GOP's Benghazi Sideshow Is Not Working Out For Them

Posted on the 19 June 2014 by Jobsanger
(This political caricature is by DonkeyHotey.)
The opposition to Obamacare is dissipating (at least the desire for repealing it), and the GOP still doesn't have a credible plan to create new jobs (but just want more tax cuts for the rich) -- so the Republicans dug up an old issue to try and smear the Democrats in this election year. They decided to hold more hearings on the tragedy at Benghazi (as if that dead horse hadn't been beaten enough).
But just as they get their new sideshow underway, it is derailed by reality. The ringleader of the Benghazi attack is arrested by the Obama administration (killing any accusations that the president won't punish the evil-doers). But it gets even worse for the GOP. They were hoping their hearing would prove the attack was long-planned by terrorists (and ignored by the Obama administration). But it now comes out that the ringleader of the attacks has told numerous people that the Benghazi attack was a retaliation for a right-wing anti-muslim video on the internet (just as the Obama administration had said it was).
They have done their best to turn the Benghazi tragedy into some kind of scandal (ignoring the fact that they were the ones to cut over $300 million from the diplomatic security budget), but their faux scandal is falling apart before their eyes -- just like the other false scandals they have tried to hang on the president.
It probably doesn't matter too much anyway. A new Gallup Poll (done between June 5th and 8th of a random national sample of 1,027 adults, with a margin of error of 4 points) shows that most people weren't paying any attention to the new Benghazi hearing anyway. A significant majority of Independents, Democrats, and the general public were not paying any attention to the hearing. It seems that the Republicans were just preaching to the choir (their own base) -- and 42% of them weren't listening either.