Salon.com
Put Alan Grayson on Benghazi panel! Why he’s Dems’ best option to expose this clown show
Dems can't boycott Benghazi hearings -- so they should follow one writer's great idea: Let Alan Grayson ruin them
With the latest Benghazi! ™ extravaganza about to begin, the Democrats are faced with a dilemma. Should they boycott the silly hearings, thus leaving the Republicans to put on their pageant unimpeded, or should they join in with a full panel and add legitimacy to the process? The problem seems to be that whether they like it or not, these hearings are going to be covered. And if the press reaction so far tells us anything, they are looking for a show.
This is why they should follow the advice of Ari Rabin-Havt in the American Prospect who says that a boycott would be a “colossal error.” He points out the unfortunate reality:
Even with limited power, ceding the committee room to Republicans—not to mention the televised hearings—will only allow them to parade their Benghazi myths unimpeded by relevant facts framed in questions from the minority
Yes, one might expect that the media would be able to straighten out all the factual misrepresentations and downright lies, but considering the fact that even Lara Logan and the venerable “60 Minutes” imploding with a full-fledged hoax did little to put the story to bed, it’s highly unlikely that allowing the GOP to harangue and harass Hillary Clinton will put an end to this phony scandal.
In fact, it’s long past time the Democrats understood that they are not as successful as they think they are at letting the Republicans hang themselves. They seem to believe that because all their friends and wealthy donors think the GOP clown show is appalling that it always reads that way in the rest of the country. “Smell-test” scandal-mongering, where people begin to think there must be something to it or they couldn’t get away with spending all this time and money pursuing it, takes its toll.
