April 1, 2014: Another one! This is really a crazy news day! And it's not even 6 a.m.!
GOP Senators Call For Special Committee To Investigate Their Special Committees
AP Photo
Sahil Kapur – April 1, 2014
A trio of Republican senators is pushing for a special committee to investigate all former special committees, especially the committees investigating the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi that left four Americans dead.
"We are calling for the appointment of a Joint Select Committee to investigate why so many special committees have been called to investigate the terrorist attacks on our compounds in Benghazi, not to mention the pseudo-scandals of the IRS investigating groups requesting special tax status, or the countless hearings on the war on religion through the guise of healthcare access by women," said Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John McCain (R-AZ) and Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) in a statement Tuesday. "It is imperative that we learn everything that happened before, during and after the appointment of the committees. At what point should committee members exploring Benghazi, for example, have known that this was an unfortunate outside job done by people who do not like us very much, whoever is president? Before the 32nd or 33rd hearing perhaps? Let's face it, far more embassy and consulate staff died during the Bush administration, and 9-11... Let's not even go there. A Joint Select Committee should be established to help the American people understand our compulsion to form another CEBP" using the acronym for a Committee to Embarrass a Black President.
The push comes as House Democrats are admitting that House Oversight Committee Chair Darrell Issa (R-CA) has actually done a pretty good job probing purported Obama administration mischief over the attack. "The more he cuts off other Congressmen's mics, the more he holds hearings that go nowhere, the more he looks like a complete asshole," said an Obama administration official speaking on condition of anonymity. "Benghazi, IRS, Fast and Furious, hell let's have Issa try to blame steroids in baseball (remember that one?) on President Obama. As long as the Republicans spend millions of taxpayer dollars on hearings that go nowhere while not spending a dime on hearings as to how so many Americans can get guns so easily and shoot 20 schoolchildren in the face, let's say, the more out-of-touch the GOP will look."
Aware that the backlash to Republican over-investigation of the first African American president by so many white men in a virtually all-white party might hurt them at the polls, the GOP is hoping the Joint Select Committee to investigate their committee might make them appear to be doing something to get to the bottom of the problem.
"Some say it's Republicans who are behind all these congressional investigations of things that might embarrass the president," said Senator Graham. "But how can we be sure? Until we have a Joint Select Committee explore this issue thoroughly, taking as much time as it needs, then issuing a lengthy report on a Friday before a long weekend after the next election, we just won't know, will we?"
Senator Kelly Ayotte, the only woman among those calling for the Joint Select Committee, said she also wants the Committee to explore whether she is simply being used as a token female, a pretty face to make the GOP look less like disgruntled club of old white men, one of whom - Senator McCain - personally lost an election to a black man. "This has nothing to do with gender or with race," she said. "The fact that these wild allegations are floating around out there means they merit a Joint Committee to put them to rest. When I asked my male Republican colleagues if there was any truth to accusations that I am being used for my gender, Senator McCain personally reassured me I wasn't, patting me on the back of my hand and telling me not to worry my pretty head about such things. I am reassured, but are the American people?"
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