More right-wing baloney, Part I: Benghazi

Darrell Issa, Republican Chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is hot on the trail of the crime of the century. His investigators have determined that Obama's minions misled the American People about the nature of the attacks on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi Libya (9/11/2012). For example, Obama's spinners used the phrase "terror attacks" instead of "attacks by terrorists" to make it seem that organizations like Al-Qaeda were not involved. I'm sure that this distinction carried great weight among the American People, accustomed as they are to the subtleties of beer commercials...

Of course, it is highly likely that the Obama folks, like all politicians, engaged in some of the spinning with which they are charged. The folks who promised to close Gitmo and swore they'd never touch Social Security don't have a very strong track record on strict adherence to facts and principles. Nevertheless, in spite of Fox News's breathless claims about a crime far exceeding (even) Watergate, there is absolutely no claim, much less evidence, that any sort of illegality or even major misrepresentation took place; this piece from the NY Daily News (not a bastion of liberalism) gives some idea of the silliness of Fox/conservative hyperbole and why it's nonsense. Let's not forget that Watergate, Iran-Contra the secret bombing of Laos and Cambodia violated all sorts of laws. The folks who gave us the Clinton impeachment would love to pull off another courageous act of patriotism, saving us from being mislead by a usurping black man.

Darrell Issa himself has probably committed more criminal acts than even he dares claim were committed by the Obama administration: You can read a an extensively documented account of the legal history this petty-thug-turned-congressman here, and in the fine New Yorker profile of Issa here.

I'm not an Obama worshiper,  or even a committed Democrat, but the Republicans remain beneath contempt both in comparison and from an absolute standpoint.