Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA) is absolutely right and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s calculating congressional testimony this week confirms it: Congress must appoint a select committee to investigate the terrorist attack in Benghazi on September 11, 2012.
Why did the Obama Administration wait 134 days to send their supposed point-person Hillary Clinton to testify on Capitol Hill about what happened in Libya when four American heroes lost their lives in a battle against Islamic terrorists? Are the White House and State Department so incompetent that it takes more than four months to get their stories straight? It’s an outrage.
The mainstream media should be ashamed for not demanding immediate answers. They were more enthralled with getting to the bottom of Beyoncé’s National Anthem sideshow this week. Our Democratic process suffers greatly when the media in this country ceases being skeptical toward our elected officials at the highest levels of government. With regard to Benghazi, President Obama and Secretary Clinton have taken full advantage of the correspondents and news anchors in their pockets.
The Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives is the only public watchdog left in America at the moment, and Congressman Wolf should be commended for believing that the Benghazi attack and botched response from the Obama Administration rises to the level of deserving a select committee. If the U.S. House doesn’t demand answers, who will? The Harry Reid-controlled U.S. Senate? The Obama Administration itself? The mainstream media?
At the Senate hearing this week, Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) deserves credit for having the guts to push Secretary Clinton on why the Obama Administration apparently misled the American people about what happened in Benghazi. Why didn’t they want to call it a terrorist attack?
Clinton’s answer under pressure speaks volumesabout a liberal’s mindset when it comes to labeling and combating Islamic terrorism:
With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans - was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they’d go kill some Americans… what difference at this point does it make?
The obvious truth here is that it makes a big difference if what occurred was a terrorist attack, which we now know it was. The fact that Secretary Clinton (and by all accounts, the rest of the Obama Administration) believes that what actually happened in Benghazi makes no difference is shocking. What does it say about this liberal foreign policy as it relates to Americans serving abroad? With a third of a year to prepare her testimony, don’t the American people and families of the victims deserve more than this from the Secretary of State?
Similarly, at the House hearing, Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC) asked a seemingly straight-forward and important question about why United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice was the Obama Administration’s voice on the Sunday talk show circuit after the attack instead of the proper choice, Secretary Clinton. Clinton’s response was to push back with a poor attempt at humor: “Going on the Sunday shows is not my favorite thing to do.”
That doesn’t pass the smell test. Rep. Wilson asked the question because the suspicion is that Clinton might have declined to appear on the shows because she was not willing to disingenuously label what happened as a spontaneous protest as opposed to a terrorist attack.
The sad truth is that the American people will never know the answer unless a select committee is appointed to get to the bottom of Benghazi. If you think America deserves better from its leaders at the highest levels of government, contact your representative in Congress and demand that a select committee be established that will once and for all provide accountability for the Benghazi tragedy. Support House Resolution 36.