Republicans have been doing their best to stir the violence in Benghazi into a scandal to hang around the neck of President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton. But there’s a problem, as Dana Milbank points out —
The purpose of the pre-election hearing, presumably, is to embarrass the administration for inadequate diplomatic security. But Issa seems unaware of the irony that diplomatic security is inadequate partly because of budget cuts forced by his fellow Republicans in Congress.
For fiscal 2013, the GOP-controlled House proposed spending $1.934 billion for the State Department’s Worldwide Security Protection program — well below the $2.15 billion requested by the Obama administration. House Republicans cut the administration’s request for embassy security funding by $128 million in fiscal 2011 and $331 million in fiscal 2012. (Negotiations with the Democrat-controlled Senate restored about $88 million of the administration’s request.) Last year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that Republicans’ proposed cuts to her department would be “detrimental to America’s national security†— a charge Republicans rejected.
Watch Soledad O’Brien school a Republican Congressman about this, and watch how he tried to excuse the Republicans:
http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/10/rep-chaffetz-says-he-absolutely-cut-funding-for-embassy-security/
Basically, his excuse was, well, they should have increased security at THAT consulate. Putz…
In my day when you got beat down in an argument we used to say” OK, just drop it”. Now the expression “moving forward” is in vogue.
Mitt really is just a horrible, horrible person:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iVmD5EMK350bvd_G7nofYpZx8q0Q?docId=
He met a soldier 2 or 3 years ago when he went to the wrong Christmas party, introduced himself to him 3 or 4 times, and then shed crocodile tears the other day mentioning his name at some campaign event, noting that he died in the attack in Libya.
How did he “remember” this soldier when he didn’t recognize him the 3 or 4 times he went up to him without recognizing him that night?
Just horrible…
Perhaps the Repukes were engaging in the same magical thinking they spout regarding taxes — by cutting diplomatic security, embassies miraculously become safer! Because freedom/Jesus/Ayn Rand/magic of the marketplace/shut up, that’s why.