Benghazi and the Second-Term Blues

++For the last couple of weeks, the GOP has been trying out lines on how Benghazi is a scandal. With President Obama's approval rating among Republicans at 10-12%,the timing is just right for a move to Impeach. As I have said and written since President Obama was elected first in 2008 and now in 2012,the GOP must impeach him. The political wind is not going there way and they fear Hillary Clinton, a white woman, running against them in 2016. John Boehner has been obsessed by Benghazi since late November, privately convening committee chairpersons in the House, to focus on the incident. So far, many hours of testimony later it still is not clear what the story is ,other than a tragedy. The latest version is that talking points were re-written to exclude Al Qaeda and the notion that the attack on the facility--here we have some disagreement on whether it was the CIA safe house or the consulate. I sort of like re-writing talking points as an impeachable offense. It would represent as low as you can go. 

++Make no mistake the agenda is impeachment. Few remember that the impeachment of Bill Clinton never had more than 31% approval rating of the American people. But the base of the GOP didn't care and this time they would not pay such a high electoral price because of gerrymandering. 

++As if to make things the perfect storm, the IRS is caught in a complicated controversy for not approving the 501-C-4 status of tea party groups. The IRS scandal is one that brings Democrats on board to investigate. Coveniently forgotten is the IRS audit under  George W. Bush of the NAACP in 2004 and the cries in the first Obama term for an audit of ACORN by the self-same tea party groups. But this scandal will linger on as the IRS is also to be the instrument for enforcing the mandatory insurance requirement under Obamacare. 

++The potentially most lethal of controversies is the DOJ's seizure of notebooks and phone records of several AP reporters. This has ignited the furor of the entire media with AP claiming they will sue. The story seems to be that DOJ was investigating a story out of Yemen about a failed Al Qaeda plot and were looking for a source which they thought was a government whistleblower.

++The Benghazi flap has been defused by former Secretary of Defense Gates who claimed he would have done what the administration did and he chided the House GOP as having a clownish view of military force. Gates said the United States does not have a free-floating contingency force in the Middle East and the military was correct that they could not have reacted in time to prevent the deaths. He also said that the negotiation of talking points was an habitual process. In the case of Benghazi, the CIA made a tactical decision not to name Al Qaeda because they had not claimed credit and they did not want to tip off the group about American intelligence efforts. So they caved to the State Department's objections. 

++In another world, you would think the Obama Administration would get credit for immediately briefing the Senate on the incident and creating an Accountability Board headed by veteran diplomat Thomas Pickering and Admiral Mullen. The board rather rapidly produced recommendations and then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton proclaimed her responsibility and adopted their recommendations. End of story in the reality-based world.

++However, the GOP was miffed because Mitt Romney violating the 9-11 agreement between the candidates not to talk about politics attacked President Obama as the news of Benghazi hit the news. However, the October Surprise didn't work and Romney flubbed his opportunity at the debate on foreign policy. The GOP still could not believe Romney lost so they now want to re-run the election with a rival of this incident.

++The GOP claimed they wanted to rebrand the Party after the election. But there is no indication they want to. Yesterday their new director of Hispanic Outreach resigned and became a Democrat because of what he called was intolerance. And the Heritage Foundation released a flawed report on Immigration Reform that claimed that Hispanics had a lower IQ. The author has since resigned and wrote his rebuttal to criticism on a white supremacy website. The GOP is also banking that the conservative SCOTUS will reverse the Voting Act so that they can continue their practice of voter suppression. Now they big problem remains--Hillary Clinton--the white woman. By default, she wins the African-American and Latino vote, and will erode the record high white vote for the GOP in 2012.

++So what better than to try and reclaim national security. In the last election the GOP failed to better Obama on national security and this is one of the last trump cards. So expect more Benghazi as the GOP tries to ease back on top in foreign policy and national security. As if to start the race, Karl Rove's Cross-Hairs America has the first attack ad for the 2016 campaign against Hillary Clinton and Rand Paul has already proclaimed that Hillary Clinton is disqualified for higher office because of Benghazi. 

++The advantage President Obama has in all of this is that the House doesn't work long hours. It only meets one-third of the year. So the House must run to start impeachment hearings before the 2014 campaign begins. To do this, they need some solemnity as if such a process is serious and deserved. And at the same time they must make the political calculus that they will not lose out like Republicans in the past did.

++President Obama also has the advantage in the nature of his adversaries. Rep. Issa has been gunning for the President since 2010 with the Fast and Furious investigation, the Sestak controversy (try and remember), and others. Issa stepped on his own investigation into Benghazi by scheduling the television broadcasts in competition for other breaking events. He also failed to call up Thomas Pickering or Admiral Mullen to testify while he claimed the White House prevented them from testifying. The problem here is that he said that in front of Ambassador Pickering  on a Sunday News show and got slapped down. After the televised hearings with the DCM of our Libyan embassy, he was asked on Fox News what new revelations came from his hearings. He said that President Obama was wrong in describing Benghazi as an act of terror because it was an act of terrorism--the distinction escapes me and I am sure millions of others.

++The problem as I see it is that the congruence of these three controversies might bring back a moral equivalence between the crimes of the GOP and the imagined crimes of President Obama. The GOP and the Tea Party types need no excuse in their hatred of the President. The new media fails to mention the GOP cutting $330 million from embassy security or its commitment to obstructing every single initiative of this President, an unprecedented record of an opposition party in the United States. Expect more of this ,not less. Marco Rubio stopped in it the other day by demanding the head of the IRS resign but neglected to mention that the GOP refuses to vote on the nominee for the IRS. 

++Meanwhile, the House is expected Thursday to repeal the entire Obamacare for the 40th time. The total bill for this effort has been $52million. This time the bill is sponsored by Michelle Bachman. With Minnesota voting to legalize same sex marriage,she has vowed that the end time is near and she might move to Montana. 

++As I have written, I only expect Immigration Reform from the second Obama term. While this is still on track, these mini-controversies will fuel efforts to block this legislation. Lindsey Graham is PO'd at an amendment which would allow gay couples to immigrate to the United States that he might pull the whole bill. As it looks, the time to wait for citizenship is too long. Utah GOP Senator Lee has made sure  gardeners, maids and valets will be allowed to be employed below the minimum wage. The House had started drafting its own which would be more draconian on immigrants. Nativism is running high. These controversies also allow the GOP to believe they do not have to come up with any policies because they believe the tide is moving in their direction. That should concern everyone since they have absolutely nothing in their holster.

++Meanwhile the war drums continue to beat as neoconservatives and their brothers demand intervention into Syria. Interestingly they do not demand a re-intervention into Iraq or an extension of time for withdrawal from Afghanistan. Instead we let those countries collapse into smaller civil wars than Syria.
Katherine Vander Heuvel, the owner of the Nation, has the right idea. We have to step up humanitarian aid to Syria but we also need a new discussion on how we are to be involved in countries with violent extremists. Sec of Defense Gates rightfully commented that we as the United States can not control the outcomes in these situations and should not be under the illusion we can. Katherine Vander Heuvel also said we can not begin this dialogue until the Sunday talk shows had other people on than John McCain and Lindsey Graham.