggested that Democrats may boycott Speaker Boehner’s special committee on Benghazi. "It's a tremendous red herring and a waste of tax payer resources," Mr. Shiff said.

America's electorate must demand ideas and progressive legislation instead of muckraking the past, for the purpose of achieving political brinkmanship.

Even worse, Republican muckraking is denigrating those who were killed in Benghazi, without just cause. One email written in 2012, in the heat of the aftermath of the Benghazi incident, is no smoking gun. Rather, it's a red herring and Republican should be forced to abandon their witch hunts against Mrs. Clinton, because....she was not there, in Benghazi....and those who were, are no longer alive.