Mother’s Day Open Thread [5.11.14]

Filed in Open Thread by on May 11, 2014

Happy Mother’s Day!

I’ve been following this lastest round of Benghazi bullshit from the wingnuts (apparently their All Obamacare, All of the Time strategy is bombing), and was intrigued by this story from Major Garrett (former Fox Noise WH reporter) on CBS. Apparently the Republicans changed the quotes from the email that they point to as a smoking gun — meaning that they lied to re-ignite this thing and get the attention of the media. Of course, the media will bypass the fact that they were lied to in order to get their front seats to all of the falsified spectacle (It doesn’t appear to me that CBS even tweeted out their own story on this.) Take a look:

On Friday, Republicans leaked what they said was a quote from Rhodes: “We must make sure that the talking points reflect all agency equities, including those of the State Department, and we don’t want to undermine the FBI investigation.”

But it turns out that in the actual email, Rhodes did not mention the State Department.

It read: “We need to resolve this in a way that respects all of the relevant equities, particularly the investigation.”

Republicans also provided what they said was a quote from an email written by State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland.

The Republican version quotes Nuland discussing, “The penultimate point is a paragraph talking about all the previous warnings provided by the Agency (CIA) about al-Qaeda’s presence and activities of al-Qaeda.”

The actual email from Nuland says: “The penultimate point could be abused by members to beat the State Department for not paying attention to Agency warnings.”

So how does anyone think that this isn’t a charade when Republicans have to rewrite the evidence to be able to get attention?

And while I’m talking about Benghazi, where are the Democrats on this? I get that they are weighing their options for participating in this charade, but what I want to know is when they start running against a Congress that has multiple sham hearings on Obamacare and on Benghazi and still doesn’t care about employment for Americans or bettering the economy. There are no polls that show that Americans think that Benghazi is a top problem and tons of them that show that Americans to think that the economy and employment are. The GOP is hugely vulnerable on this and I want to know when they get beat up for not doing their jobs.

What interests you today?

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"You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas." -Shirley Chisholm

Comments (8)

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  1. bamboozer says:

    Benghazi will bomb just as it has for well over a year, the new “trial” will go nowhere but the GOP base will still lap it up. Then it’s back to Obamacare as the end of the world. Problem is Americans really do want a higher minimum wage, a real jobs bill and a functional government, things the Republicans could care less about. 2014 will be nothing like 2010 if for no other reason than the low hanging fruit in red and red leaning states has already been picked. I expect a mixed bag for both sides, then the war goes on anew.

  2. Jason330 says:

    So now there is a legitimate need for an investigation, to find out who doctored the email and have that person career ended.

  3. cassandra_m says:

    The NYT Editorial Board has this to say:

    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.

    This is before the CBS News discovery of the rewriting of the email.

  4. Liberal Elite says:

    The Dems should lay low and then use the committee to greatly embarrass the GOP. That’s the best way to explode this story. Suddenly being on the committee won’t be nearly so much fun for those Republicans…

  5. Aint's Taking it Any More says:

    True believer are immune to embarassment. It’s a proven fact.

    This story will hang around as long as Hillary Clinton is on the presidential path. If she wins that election, we’ll never hear the end of it.

  6. Geezer says:

    That CBS story you linked to is a year old.

  7. cassandra m says:

    It sure is. My apologies, everyone — a righteous rant that is a year late. It’s what I get for following news links from Facebook. Benghazi is still a rabbit’s hole, and it is still remarkable to me that this circus has any credibility. Beyond being a circus, that is.