The House Benghazi! kangaroo court is convening shortly to "question" Hillary Clinton, a spectacle that may prove to be a tipping point in this shameful exercise in political chicanery. Kurt Eichenwald has an excellent read this morning, which is highly recommended in that it comprehensively covers the evolution of this political hatchet job. It deserves to be bookmarked for present and future generations as an example of pure political ratf*cking, at taxpayer expense no less. Here's a sample:
The historical significance of this moment can hardly be overstated, and it seems many Republicans, Democrats and members of the media don’t fully understand the magnitude of what is taking place. The awesome power of government—one that allows officials to pore through almost anything they demand and compel anyone to talk or suffer the shame of taking the Fifth Amendment—has been unleashed for purely political purposes. It is impossible to review what the Benghazi committee has done as anything other than taxpayer-funded political research of the opposing party’s leading candidate for president. Comparisons from America’s past are rare. Richard Nixon’s attempts to use the IRS to investigate his perceived enemies come to mind. So does Senator Joseph McCarthy’s red-baiting during the 1950s, with reckless accusations of treason leveled at members of the State Department, military generals and even the secretary of the Army. But the modern McCarthys of the Benghazi committee cannot perform this political theater on their own—they depend on reporters to aid in the attempts to use government for the purpose of destroying others with bogus “scoops” ladled out by members of Congress and their staffs. These journalists will almost certainly join the legions of shamed reporters of the McCarthy era as it becomes increasingly clear they are enablers of an obscene attempt to undermine the electoral process.Republicans and their media cheerleaders need to have a reckoning for their behavior. We hope today's "hearing" will be the beginning of that overdue process.
UPDATE: Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-MD) comes out swinging about the purely partisan nature of the hearings. Blasts waste of taxpayer money, exclusion of other witnesses from DOD and CIA, etc. Full transcript here.
UPDATE II: If you're so inclined, you can watch live stream video of the kangaroo court here.
