wing nut nostalgia, the republican usual suspects
In the 20 months since four Americans were killed in the attack on the U.S. consulate and CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya, two official investigations have reached pretty much the same conclusions. The State Department Accountability Review Board (ARB) and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) looking into the tragedy found an opportunistic attack that should have been prevented but was not due to poor intelligence, inadequate security on the ground, and dismal information sharing between the U.S. military, the State Department and the CIA. There was no military response that could have been launched in time to save Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. And there was no cover up by the Obama administration.
But that just won’t do for a Republican Party determined to exploit the deaths to sabotage both President Obama and his possible successor, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. So on Friday, Speaker John Boehner announced he would appoint a select House committee to expand on Darrell Issa’s Benghazi inquisition that has already produced 13 hearings, 25,000 pages of documents and 50 briefings. That means the American people will be subjected to the spectacle of endless hearings, deceptive leaks, fabricated stories and altered emailsthrough the November midterms and beyond, all because the GOP and its right-wing allies can’t handle the truth.
Which is why when President George W. Bush and his defenders found themselves besieged by real scandals, they didn’t turn to the truth as a defense. Instead, Bush and his minions turned to these 15 tactics (among others) to survive.
1. Accuse the Opposition of Slandering the President. During his second debate with Mitt Romney in October 2012, President Obama made a simple point regarding the Republican’s baseless charges:
2. Oppose the Investigation. As the chorus grew in early 2002 to create a commission to investigate the 9/11 attacks that killed 3,000 people, President Bush, Vice President Cheney and their allies said no. While Cheney warned "the people and agencies responsible for helping us learn about and defeat such an attack are the very ones most likely to be distracted from their critical duties if Congress fails to carry out their obligations in a responsible fashion," House Majority Leader Tom Delay declared:
3. Agree to Testify, But Not Under Oath. Ultimately, President Bush yielded to mounting public pressure and agreed to support the 9/11 Commission under the aegis of Henry Kissinger. (Unwilling to reveal his financial interests, Kissinger withdrew.) But as for his own participation,Bush agreed to testify, but on the conditions that he be questioned behind closed doors jointly with Vice President Cheney and neither man would be under oath. As President Bush explained in his White House meeting with the 9/11 commissioners on April 29, 2004:
4. Ignore Congressional Subpoenas. Of course, when it came to Congressional investigations of the Bush administration's politically motivated purge of U.S. attorneys, Vice President Cheney insisted White House personnel should be neither seen nor heard. Calling the outcry over the prosecutors' firings "a bit of a witch hunt," Cheney and his boss made sure their team did not honor any Congressional subpoenas:
just to wet your whistle remember how republicans have tried to tie Pres and his admin to not being trustworthy and avoiding the investigation looks like he was speaking from experience please read the article for more republican ""been there, done that but keep it on the down low"
