- "We live in a country lousy with guns and bloody with gun-related violence,"
- "Now we have a scandal at the Internal Revenue Service to factor in," and
- "To follow the debate over immigration reform is to lose sight at times of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in limbo."
Indeed, American is currently overwhelmed with problems, which also include some 50 million Americans on food stamps, a horrifying level of unemployment, and federal debt of some $16.8 trillion. With regard to all these sorrows, Bruni tells us:
"On issue after issue, the sideshow swallows the substance, as politicians and the seemingly infinite ranks of political handlers join us journalists in gaming everything out, ad infinitum."
A "sideshow"? Now just when did I last hear that word used? Oh, that's right, it was President Obama yesterday telling us with respect to the Benghazi debacle that the redaction of the talking points was a "sideshow" and that the House investigation of the assault is a "political circus."
Feigning objectivity, Bruni goes on to say:
"At Obama’s news conference, he breezed past the I.R.S. debacle too quickly, and I’m not sure why he’d stayed mum until then. He flashed too much self-righteous anger about the scrutiny of the Benghazi talking points, which strike to important matters of accountability and credibility.
But however self-servingly, Obama got one thing about Benghazi exactly right: what’s most vital, and what’s being obscured, is how we improve diplomatic security."
Sorry, Frank, but how do you "improve diplomatic security" when both the secretary of state and the president are prepared to lie to the American people concerning the identity of those threatening diplomatic security?
One day after the attack, Hillary stated (see: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.co.il/2013/05/new-york-times-editorial-republicans.html), "we are working to determine the precise motivations and methods of those who carried out this assault" and then linked the attack to "inflammatory material posted on the Internet." Months later, of course, Hillary would infamously declare:
"With all due respect, the fact is we have four dead Americans. Whether it was because of a protest or because guys outside for a walk one night decided to go kill some Americans. What difference at this point does it make?"
Obama, in an appearance on the "Daily Show" with Jon Stewart on October 18, 2012, declared:
"When a tragic event like this happens on the other side of the world, immediately a whole bunch of intelligence starts coming in and people try to piece together exactly what happened. And what I have always tried to do is to make sure we just get all the facts, figure out what went wrong, and make sure it doesn’t happen again. And we’re still in that process now. But everything we get, every piece of information we get — as we got it — we laid it out for the American people."
Needless to say, "every piece of information" was not laid out for the American people. In fact, no information was subsequently laid out for examination. The Obama administration systematically obscured the involvement of al-Qaeda and Ansar al-Sharia, an organization affiliated with al-Qaeda, in the assault.
Yes, Frank, America is awash with problems and scandals, but Benghazi is no "sideshow." Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans died under siege when no one lifted a finger to come to their aid. For his part, Obama, aware of the crisis, went to bed.
Benghazi did not happen "a long time ago," as White House spokesman Jay Carney would have us believe, and notwithstanding all the other problems, it is not going to be swept under the carpet.
It's not a sideshow, it's not Republicans versus Democrats, rather it's a straightforward matter of right and wrong.
See also: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.co.il/2013/05/david-brooks-next-scapegoat-benghazi.html
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