Really Bad Idea: The "Benghazi Watchdog" Fundraising Ploy

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by: Colorado Pols

Politico reports, as whatever moral high ground Republicans may have enjoyed in the much-politicized investigation(s) of the 2012 terrorist attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya is ceded:

A number of Republican candidates and conservative groups have openly used the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks in Benghazi, Libya, as a cash grab. And that’s likely to continue despite a strongly worded rebuke from the new chairman of the Republican select committee assigned to investigate the response to the attacks.

Gowdy, a South Carolina Republican, commented on MSNBC Wednesday that he and fellow Republicans should not fundraise off “the backs of four murdered Americans” — creating a new standard by which the party can be judged and opening the GOP up to charges of past, present and future hypocrisy.

That’s put the party in an awkward spot. Republicans on Capitol Hill are eager to lend the looming committee investigation into the murder of four Americans an air of sobriety, dignity and seriousness. But political strategists are eager to mobilize the GOP base and amp up grassroots fundraising by capitalizing on the base’s outrage over how the Obama administration handled the attacks.

The desire by Republicans to exploit the deaths of four Americans in the attack on the Benghazi consulate for political purposes has overshadowed from the start any legitimate interest in getting to the bottom of what happened, resulting in a loss of credibility for Republicans doggedly "investigating" the incident. One of the first victims of this was Mitt Romney, who tried and failed embarrassingly to gin the Benghazi attacks into an electoral issue. Romney's overwrought and factually deficient freakout about Benghazi set the stage for what was to follow. How can one compare any ex post facto spinning that may have occurred here with the lies that led to thousands of dead Americans in Iraq–just to cite one example? The rank hypocrisy, and the obvious goal of making Benghazi stick to Republicans' biggest political targets–President Barack Obama and likely 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton–severely undermines Republicans with an already deeply cynical public.

We're pretty sure that was the case before they tried to raise money off it.

8 thoughts on “Really Bad Idea: The “Benghazi Watchdog” Fundraising Ploy”

Diogenesdemar says:

May 8, 2014 at 6:52 pm

Center Ring at the Republican Circus

The hottest competition in Washington this week is among House Republicans vying for a seat on the Benghazi kangaroo court, also known as the Select House Committee to Inflate a Tragedy Into a Scandal. Half the House has asked to “serve” on the committee, which is understandable since it’s the perfect opportunity to avoid any real work while waving frantically to right-wing voters stomping their feet in the grandstand.

They won’t pass a serious jobs bill, or raise the minimum wage, or reform immigration, but House Republicans think they can earn their pay for the rest of the year by exposing nonexistent malfeasance on the part of the Obama administration. On Thursday, they voted to create a committee tospend “such sums as may be necessary” to conduct an investigation of the 2012 attack on the consulate in Benghazi, Libya. The day before, they voted to hold in contempt Lois Lerner, the former Internal Revenue Service official whom they would love to blame for the administration’s crackdown on conservative groups, if only they could prove there was a crackdown, which they can’t, because there wasn’t.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/09/opinion/center-ring-at-the-republican-circus.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0

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dwyer says:

May 8, 2014 at 7:55 pm

Again, I will post the YouTube video of Gregory Hicks testimony about what happened on his watch in Benghazi. Please be as familiar with these facts as we are with the winner of the last Super Bowl. Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tT4LFYLiBw

I heard a truly chilling comment on Fox by a typical blonde talking head. To paraphrase, “We have to find out what Chris Stevens was doing in Benghazi anyway.” WTF!!!!! What the Ambassador was doing is not necessarily public information. It should not even be addressed. This is why and how the Republicans in their mad drive to power are willing to risk the very security of serving foreign service people all over the world as well as people in countries all over the world who act in secret to help America.

This is not a damm soap opera.

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marklane1351 says:

May 8, 2014 at 10:21 pm

Americans are dead, send money now, and vote Republican.

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1. Andrew Carnegie says:
  
  May 9, 2014 at 10:42 am
  
  As opposed to a few years back:
  
  Americans are dead, send money now, and vote Dem?
  
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  1. DawnPatrol says:
    
    May 9, 2014 at 11:33 am
    
    A. We GOTPers didn't do that, and never do things like that
    
    B. We're just as slimy as the people we accuse of being slimy, even as we pretend not to be slimy. We are, at best, not an iota better than our enemies.
    
    Pick one, asshole. There's no "C."
    
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    1. Diogenesdemar says:
      
      May 9, 2014 at 3:19 pm
      
      I guess that if I had to pick one asshole, it'd be A & C . . .
      
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Sunmusing says:

May 9, 2014 at 6:56 am

The gop/baggers never had "moral high ground" on any issue…Slime only flows down hill….

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bullshit! says:

May 9, 2014 at 7:22 am

Attention America: Republicans are nothing but opportunistic doucherockets. The debate is over.

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