House Benghazi panel finds no wrongdoing, enraging Republicans

Disappointed that an investigation of its books found no wrongdoing, congressional Republicans set fire to a Shakey's.

Dejected congressional Republicans set fire to a DC-area Shakey’s.

The Republican-led House Intelligence Committee has concluded its investigation of the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks on the US consulate in Benghazi and found no evidence of wrongdoing. There was no “intelligence failure” before the attacks, and although the effort to assemble talking points for the president in the immediate aftermath were “flawed,” conspiracy theories like the stand-down order or denial of air support were found to be groundless. You can read the whole report here, if you have Asperger’s Syndrome. Or you can take the Washington Post’s word for it and consider the case closed. Or—and I’m just spitballing, here—you can call the report “garbage” and “full of crap,” as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R–SC) did yesterday. But that is an advanced move.

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41% of Republicans say Benghazi is “biggest political scandal in American history”

Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK,) who called Benghazi more "egregious" than Watergate

Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK,) who called Benghazi more “egregious” than Watergate

I tried to link to a news article about this week’s Congressional hearings regarding the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, but I had a hard time finding an unbiased source. Benghazi appears to be the most important story in the world for the Daily Caller, Fox News and the Washington Times (official motto: Not the Good Washington Paper) and invisible to everyone else. My theory is supported by this poll in which a mere 44% of Americans say they are following the hearings and, in a more complicated way, by this one, in which 41% of Republicans say they consider Benghazi “the biggest scandal in American history.” So suck it, Peggy Eaton Affair.

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Behold Fox’s coverage of the testimony of our Secretary of State

From "The Five" on Fox News channel yesterday

From “The Five” on Fox News channel yesterday

Yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified before Congress regarding the attacks on the US consulate in Benghazi. Initially reported as the outcome of a spontaneous demonstration and later revealed to be a terrorist plot, the attacks have been a black eye for the State Department and a cause celebré for Republicans. Romney made much of them in the late days of the presidential campaign, and the Tea Party caucus has seized on them as evidence that the Obama administration is soft on terror. If you don’t think Benghazi has become a partisan issue, I advice you to consider Fox News’s coverage of Clinton’s testimony, captured in the screen shot above.

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