Disband the Benghazi Committee - By ADAM B. SCHIFF

[DonViejo]

Washington — NOT long after it was formed last year, members of the Select Committee on Benghazi gathered to meet privately with family members of the four Americans killed on that dreadful night in Libya in 2012. The meetings were emotional, and the chairman assured those present that the committee would be scrupulously nonpartisan and devoted to finding out the truth of what had happened.

Instead, the Select Committee became little more than a partisan tool to influence the presidential race, a dangerous precedent that will haunt Congress for decades. This is all the more painful when you consider how grievously the committee has let down those families, along with the rest of the American people.

On rare occasions, Congress has determined that an issue is of such surpassing significance that a focused, resource-intensive inquiry is called for, and it creates a special investigatory committee. Among the very first was one formed after the election of George Washington in order to investigate the disastrous defeat of the St. Clair expedition in the 1791 Battle of Wabash. Since then, Congress has convened select committees to investigate everything from Teapot Dome to Pearl Harbor, from Watergate to Hurricane Katrina.

With some exceptions, these committees have attempted to conduct their work in a bipartisan way, issuing consensus reports signed by both Democrats and Republicans. They have had well-defined scopes, moved quickly and dissolved when they were done. Congressional inquiries into Hurricane Katrina, Pearl Harbor and Iran-contra were all completed in less than a year. Even the bipartisan 9/11 Commission established by Congress produced its report in 19 months.

When the House speaker, John A. Boehner, announced the creation of the Select Committee in May 2014, he claimed it would “ensure the American people have the truth about the terrorist attack.” He took this step, despite the fact that eight standing congressional committees had already investigated the attacks, as had the independent Accountability Review Board.

-snip-
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/04/opinion/disband-the-benghazi-committee.html?_r=0

[pampango]

1. The Benghazi 'investigation' is starting to sound a lot like the Whitewater 'investigation'

targeted at another Clinton. Endless 'investigation' of ever-changing topics.

[gratuitous]

7. It sounds like Glengarry Glen Ross to me

Dead-end cold calls to tapped-out prospects by no-hopers wishing the home office would give them the more promising Glengarry leads. But they can't have the new leads until they meet the unrealistic goal set by out-of-touch management.

Now, if Alec Baldwin would come into a committee hearing and scream at everyone about how "coffee is for closers," maybe something significant would happen.

[spanone]

2. Benghazi Investigation Spends Fortune to Harass Hillary Clinton

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027138408

[Gothmog]

3. This committee is a witchhunt

[bigwillq]

4. Let's move on.

Nothing to see here.

[Botany]

5. It is a witch hunt ..... end of story

"After 16 months and more than $4 million, the committee has gained no additional
insight into the attacks in Benghazi. It has nothing new to tell the families of those
killed or the American people."


snip

"But it does have emails. Lots of emails. Some of them are from former Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton. But none of her emails tell us anything of consequence regarding the events of Sept. 11,
2012. They don’t substantiate the bogus theory that the State Department ordered the military to
“stand down” or that there was gun running, or that the secretary somehow interfered with the
ecurity provided at the diplomatic facility or annex."

"Nor were any of the secretary’s emails marked classified at the time she received them."

[joeybee12]

6. Some rep needs to be on the House floor and call this

the partisan witch hunt that it is...over and over until the Repuke bullies back down.