The Benghazi Hearing Scorecard: Republicans – 0, Hillary – Gazillion

Filed in National by on October 23, 2015

11 hours. That’s how long the Republicans took to question Hillary Clinton on Benghazi. And what did they walk away with? Let’s let Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), the chair of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, tell us:

“I think some of Jimmy Jordan’s questioning — well, when you say new today, we knew some of that already. We knew about the emails,” Gowdy said in response. “In terms of her testimony? I don’t know that she testified that much differently today than she has the previous time she testified.”

Shorter answer: They got nothing.

But Hillary Clinton got something. In fact, she got a lot. I watched the last three hours of the hearings last night. Talk about keeping your cool and looking Presidential. In the end, Republicans basically gave Hillary 11 hours of free press. Their hope was to bring her down, instead they strengthened her.

This letter from a TPM reader sums up my thoughts:

If a Democrat wins the 2016 election, her or his main job as I see it will be defending the achievements of the Obama adminsitration, which will surely be under even more sustained attack once he leaves office. Any major expansion to that legacy will need to be incremental given a hostile, partisan Congress that, at least in the House, is pretty much “locked in” by gerrymandering until the next redistricting cycle.In that light, I’m increasingly leaning toward Hillary, not so much based on what she believes but on her competence, both as a public official and as a politician who knows how to punch back.

That’s where I’m at. Good lord, the woman has stamina. Bet she wouldn’t whine about a 3 hour debate being too much! And she kept her cool under the GOP idiocy – Me? I was yelling at the TV. So much of the Republican questioning was unacceptable – and Rep. Elijah E. Cummings shamed them beautifully. (Go watch the video. Not kidding, go watch it.) And that was the entire point behind the 11 hours. It was a form of torture. It also was the Republican’s entire strategy: Wear her down and hope she cracks, then use the footage for their guy’s campaign. She didn’t give them that – and, let’s be honest, that was all yesterday was about. Don’t believe me? Reread Trey Gowdy’s statement. They got nothing. Because if they had something they would have been screaming it from the rooftops.

I was always going to support the Dem nominee, but I wasn’t that excited this time around. Her performance definitely pumped me up. The Benghazi issue is over. Hillary put it to bed.

 

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A stay-at-home mom with an obsession for National politics.

Comments (71)

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  1. Palomino says:

    I guess we watched different hearings. I saw a snide, rude canklebeast irritated for being called out for her bullshit. The (once) private emails to her daughter (AKA Diane Reynolds) proved most damning for her ability to tell the truth to the American people.

    Looking forward to watching the eventual nominee, Bernie Sanders, go down in flames against whatever biped the R’s put forth.

  2. liberalgeek says:

    Hillary locked up the nomination this week. Literally, 3 opponents dropped out (Webb, Biden and Chafee). And she got through an 11 hour grilling that made her look persecuted and her persecutors look like partisan bickerers.

    Add to it that the R’s are just hoping that somehow one of the guys ranked #3 in the polls gets through to the nomination, and I think she may have won the Presidency this week.

  3. pandora says:

    Canklebeast? You are a misogynistic idiot. But I get that’s all you got.

    I agree, LG. This hearing helped her enormously.

  4. Palomino says:

    Misogynist??? On the contrary, Carly has beautiful and properly sculpted ankles.

    I believe the ugly on the inside makes its way to the outside. Shillary is a triple-bagger in that regard.

  5. pandora says:

    You do realize your comment proves my point. Hillary and Carly’s ankles aren’t open for your objectification. But… carry on.

  6. ben says:

    What does tripple-bagger mean? You mean how she can slay 3 teabaggers at once?

  7. ben says:

    Pandora, I dont think it realizes anything. It only THINK it’s people, but really it is just a construct of Fox News headlines and Rush Limbaugh word-vomit.

  8. Dorian Gray says:

    Awesome another misogynist fucking scumbag. Hooray.

    As far as “bullshit” there are fucking truckloads on both side. I’d wager that a careful examination of anyone’s private correspondence would produce some embarrassing exchanges. I fail to see what relevance that has, unless you’re an empty-headed troll-comment generator. Bring up her personal appearance, check. Insult her family, check. Mention that like every politician on earth she lies, check. Wow, did you work all morning on that?

