Republicans Fail To Take Down Hillary Clinton

After squander millions of taxpayer dollars in the partisan witch hunt, the GOP controlled House Benghazi Committee failed to do any damage to Hillary Clinton today.  Not doubt there is much gnashing of teeth in Teabagistan over the fact that no "smoking gun" was revealed.  Not that one was reasonably expected to be found given the fact that numerous other committees failed to find evidence that would send the spittle flecked, knuckle draggers of the GOP base into orgasms.   As for committee chair, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), a former prosecutor, one is left wondering how he ever got convictions if this circus is typical of his investigations.  The Huffington Post looks at the failed GOP efforts.  Here are highlights:

Hillary Clinton maintained a calm, unruffled demeanor for 11 hours Thursday, as Republican after Republican grilled her in relation to the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi and about her use of a private email server as secretary of state. 

"So far today, I've said, 'good morning,' 'good afternoon,' 'good evening.' So let me go ahead and say, 'good night,'" Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.) said around 8 p.m., acknowledging that the hearing had began at 10 a.m. (with some short breaks throughout the day). 

Despite the long hours, Republicans failed to catch Clinton off her guard or come up with significant new revelations to argue that she was negligent in her duties that led to the death of four Americans in Libya. 

Her appearance is likely to give her a boost with the base, especially coming off from a strong performance after the first Democratic debate last week. Republicans weren't able to score any major hits and knock her off her feet, and Clinton showed she had the stamina to withstand the GOP attacks -- a fact that Republican lawmakers grudgingly seemed to acknowledge.

Indeed, many of the members seemed more exasperated than Clinton as the day wore on. 

"I don't know what we want from you," ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said, his voice rising during hour 10 of the hearing. "Do we want to badger you over and over again until you get tired, until we do get the 'gotcha' moment that he's talking about? We're better than that. ... We're better than using taxpayer dollars to try to destroy a campaign. That's not what America is all about. So you can comment if you like. I just had to get that off my chest."

But some of the most heated debates were between the Republican and Democratic lawmakers, who disagree about whether the committee should exist at all. 

Indeed, the opening statements of Cummings and Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), the committee's chairman, both focused on intra-committee politics. Gowdy tried to argue why, although there have been seven other investigations into Benghazi, his is still necessary. Cummings called for Congress to disband the committee. 

"It is time now for the Republicans to end this taxpayer-funded fishing expedition," Cummings said. "We need to come together and shift from politics to policy. That's what the American people want, shifting from politics to policy."

Clinton was the only one who actually spent her entire time discussing the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi.

 As for Gowdy, is it just me, or does he come across as a peevish closet case?