The GOP’s Benghazi Summer

With its clown car of candidates and positions on issues that time has proven to be failures and/or that more and more Americans oppose, the sGOP has seemingly decided that the Summer of 2015 will focus on trying to damage Hillary Clinton with Star Chamber like hearings even though past investigations have found that the conspiracies so loved by the rabid dogs of the GOP base are unsubstantiated.  Never let it be said that the GOP lets facts and objective reality get in its way.  One can only hope that during the hearings it is repeated over and over again that the GOP had slashed funding for security at U.S. embassies and consulates across the globe. Here are highlights from The Hill:

Welcome to the GOP's Benghazi summer.

After being hammered for months by Democrats for moving at a “glacial” pace, the GOP-controlled House Select Committee on Benghazi is picking up the pace.

“We are pedal to the metal because we are ready to get this thing done,” said Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (Ga.), one of the panel’s seven Republicans.

This week the panel subpoenaed Sidney Blumenthal, an informal adviser to Hillary Clinton when she helmed the State Department, and who has since agreed to appear before the select committee by the requested June 3 deadline.

Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kansas) hinted that Huma Adebin, Clinton’s longtime aide and the vice chairwoman of her 2016 presidential campaign, could be deposed soon, too.

Earlier this month chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) issued an interim report on the panel’s first year of work that said he wants to interview 60 former and current Obama administration officials, including members of Clinton’s inner circle, about the circumstances surrounding the deadly assault that killed four Americans.

While GOP members insist they still need all the relevant documents to the attacks that occurred on Clinton's watch, the recent moves could blunt the criticism that they are slow-rolling the investigation to hinder her White House bid.

“We want to get this thing over with as quick as we can. I’m sure Mrs. Clinton wants to get it over as quick as she can,” according to Westmoreland.

Jordan said members are already in the process of coming up with the “most appropriate and best lines of questioning” for when Clinton appears before the select committee, something she has agreed to do though no formal date has been set.

The acceleration hasn’t been lost on Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the panel’s top Democrat, though he’s unsure where the sudden motivation has come from.

“I don’t have a clue. All I know is that they waited for a good while before even asking for documents and then they turn around and blame the State Department,” he told The Hill.

He took particular issue with the Blumenthal subpoena, a move that he called “heavy-handed” at the time.

Cummings said the panel’s investigation is “going down a road that leads straightway” for its original purpose — uncovering additional details about the conditions before, during and after the attacks — and is now “basically, get Hillary Clinton by any means necessary.”

I also hope that these heavy handed efforts to beat up Hillary are not lost on women voters.   The hearings may motivate the deranged elements of the GOP base, but should turn off everyone else.