What Difference Does It Make?

Is the plan to run-out the clock on the Benghazi and email inquiry?

It appears that Hillary Clinton’s lawyer, David Kendall, has responded to Trey Gowdy’s request to testify before his House Select Committee on Benghazi on two separate occasions; once to elicit facts about the circumstances surrounding Benghazi, and once to elicit facts concerning the lack of Benghazi e-mails due to Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server to process all of her official State Department emails as well as those of her top advisors.

However, it also appears that Kendall has tried to limit the official inquiry by saying his client would testify only once on both topics; “On such day, she will stay as long as necessary to answer the Committee's questions, but will not prolong the Committee's efforts further by appearing on two separate occasions when one will suffice."

Considering that the Committee’s minority members are virulent supporters of Hillary Clinton and are likely to bloviate about Clinton’s service as the Secretary of State, ask extremely generalized and convoluted questions, and engage in disruptive behavior to limit substantive questioning by Chairman Trey Gowdy, it appears that the Committee’s work may be thwarted by Clinton and her supporters.

Committee members …  

Partisan politics may trump legitimate Congressional inquiry …

According to CNN, Ranking Member Elijah Cummings has already stated: “"Trey Gowdy should take 'yes' for an answer and finally schedule the hearing," and “dragging out this process further into the presidential election season sacrifices any chance that the American people will see it as serious or legitimate."  

Democrats' Benghazi warrior

The House GOP took the unexpected step recently of voting to create a special committee to further probe the controversial events in Benghazi. Democrats’ hopes of rendering the panel ineffective rest largely on Cummings’ shoulders.

Democrats long debated whether to appoint their own members to the panel and thus justify its existence. But Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) ultimately decided it would be better to have access to the panel’s documents and witnesses. Given that line of thinking, it only made sense to appoint a tested Democrat as the ranking member.

A source close to the decision said there was “never any question in [Pelosi’s] mind” that if Democrats were going to serve on the committee, Cummings would be her ranking member.

On Oversight, the Marylander has served as Democrats’ foil to the fiery, headline grabbing Issa. Democrats widely credit Cummings as being instrumental for scoring political wins against zealous Oversight Republicans. <Source>

Elijah Cummings: Trey Gowdy lied about Hillary Clinton testimony

Ranking Member Elijah Cummings of Maryland said he agreed to a request from South Carolina's Gowdy in September to ask Clinton if she would speak to the committee. Cummings said Clinton quickly agreed to testify in a public hearing as early as December, and that he told the South Carolina lawmaker this in October.

Gowdy, in a TV interview Wednesday, suggested otherwise, saying he was glad to hear that Cummings had “changed his mind” to help him secure Clinton as a witness.

“In December he was not saying that,” Gowdy said. “But I do welcome his change of heart.”

Cummings called Gowdy’s statements about Clinton's willingness to speak under oath “inaccurate.” <Source>

A full and complete accounting is unlikely …

We have already heard allegations that Clinton’s Chief of Staff, one of those using Clinton’s email server, may have engaged in removing documents from official State Department archives prior to the meeting of the Accountability Review Board that was empaneled to review the circumstances surrounding Benghazi. Chaired by someone who had ties to the Clintons and who conveniently did not interview Hillary Clinton, the ranking State Department member responsible for Benghazi and who openly lied to the American people about a video and a spontaneous demonstration although she apparently knew it was a terrorist attack.

What makes anyone believe that Hillary Clinton will be forthcoming about what happened at Benghazi and why her tenure at the State Department was filled with unusual behavior that is inconsistent with State Department policies.

Bottom line …

The most serious question that may never be asked in open session is why our Ambassador was in Benghazi and was their a covert operation to provide military-grade weaponry to Islamic fundamentalists via Turkey – and was that the reason that Ambassador Stevens met with the Turkish Turkish Consul General Ali Sait Akin in the hours before the attack on the compound – which was neither an embassy nor a consulate.

Was Syrian weapons shipment factor in ambassador’s Benghazi visit?

Libyan-flagged vessel Al Entisar, which means "The Victory," was received in the Turkish port of Iskenderun -- 35 miles from the Syrian border -- on Sept. 6, just five days before Ambassador Chris Stevens, information management officer Sean Smith and former Navy Seals Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were killed during an extended assault by more than 100 Islamist militants.

On the night of Sept. 11, in what would become his last known public meeting, Stevens met with the Turkish Consul General Ali Sait Akin, and escorted him out of the consulate front gate one hour before the assault began at approximately 9:35 p.m. local time. 

Although what was discussed at the meeting is not public, a source told Fox News that Stevens was in Benghazi to negotiate a weapons transfer, an effort to get SA-7 missiles out of the hands of Libya-based extremists. And although the negotiation said to have taken place may have had nothing to do with the attack on the consulate later that night or the Libyan mystery ship, it could explain why Stevens was travelling in such a volatile region on the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. <Source>

That Hillary Clinton has demonstrated a pattern and practice of self-serving corruption, lying, and mired in cronyism and scandal makes her unfit to service in any public office that requires integrity, honesty, and American values. The fact that the progressive socialist democrats can even consider her a viable candidate is to demonstrate that they have become the neo-Communist party in America.

-- steve