In Congressional hearings, the aggrieved party vies to discredit the witness while the witness's party/supporters try to put the best possible face on the subject matter. Predictably, mainstream-media outfits saw no harm done vis-a-vis Clinton, notwithstanding that she was skewered royally by the facts presented, everything from her mismanagement (insufficient security) to—even worse—her pathetic lying not just to the nation but to the families of the four victims about what happened. Fox News could be expected—virtually alone among the biggies—to present the sordid picture factually and conservatively.
The democrat position in the hearing was that the hearing itself was a waste of taxpayer money since other hearings had already been held, but the dems didn't mention that the previous hearings were held before Clinton's damning emails, hidden on her private server for years, were exposed after it was learned that she had conducted government business via personal emails rather than through the required government facilities, perhaps because of extreme paranoia.
Some emails, both sent and received, were read in the hearing and were highly instructive (and hugely embarrassing for her and others, assuming they can feel shame) not only regarding Benghazi but vis-a-vis the intense jealousy and mean-spirited acts and language among government officials as well as their obsession with place and power. Clinton has been virtually canonized by the mainstream media, so she could afford to be at ease because she knew the major newspapers and TV outlets would portray her as a saint. Indeed, Congressman Smith all but sang Ave Maria to her in his witless babblings.
Sid Blumenthal, described as a Clinton friend, applied to the Obama administration for a job but was turned down. He and Hillary had a voluminous email correspondence, however, including his suggestions as to what to do. By email, he referred to Obama top aide Donlan's “babbling rhetoric” and described former defense secretary Gates as a “mean, vicious little %$#@&^.” Blumenthal, with business interests in Libya, emailed that the war [Libya] should be ramped up or the election in 2012 would be lost. Gates, who warned against the war, was in Russia when it started and described it as “on the fly” (without planning) and has stated that Clinton had no post-war plan but “played it by ear.” Libya today is a disaster.
For Clinton, the hearing was all ho-hum—been there, done that. She dissolved in laughter when asked if she had been alone at home the night of the massacre, reminding of her attack of raucous laughter during the Jake Tapper interview (CNN) when he dared to mention the emails, whereupon a Congresswoman said it was no laughing matter whether or not she had had other officials with her. She hadn't. Indeed, in the midst of the tragedy she had gone home to spend the night and was not in any “situation room” as she had been when the (more important?) bin Laden assassination was conducted.
This amounted to deserting her post. She said she talked with the president once during the day and not again. He's never said where he was so it's a safe bet he also deserted his post, shooting hoops perhaps...who knows? There certainly was no “situation room” emergency for either him or Clinton even though four Americans had been murdered and others put in mortal danger or wounded. The commander-in-chief and top aide were AWOL, no laughing matter.
Clinton was sort of speechless when reminded that, though she had no way of knowing what else might happen in Benghazi that night, she took no actions toward alerting the proper entities, such as special-ops groups, to move fast. Actually, the commander-in-chief should have been active at this point but no one knows even now, three years later, where he was.
The emails revealed that while Clinton was emailing her family and an Egyptian official that she knew the Benghazi dust-up was an attack by an “al Qaeda-like group,” she told the American people that it was a film-induced protest. Such deviousness represented an amoral approach that renders her totally unfit for any office, much less president. The emails also showed that after the attack and the big LIE Clinton virtually ignored the “Libya problem,” a total failure, with the emails showing that she was the American official who drove the nation illegally and anti-constitutionally into Libya, with a weak president mostly in acquiescence.
Strangely, at nearly nine p.m. (everybody ready to leave) in an effort to invalidate the hearing and at ranking member Cummings' behest, Clinton virtually eulogized Thomas Pickering, who, along with Admiral Mullen, conducted the Accountability Review Board concerning Benghazi in 2012, also amazingly mentioning Mullen since he appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee in 2011 as Joint Chief Chairman and insisted that the U.S. should take no action against Libya but was ignored. Thankfully, Clinton was stopped (fit of coughing, no thanks for that) or the thing might have gone and on.
Conclusion: Clinton was either hugely out of her depth or just didn't give a fig.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
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