What's another Scandal?

When you’re losing an argument, the oldest trick in the book is to switch subjects… After all, if your argument lacks reason or a fact, that’s really the best you can do, I suppose. Fortunately, the right-wing of the Republican party has studied this form of “debate” well over the last 6 years and is ready to show you all how wrong the Administration really is… with another Benghazi select committee after they determine the outcome and then try to ferret out the “truth”- as long as it corresponds to their fact less narrative. What is the narrative? That Hillary Clinton and the administration engaged in a massive conspiracy and this the only way they can hurt the prospective nominee that their candidates need to raise some serious cash. This makes me wonder why the Democrats don’t focus on the complete waste of tax payer dollars spent by the Republicans on baseless scandals.

Despite the fact that there has been committee hearing and reports galore nothing has been uncovered resembling a cover-up. Confusion and poor handling in the aftermath yes, but no criminal cover-up to win an election as Republicans would have you believe. Instead of actually trying to get to the bottom of what happened, the Rep. Issa’s House Oversight Committee decided that the best way to move forward was to lambast the administration and Secretary Clinton at every turn. It’s an election year and nothing riles up the base for voting and fundraising like a good witch hunt. Now even Speaker Boehner’s gotten into the act by establishing a special subcommittee aimed at “getting to the bottom of it”. What a joke. We’ve gone through this before and they’ve had hearings and committees. The issue isn’t that they haven’t gotten to the “bottom” of it. The issue is that their witnesses aren’t saying what they want to hear. The committee isn’t even going to be evenly split between Rs and Ds. There’s nothing legitimate about it. The sole purpose of this committee is to roast Hillary before the 2016 cycle kicks up and fire up the base for the midterms. If they get stuck on Benghazi, they might forget that the ACA is working better than predicted with 8 million sign-ups and the lowest uninsured rate ever polled by Gallup. They might forget that their party has put the brakes on Congressional action to spite the President. But by god, they won’t forget Benghazi, Benghazi, or Benghazi. Anytime it starts to fade the House Republicans just whip up a new committee. The fact that they’re using the death of four Americans to raise money should disgust voters on both sides.

The Select committee is nothing more than a sham to keep pressure on Hillary going into 2016 and raise money. The reason they’re so dead set on crushing her reputation is simple- they know they can’t beat her. Ever since Chris Christie imploded over Bridgegate, Republicans have lost one of the few challengers who could fight Hillary on the national stage. The party leadership knows that while the base might love Ted Cruz or Rand Paul, the chances of them winning are slim to nil in a good year. Like I said, if you can’t win in a fair fight, change the argument. That’s all the select committee on Benghazi is. They have nothing to run on with unemployment at 6.3%, the ACA with over 8 million enrolled and the failures of Congress, so they’ve got to try and bring the other guy down.

Reprinted from 5th District State Sen. Curt Thompson's (D-Norcross) blog. Thompson represents parts of unincorporated Duluth, Norcross, Tucker, and Lawrenceville. Also, check the Senator out on Facebook and Twitter.