    I personally think HRC should have pulled a Bernie Mac and just come out and said, “I ain’t scared of you motherfuckers!”

    I’m no huge fan of Clinton’s, as many people know, but I’m also not a mindless idiot pig, so I can like see this for what it is.

  9. Palomino says:

    Whatever it takes to derail the Shillary express is fair game. After 8 years of Bendover Barack foreign policy, we can’t afford the next worst thing….elevating the hag who executed it.

  10. Dorian Gray says:

    I’m sure comments like that will go a very long way in helping your cause then. Keep it up. I’m sure it’s very persuasive in the fascist pig circles. It’s unfortunate that you and the rest of Ms. Habbersham’s 4th grade class hasn’t reached voting age.

  11. Delaware Dem says:

    LG is right. Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton was elected the 45th President of the United States this week.

  12. pandora says:

    The fact is that if Mr. Misogynist Palomino had a Benghazi hearing smoking gun he would be shouting it from the rooftops instead of talking about women’s ankles. Pathetic.

  13. ben says:

    Everything in Palomino’s programming comes down to sexualization. Please keep the comments coming. It’s refreshing to know that there isnt any real brain-power at work on the Right wing. It’s all a matter of “would/ wouldn’t” bang with these people.

  14. Palomino says:

    Just doing my job. It’s important for Shillary to know that she fails to measure up as politician *or* woman.

  15. Anonymous says:

    Oh, no. Not another troll.

  16. Palomino says:

    Figured you needed a breather.

  17. Geezer says:

    Ooh, cower in fear. A real man is here. But… would a real manly man call himself “Palomino”?

    “It’s important for Shillary to know that she fails to measure up as politician *or* woman.”

    How impotent it must make you feel to be losing so badly to whatever you think she is.

  18. Palomino says:

    Not really Geezer…..while you worship the bloat, I shall prepare for the gloat.

  19. Geezer says:

    The yellow stain running down your leg tells a different story.

  20. Palomino says:

    That’s an illusion caused by the Shillary shower in your eye.

  21. pandora says:

    As vile as your comments are they really do demonstrate how big you guys lost.

    * As a female blogger I have resigned myself to taking a lot of abuse. That said, Palomino, you will change your crude “email” name, directed at me, or I, for the first time ever, will ban you. Got it?

  22. Geezer says:

    You can bluster all you want; the fact that you feel the need to do so tells the real story. Only men with shaky masculinity have to engage in such sad displays of sexual bravado. You can’t change the facts — even your fellow knuckle-draggers know they lost. It’s been on all the conservative blogs.

    Will you be shooting anyone when your side loses as badly as it now seems likely it will?

    Christine Flowers, by the way, is an amateur, not a professional, in the commentariat. No pro would hand in something so jejune.

  23. ben says:

    c’mon guys, screw your privacy policy. Let’s get some insight into who this LOLman really is. A person who thinks the height of wit is to comment on the screwability of heads of state doesn’t deserve to have it’s anonymity intact.

  24. Liberal Elite says:

    @P “Whatever it takes to derail the Shillary express is fair game.”

    This is perhaps your most telling comment. You’re telling us that your little Republican friends have no integrity, no ethical standards, and no moral compass. You’re telling us that we should expect nothing but lies and slander from the likes of you. You’re telling us that you’re nothing but the scum of our political culture.

  25. ben says:

    “Will you be shooting anyone when your side loses as badly as it now seems likely it will?”
    They probably will. These people-like-homo-sapiens (no, i did not just call you gay… 1, i would never use “gay” as an insult and 2, it would be quite an insult to non heteros by lumping you in with them) These people like HS, only understand violence, sexual degradation, and sexual violence. We would do well to consider ANY LOLman an immediate threat to our personal safety.

  26. Palomino says:

    …..and that’s when I knew we won.

    Thanks for making it so crystal clear!

