Just a high-minded, nonpartisan investigation.
House Speaker-for-now John Boehner is pretending that his likely replacement wasn't telling the truth when he
bragged about the Benghazi Committee's success at attacking Hillary Clinton. After Democrats
called for him to disband the committee, Boehner
issued a statement containing a series of real howlers:
This investigation has never been about former Secretary of State Clinton and never will be [...]
The members of this committee have worked diligently and professionally to fulfill this important mission and they will continue to do so. [...]
“The American people deserve the truth about what happened in Benghazi. That’s always been our focus, and that’s going to remain our focus.
Oh really. Not about Clinton, who worked diligently and professionally, and the truth about what happened in Benghazi is our focus. Uh-huh. Let's look at the record.
The National Republican Congressional Committee was fundraising off the Benghazi Committee from the very beginning. John Boehner really didn't want to talk about it back then, either.
This is supposed to be an investigation, right? But at the outset, Chair Trey Gowdy described it as a "trial," which makes him the prosecutor. And if he's the prosecutor, then he's not looking to uncover the truth, he thinks he already knows the truth and that his job is to convict the guilty party.
If you think of Gowdy as a prosecutor, maybe it makes more sense to have him headlining a Benghazi-themed GOP fundraiser? But he must have had plenty of time on his hands, since the questions Gowdy's committee was supposedly investigating, or prosecuting, or whatever, have been answered again and again and again in prior investigations. Also giving Gowdy time to head out to fundraisers is the fact that he's taking his sweet time, stretching the committee's work out into the 2016 election year. Nothing partisan about that!
But what about the stuff the committee itself is doing while the Republican Party is out fundraising in its name? That stuff includes leaking lies to the press. (Do I even need to specify that the lies are about Hillary Clinton?) It includes subpoenaing a longtime Clinton friend because he sent her some emails about Libya, and then asking him more questions about liberal political groups than about Benghazi. In fact, the Benghazi Committee hasn't been doing a whole hell of a lot other than going after Hlilary Clinton throughout 2015. That's one of the many, many reasons Kevin McCarthy's bragging about what a good job the committee had done lowering her polling numbers rang so true.