The Devious Road to Benghazi, One More Time.

Today, the American people will be asked to chip tens of thousands of dollars more towards the more than $20 million already squandered by Republicans in their witch hunt against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, allegedly over the Benghazi tragedy

TIME:

Yes, Americans died in Benghazi. But the more than $20 million spent—State has spent more than $14 million responding to Benghazi requests and Gowdy’s committee along has spent $4.7 million, never mind the seven other congressional investigations—in investigating that fact has less to do with their deaths than the political reality that gotcha points make for great television and we’re in the midst of a presidential campaign.

As Clinton appears before the House Select Committee on Benghazi to answer questions about the Sept. 11, 2012, attack in Libya, in what TIME refers to as an “anticipated nine-hour circus,” it may be the committee chair, South Carolina Republican Trey Gowdy, who “will face questions from Democrats about why the committee has spent nearly $5 million but this is the first hearing it has held. Gowdy has been accused of politicizing the process after House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy basically admitted as much in a Sept. 29 Fox News interview,” according to TIME.

TIME again:

In recent weeks, the hearing has become almost as much of a potential liability for Gowdy as it is Clinton. A front-page New York Times story asked why none of the other 11 planned hearings have happened and why Gowdy only personally attended 10 of the 53 interviews—only the ones relating to Clinton’s staff. New York Republican Rep. Richard Hanna said the committee was rigged to go after Clinton, a view echoed by a former committee staffer last week who claimed he was fired for questioning the Republicans’ relentless focus on the Democratic presidential frontrunner.

In the meantime, the Washington Post reports that Democrats on the House Select Committee on Benghazi on Wednesday “released the full transcript of the panel’s closed-door interview with former Hillary Clinton chief-of-staff Cheryl Mills, one day before Clinton is set to testify at a high-profile hearing on Capitol Hill.”

Why? Because, according to Democrats, “selective GOP leaks have painted a false picture of Clinton’s actions on the night of the Benghazi attacks in 2012.”

Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.). the panel’s ranking member: “Multiple Republican admissions over the past month have made clear to the American people what we have been witnessing firsthand inside the Select Committee for the past year — Republicans are spending millions of taxpayer dollars on a partisan campaign to damage Secretary Clinton’s bid for president.”

According to the Post, “The transcript, which totals 307 pages, provides a look at how Republicans approach private interviews with people in Clinton’s inner circle amid accusations that the committee is politically targeting the Democratic presidential front-runner.”

Finally, Gail Collins at the New York Times:

When Americans are killed in a terror attack, there’s a natural, righteous need to find out what went wrong. And the trick is to do it in a way that doesn’t debase the human loss with a nasty political scrum.
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For the right way, you can look at the 9/11 commission.
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For the wrong way, there’s the House Select Committee on Benghazi, which has spent the last few months as a walking disaster. Well, actually, a sitting disaster. Or a hardly-ever-bothering-to-show-up disaster. In all its postures, it’s been a textbook for bad intentions.

Collins continues with a description of the disgusting and offensive ad put out by the Stop Hillary PAC:

It featured photos of the four men who died in the attack on the American diplomatic mission, seemingly speaking from the grave to Clinton. “I’d like to ask you why you ignored calls for help in Benghazi and then four Americans were murdered,” says a voice, while the picture of C.I.A. contractor Glen Doherty is on the screen. In the end, a picture of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens appears, while a voice says: “But Mrs. Clinton, I can’t. What difference does it make?” And then there’s his headstone.
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The relatives were, of course, horrified. “It’s an insult to someone who is dead,” Stevens’s mother told The Washington Post, adding that she’d sue the makers if she could.
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But she can’t. The only thing that controls people like Stop Hillary PAC is a national consensus that there are places you just don’t go when it comes to political exploitation of American deaths…