  27. ben says:

    LE, dont give him that much credit. You make it sound like Palanimrod is some sort of important right wing thought-crapper. In reality, if he were lying in the street on fire, they would convene a special committee to determine how he was stealing money from job creators while they refused to pee on him to put him out. They worked hard to create that pee, it shouldn’t go to on-fire leaches. He probably wanted to be in fire in the first place…. little thermo-slut. (im sorry i used the word “slut”)

  28. Geezer says:

    How so? Look it up. You lost, badly, and pretending you didn’t only makes you look desperate. Every new comment illustrates how badly you lost, and how impotent you feel. Shouldn’t you be answering your emails for cut-rate Cialis?

    Now answer my question: When Hillary wins, will you be reaching for a 2nd Amendment solution?

  29. ben says:

    Ah, Palomorons end game is to make people afraid he will kill them. is that right?

  30. Palomino says:

    Geezerhate…..the gift so nice, I read it twice!

  31. Geezer says:

    Now you’re regressing into baby talk. I guess that’s what the thought of taking direction from a woman makes you feel like?

    Hate? Why would I bother?

  32. Palomino says:

    Gone off the deep end, have we Ben?

  33. Geezer says:

    Can’t answer questions? Figures. No brain there, just a random insult generator.

  34. Palomino says:

    Sorry….Geezer. I’d give a listen to Elizabeth Warren if you put her forward, but no chance with Shillary. Damaged goods with no recycle value.

  35. Liberal Elite says:

    “Ah, Palomorons end game is to make people afraid he will kill them. is that right?”

    But only if they actually come to his bunker. The bedwetter is probably too afraid to venture into the “real” world.

  36. ben says:

    little man, you are so out of your depth in everything here. Intellectually, Pandora and DG make you look like a grease stain. You cant hold a candle to GEEZER-smash, and I…. childish and unhelpful as I am… will always be able to out-hyperbole you and your kind.

  37. Palomino says:

    I doubt any one of you would choose Shillary over Warren if you knew victory was assured regardless. You have reluctantly accepted the Shill, but each of you secretly prays someone intervenes with better party prospects before 2016.

  38. Liberal Elite says:

    @P “I doubt any one of you would choose Shillary over Warren if you knew victory was assured regardless.”

    Wrong. So wrong.

    Why don’t you quit? You obviously have no clue about anything.

  39. Prop Joe says:

    A more appropriate user name would “Palomino’s Ass”…

    You hit the male, conservative, Republican action points in each of your comments and I am duly impressed.

    1) State that in order for a woman to be qualified for anything, she must meet physical beauty standards. (use words such as “cankles” or “hag”)

    2) Refer to any woman who speaks confidently and with conviction as “shrill”… Remember to compliment any man who speaks in the same way.

    3) Insinuate that the current President is a deviant in the eyes of true Americans (e.g. GOP) by using an anal-sex euphemism.

    Did I miss anything? In any event, I hope you will be a regular visitor/commentor here at DL as reading what comes out of your brain makes me feel better about myself, so thank you on that.

  40. ben says:

    actually….. you’re right about that. I’ll be voting for the Democratic nominee because even Lawrence Lessig would be better than any of the GOP teabaggers. Sen Sanders still has my Primary vote and I hope he keeps the pressure on to ensure that a progressive wave comes in this election cycle. But dont take that admission to mean that you’ve won anything. Just because conservatives can only see “their guy” and “everyone else is Hitler” doesn’t mean everyone is afflicted with such small mental capacity.

  41. ben says:

    Seriously. Rusty and FBH really withdrew into their holes after Rmoney lost. I dont get why they dont stick around to eat their crow. Typical bullies. It’s all chest thumping and preening until someone pulls their pants down in front of everyone and all can see how small and pathetic their… argument…. really is.

  42. Palomino says:

    Best yet, Prop Joe. You make the others look like the typical Leonardo diCaprio film.

    1. When the inside ugly matches the outside ugly, it deserves to be noted. Carly isn’t a beauty queen. Warren looks like the stunt double for an elderly Tom Skerritt. But both carry themselves without the rusty cheese grater up the bum attitude.

