Green Arrow
10-22-2015, 08:48 PM
I watched about an hour and a half of Hillary Clinton's testimony before the Benghazi committee this evening before I switched channels to the Seahawks-Niners game. It took me a bit to decide whether or not I wanted to say anything about it, but I decided I would.
First, let me say that I am about as critical of Hillary as you can get, while still focusing on actual issues to criticize her for. You won't see me running around spending pages riffing on her several hundred dollar haircut or the clothes that she wears because frankly, I think there are plenty of real issues to criticize her on.
That said, what I saw of this committee hearing was strange. It's supposed to be the committee on the terror attack in Benghazi. The purpose, stated by Rep. Trey Gowdy, is supposed to be to determine what happened and how to keep it from happening in the future. What I saw in an hour and a half of that committee had almost nothing to do with the attack itself and learning more about it and how to keep it from happening again. It was all pointed and, frankly, badgering questions about Hillary Clinton herself and her practices.
Now, looking at the questions themselves outside of any context, I think many of the ones I heard were very valid questions that I would like to hear serious answers to. However, when you add in the context of this being a hearing about Benghazi, I don't understand why they were being asked in this setting. Most of the questions I heard were about Clinton's private email server, which has nothing to do with Benghazi. Or at least, if those questions did have something to do with Benghazi, they never got around to the Benghazi part of them.
Again, I'd like to hear answers to those questions, but not in a hearing about Benghazi. It's off-topic and inappropriate.
I also thought that Rep. Roby's line of questioning on Clinton was, frankly, highly inappropriate and unprofessional. I don't care if you believe that Hillary Clinton sincerely doesn't give a shit about her staff and other employees of the State Department, it is not appropriate to hijack a committee hearing that is supposed to be about improving our national security and the security of Americans overseas to air that theory.
I thought Rep. Pompeo had a very on-topic and great line of questioning, even if he did drift off into a tangential line about the email server.
All-in-all, I heard very little about the Benghazi attack, and a lot about the Benghazi attack that was really more personal nonsense about Hillary Clinton than it was substantive queries about the attack. At this point, the committee might as well just rename itself the Select Committee on Hillary Clinton if they can't stick to the one topic about the Benghazi attacks.
I mean, honestly. I WANT to hear more about the Benghazi attacks, and I want to hear about them from Hillary. But this was just largely unnecessary.
First, let me say that I am about as critical of Hillary as you can get, while still focusing on actual issues to criticize her for. You won't see me running around spending pages riffing on her several hundred dollar haircut or the clothes that she wears because frankly, I think there are plenty of real issues to criticize her on.
That said, what I saw of this committee hearing was strange. It's supposed to be the committee on the terror attack in Benghazi. The purpose, stated by Rep. Trey Gowdy, is supposed to be to determine what happened and how to keep it from happening in the future. What I saw in an hour and a half of that committee had almost nothing to do with the attack itself and learning more about it and how to keep it from happening again. It was all pointed and, frankly, badgering questions about Hillary Clinton herself and her practices.
Now, looking at the questions themselves outside of any context, I think many of the ones I heard were very valid questions that I would like to hear serious answers to. However, when you add in the context of this being a hearing about Benghazi, I don't understand why they were being asked in this setting. Most of the questions I heard were about Clinton's private email server, which has nothing to do with Benghazi. Or at least, if those questions did have something to do with Benghazi, they never got around to the Benghazi part of them.
Again, I'd like to hear answers to those questions, but not in a hearing about Benghazi. It's off-topic and inappropriate.
I also thought that Rep. Roby's line of questioning on Clinton was, frankly, highly inappropriate and unprofessional. I don't care if you believe that Hillary Clinton sincerely doesn't give a shit about her staff and other employees of the State Department, it is not appropriate to hijack a committee hearing that is supposed to be about improving our national security and the security of Americans overseas to air that theory.
I thought Rep. Pompeo had a very on-topic and great line of questioning, even if he did drift off into a tangential line about the email server.
All-in-all, I heard very little about the Benghazi attack, and a lot about the Benghazi attack that was really more personal nonsense about Hillary Clinton than it was substantive queries about the attack. At this point, the committee might as well just rename itself the Select Committee on Hillary Clinton if they can't stick to the one topic about the Benghazi attacks.
I mean, honestly. I WANT to hear more about the Benghazi attacks, and I want to hear about them from Hillary. But this was just largely unnecessary.