OCTOBER 6, 2016
It looks like there’s an old fashioned GOP food fight a’comin’. And surprise! It’s not in the Presidential race.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) issued yet another statement today denying that he meant what he recently said about the House Select Committee on Benghazi.
Last week, McCarthy eagerly shared his thoughts about the agenda of the Benghazi special committee on Fox News’ “Hannity”:
“Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today?”
Uh-oh.
You see the problem is that the Republicans have steadfastly denied that the committee is at all political. House Speaker John Boehner, whom McCarthy is expected to replace at the end of the month, has solemnly faced the cameras in the past and sworn that the only purpose of the seven (!) Benghazi committees so far was to find the truth about what happened in the attack on the American Embassy in Libya on Sept. 11, 2012, resulting in the deaths of four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. Boehner would then usually condemn Democrats for even suggesting that any of the seven hearings had anything to do with derailing Hillary Clinton’s candidacy.
Well now we know. And many of his colleagues are furious with McCarthy for letting the cat out of the bag.
Clinton, who has been completely found blameless by all seven prior Benghazi committees and will testify again for the eighth (!!!!) one on October 22, pounced Monday morning on “Today.”
“This committee was set up, as they have admitted, for the purpose of making a partisan political issue out of the deaths of four Americans. I would never have done that, and if I were President and there were Republicans or Democrats thinking about that, I would have done everything to shut it down.”
Clinton’s campaign also put out a 30-second ad attacking the committee. Curiously they purchased time on very few TV stations, perhaps hoping that the ad would be picked up by free media. It worked. The ad was played all day Monday on cable news networks.
Perhaps the reason why many of McCarthy’s colleagues are so angry is that the Republicans had Clinton right where they wanted her. Her poll numbers were falling as she had to go on defense, and let’s face it, she is lousy at defense — her explanations for her e-mail server have been all over the map. However, thanks to McCarthy, Clinton can now play offense from a defensive position, one of her most adept political skills. Playing the aggrieved party is not always pretty to watch, but it can work wonders in an election.
Kevin McCarthy has given the Democrats perhaps the greatest gift of the election season to date. Let’s just see if the Dems are smart enough to know what to do with it.
UPDATE: McCarthy and his two rivals for the Speakership, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and Rep. Daniel Webster (no, not that one) (R-FL), have been asked to make their cases tonight before a group of hardline conservative colleagues. Such a debate is unprecedented in House history and comes just two days before the GOP candidate for the post is decided in a secret ballot vote. This sudden meeting could indicate some conservative worries about the verbal skills of McCarthy, who has been known in the past to have trouble connecting a noun and a verb. Tonight should be a challenge for the Majority Leader. We’ll see if he’s up to it.
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