    2. Trump is an idiot too. Feel better now?

    3. Watching Putin make Barack squeal like a pig could hardly deserve a kinder description than the genteel “Bendover Barack”. At least I left it wide open, which, when you think about, it doubling down on euphemisms, no????

  43. pandora says:

    I notice how your “ugly” standard is only applied to women. With men your preferred go to is Rush Limbaugh gay comments. Freud would have a field day with you.

    And I’ll point out, yet again, that this 11 hour GOP extravaganza gave the Rs nothing. If you had something you’d say it. But you don’t, so you can’t.

    I’m with Prop Joe. Your comments are the most validating gift ever.

  44. Prop Joe says:

    Wow… That’s some great stuff there… You’re like Steven Kloves, Steven Soderbergh, and Steven Speilberg all wrapped up into one with your ability to write out such incredible wit and sass with such apparent ease.

    I’m am equally impressed with the fact that you will, by my guess, continue to do it… I don’t know that that makes you a troll. I always thought a troll was someone who tries to get a rise out of people but doesn’t really believe/care for what they are doing to get that rise. I would be more surprised if that were you. I’m confident you actually believe all those things, a fact which I fully support. I believe the world is easier to navigate when folks like you don’t hide and loudly speak their minds.

  45. Prop Joe says:

    On a slightly separate track, it would be amusing to see who everyone actually is. Who are the people behind the screen names… Are you a misogynistic pig online, using a pseudonym because of a high-profile public position or just because that’s who you really are? So many questions…

  46. Geezer says:

    Your fears of latent homosexuality are all over your comments, or you wouldn’t idolize Putin or talk about anyone “bending over.”

    I’m not crazy about Hillary either, and I find the timbre of her voice problematic (is “grating” less sexist than “shrill”?)

    So what? Your fear of a female commander-in-chief is no reason to parade your fears of latent homosexuality in public.

  47. Palomino says:

    So much more civilized, PJ.

    Here’s hoping you rub off on the rest.

    (And I didn’t mean that in a crude way)

  48. ben says:

    Im actually a high ranking republican official. My real name rhymes with Bince Bleebus.

  49. Palomino says:

    Sorry Geezer, I prefer my homosexuality to be blatant, not latent. Hiding serves no purpose but to suffer.

  50. Geezer says:

    Sorry, then. Didn’t realize you were out. Explains the Putin love.

  51. liberalgeek says:

    Whenever a “new” troll shows up, I assume it to be a particular local “politician” that is full of bluster (and Hillary hate). I won’t reveal my guess online, but I have written it down on a pink postcard.

  52. ben says:

    Part of me always assumes it’s Jason. Gotta create controversy to keep the threads alive.

  53. pandora says:

    Conservatives weigh in:

    Erick Erickson: “The hearings are a waste of time because everything about it is politicized and nothing is going to happen. There will be no scalp collection. In fact, it is clear from today’s hearing that Trey Gowdy and Peter Roskam seem to be the only two people on the committee of either party who are capable of asking exacting, precise questions. Most of the rest of the committee just wants to grandstand for the folks back home as either prosecutors of or defenders of Hillary Clinton.”

    “Mrs. Clinton too is far too bright to be trapped in this or any questions. There have been some, by Trey Gowdy typically, that have clearly caused Mrs. Clinton to be flustered, but the long term effects of that will be to make her a martyr to her own side.”

    Bet that leaves a mark.

    John Podhortez: “Simply as a matter of political theater, over the course of many hours of testimony, Clinton performed brilliantly.” She assumed a calm, deliberate demeanor with her opening statement and never surrendered it. The more she sounded like a policy wonk, the less she seemed like what the Republicans clearly wanted her to seem like: a cynical political animal.”

    Spin only works if you can convince people. There’s no way to spin this into a Republican win.

  54. Liberal Elite says:

    @p “Spin only works if you can convince people. There’s no way to spin this into a Republican win.”

    And the proof will be significantly higher poll number for Hillary in the coming weeks. Watch for it.

  55. mouse says:

    Notice how the talk radio educated ilk always have to change Ms. Clinton’s name to attack her? The angry white uneducated bigots have nothing to appeal to sane people

  56. cassandra_m says:

    On a slightly separate track, it would be amusing to see who everyone actually is.

