This is my script or you can listen here.
Let me reveal some bias here. Even though I am doing this piece on Benghazi, because I feel I have something logical and common sense to say about it, I am also doing this because I will get a ton of response.
My vocal right-wing friends will call me an Obama shill. My left-wing friends will call me weak for caving into loud mouths. And unfortunately, both sides will shade or distort so-called facts.
That’s why I am in favor of the new special House investigation into Benghazi. It needs to be done. But it needs to be done correctly.
Here’s what we’ve seen so far. It’s been all about the money. Political money. Special interests wanting to put their person in the White House. From both sides. Again we see — there is no difference between Republicans and Democrats. Let me explain.
I think there IS — or could be — something there — in the horrible episode in Benghazi. And yes there needs to be an investigation. First, four people died in service to our country. Second, there are good indications that the Obama White House did change the talking points for political expediency – before the 2012 campaign. Sure, playing politics isn’t a shock. But playing politics around the deaths of Americans is something we need to ask questions about. And we also need to be suspicious of a White House that won’t work with the committee.
From my research – through the maze of political bias – I am currently seeing this: If there is a crime it is more a crime of incompetence and omission — not corruption. To be able to micromanage a small outpost in a wayward country like Libya – where we have wanted to reduce our presence — is also something to consider. Again an investigation into these new White House emails could prove that wrong – or prove something worse.
But right now the evidence points to mismanagement more than anything else. And even though I want to know if politics was played in the cover-up, I am more interested in whether security preparations were ignored and if rescue efforts were really stalled.
If there was gross and willful mismanagement that led to these deaths, then let the trials begin.
But we should be just as suspicious of the Republicans as we are the Obama White House.
Benghazi might have resonated as an issue with all Americans earlier – with real teeth — if Republicans had been honest messengers. All the “Benghazi alarms” sounded like more whack-job talking points like Obama’s birth certificate and Obama’s socialist Muslim past.
Benghazi seemed like – from some corners of the GOP — an effort to end the Obama presidency – and not the exploration for the truth – or any real concern for the four Americans who died.
Benghazi also seems like a political opportunity to end the apparent 2016 campaign of Hillary Clinton. Would Republicans be as anxious to get this going if Hillary was not the presidential candidate in 2016? If this drags into 2017, then we will have the answer that it is politics. And would they be as strident – if another Democrat was running who was not in the administration and not Secretary of State?
Sure, Obama was running on cleaning up terrorism and diminishing al Qaeda. He had killed Osama bin Laden. He had pulled out of Iraq. He was pulling out of Afghanistan. Benghazi did not fit that narrative. So I don’t have a problem with the GOP going after this as a political issue. But I think most of us think the GOP is a little hypocritical when the same GOP did not go after George W. Bush when he claimed weapons of mass destruction in Iraq which led to far more deaths and billions of wasted taxpayer money.
It’s just as hypocritical to side completely with Chris Christie for allegedly closing a bridge – possibly risking lives in New Jersey — even though he says he was not aware of it happening under his watch. Being aware of small outpost in Benghazi thousands of miles away compared to not seeing a major traffic tie-up on a bridge a few miles away – is also politically short-sighted and myopic. The only similarity between these two: we don’t know all the details; and politics is taking over rational thinking.
At times, the GOP sounds like Donald Sterling calling someone else a racist.
And here’s what taints everything – on both sides. It is the hypocrisy of special interest money.
The Obama White House was protecting their benefactors who had put so much money into his campaign — and were at the point of possibly losing that campaign over a disaster like Benghazi.
The GOP appears to be only pushing this because they are looking ahead to Hillary 2016. And the reality is – she might not even run.
The other factor is the ridiculous fiscal policy we have put ourselves under — thanks to both Republicans and Democrats.
Security at those different embassies was reduced because of the sequester. If we had a solid financial policy this might not have happened.
What we need is short-term investment and long-term cost reduction namely Medicare. Unfortunately both parties are playing to senior citizens. They will not tell them the truth of the financial tsunami that is about ready to hit. Instead they are playing politics with a situation where fourAmericans are dead.
The bottom line for a citizens is this. We need to watch these congressional hearings and investigations carefully. We need to make sure these investigations are real investigations and not political witch-hunts for the sake of politics as usual – on both sides.
It doesn’t serve anyone.
Usually at this point of the segment, I say give me your take. I don’t really need to – on this one. Here comes the flood of vitriole.
Stay informed not inflamed.
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