Republican House Speaker John Boehner appointed seven Republicans to serve on the House select committee to continue the investigation into the terrorist attacks in Benghazi, which resulted in the deaths of 4 Americans.
Democrats have continued to oppose the creation of the select committee, as unnecessary and a waste of taxpayers time, but are struggling to decide if they will boycott or send only a token representative.
Boehner announced that Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina will be the Chairperson of the committee, and appointed Representatives Susan W. Brooks of Indiana, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Mike Pompeo of Kansas, Martha Roby of Alabama, Peter Roskam of Illinois and Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia.
Gowdy is a seasoned federal prosecutor, and with the rest of the committee being all lawyers.
House Minority Leader Rep Nancy Pelosi reacted to the select committee, by issuing a press release, “The attacks in Benghazi were a tragedy and we join the families of those who died in continuing to mourn their loss. As we go forward, we should always act in a manner respectful of their loss and to prevent future loss of life.”
Continuing, “There has been a review at the State Department by the Accountability Review Board. There were two bipartisan reviews in the United States Senate, and four partisan reviews in the House of Representatives.”
Pelosi further stated, “If this review is to be fair, it must be truly bipartisan. The panel should be equally divided between Democrats and Republicans as is done on the House Ethics Committee. It should require that witnesses are called and interviewed, subpoenas are issued, and information is shared on a bipartisan basis. Only then could it be fair.”
The Accountability Review Board has come under criticism for not interviewing key senior officials to include then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Also not interviewed were key military personnel on the ground in Libya and Germany the location of U.S. Africa Command who has responsibility for operations in Libya.
Pelosi fails to remember that when she appointed a select committee while Speaker of the House on climate change, the committee had a majority of Democrats not equally divided as she is claiming now.
With the Republicans on the committee set they could over play their hand and risk the wrath of voters as happened in the past with the Clinton impeachment hearings which resulted in the Democrats gaining additional House seats in the 1998 mid-term elections.
In today’s Washington Post, syndicated writer Charles Krauthammer points out, “these hearings are a big political risk for Republicans. Going into the 2014 election, they stand to benefit from the major issues — Obamacare, the economy, chronic unemployment — from which Benghazi hearings can only distract. Worse, if botched like previous hearings on the matter, these hearings could backfire against the GOP, as did the 1998 Clinton impeachment proceedings. On purely partisan considerations, the hearings are not worth the political risk. But the country deserves the truth. They’ll get it if the GOP can keep the proceedings clean, factual and dispassionate. No speeches. No grandstanding. Gowdy has got to be a tough disciplinarian — especially toward his own side of the aisle.”
Democrats also have a political risk if they choose not to participate and more revelations come out like last week’s bombshell that the White House was more involved then it let on, could spell trouble; especially leading up to the 2016 presidential elections.
This also has huge political risk for presumably Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, if more is revealed about her involvement.
We will have to see what transpires in the months to come.
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