    Palomino’s IP has been posting here under multiple names, in clear violation of DL’s policy — Literal Lee and Wurds being among them. So you are certainly free to disregard a poster who hasn’t the basic integrity to be here honestly.

  57. cassandra_m says:

    On the other hand, I saw an intriguing question on FB regarding these hearings today — Do you think that Hillary’s campaign needs to count this hearing as an in-kind donation?

  58. Prop Joe says:

    Interesting question… I suspect the GOP will wait until she’s actually won and then spend the next four years claiming she committed election fraud and should be impeached as a result of the Benghazi testimony/footage.

  59. Dave says:

    I didn’t watch any of the testimony, but I did pretty extensive reading and video clipping. It was apparent to me that there was considerable grasping at straws on the part of the GOP. I was especially amused at the exchange on whether Stevens had Clintons personal email. I would assume that Bill and Chelsea had her personal email, but why would anyone else, except confidants, friends, family, etc?

    Anyway, I don’t think Clinton scored gazillion, but it will certainly save her campaign some money on campaign spots. I think she could run most of her spots just from the 11 hour circus.

    From Conan the Barbarian (or maybe it’s Clinton the Barbarian)

    “Crush your enemies. See them driven before you. Hear the lamentations of their women.”

  60. puck says:

    I expect them to start forming the House Permanent Committee to Investigate Hillary Clinton.

  61. Steve Newton says:

    They were asking her about Benghazi? Oh. I thought we’d just established a procedure for Presidential Confirmation Hearings.

    Like the Supreme Court. But not with judges. And not the Senate.

  62. Liberal Elite says:

    @p “I expect them to start forming the House Permanent Committee to Investigate Hillary Clinton.”

    Maybe they want to see her current Christmas card list and compare it with her list from 1997. Do you remember when the GOP demanded more than 40,000 documents about their Christmas card list? …and interrogated 34 witnesses?

    Clinton was OBVIOUSLY guilty (of having too many friends)!

  63. CrackerJack says:

    You people are obsessed with tracking the ip addresses of anyone who disagrees with this liberal circle jerk and threaten, no actually, banish open discussion. Face it. Hillary is a shell of a person. A serial liar and misanthrope who has been married to a serial adulterer and party animal. Bill and Hillary are the first couple of what Hell must be like. I doubt this post will make it through and even if it does, I am sure it will be deleted quickly by the fascists that pretend to be tolerant. Heil Hitler!

  64. pandora says:

    I haven’t tracked anyone’s IP. Comments are sent to my email which is where I saw Palomino’s crude email name. I called that out. I did not out him. Nice job getting your victim on – how Republican of you.

  65. Hawk says:

    I consider myself a dedicated reader of this site. Palomino generated this conclusion with his/her posts.

    A Palomino is a HORSE of a creamy yellow coat. It would be fair to consider the anal dribble posted here to truly be horse shit.

  66. LeBay says:

    @Hawk-

    A Palomino is a HORSE of a creamy yellow coat.

    A Palomino is “a pale golden or tan-colored horse or pony with a white mane and tail, originally bred in the southwestern US.”

    See you at WEF. Or not. Troll.

    http://pbiec.coth.com/

  67. Liberal Elite says:

    So… Does the $4.7 million that the committee spent making Hillary look good need to be declared as a campaign contribution???

  68. Hawk says:

    >Lebay
    Yes, I shortened the Webster’s definition. Is my assumption faulty?
    Please, tell me the meaning of your abbreviation WEF? It is not familiar to me.
    Since it has been a year or so since I last made comment here, a single at that, I don’t understand the “troll” in your response. Should I be offended?

  69. Liberal Elite says:

    @H “Please, tell me the meaning of your abbreviation WEF?”

    I guess you’re not really a horse person…

  70. Geezer says:

    “A serial liar and misanthrope who has been married to a serial adulterer and party animal.”

    And your point would be…?

    Perhaps you hadn’t noticed, but your “opinion” has nothing to do with you, me, politics or public policy. When you have something intelligent to contribute you can sit at the grown-up table.