Geez, are the Benghazi hearings cursed or something? First the Petraeus scandal breaks literally days before he testifies. The FBI had known for many months and conveniently choose that time to break the story? At least Petraeus still showed up and testified. Behind closed doors. What he said is anyone’s guess.
Now we get the Secretary of State falling after a stomach virus days before her testimony? btw, Other reports I read said she was not hospitalized. The testimony is still six days away and they just cancel it? Without even seeing how she feels after a few days rest? High school quarterbacks used to routinely play just days after a concussion (that’s changed now). How hard is it to show up, sit in a chair, and testify for an hour?
Combine this with Rice’s less than forthcoming testimony. :smack: What is the deal with this administration? Testify and get the facts out there. Move on to the next crisis. Is this so hard for them to comprehend?
A hell of a lot harder than you seem to think it is. Ever been cross examined? It isn’t pleasant. In this instance, she can anticipate every sentence she utters to be nit-picked by a team of highly partisan congress critters, many of whom are lawyers or have the benefit of lawyers advising them on exactly how to make her look as bad as possible. Definitely not something you’d want to experience on a normal day, much less on a day when you’re at less than your best.
And let the record reflect that I just defended Hilary fucking Clinton. I feel dirty. Think I’ll go jump in the shower now.
They’ve been predicting for weeks that Hillary wouldn’t show up. Nothing has been rescheduled. At the very least it will be after the holidays and thats assuming she isn’t too busy. Not to mention that I think she steps down in January? It was announced last Spring that she was stepping down after the election.
I personally don’t think there’s any big secret. It’s already widely known what a huge security failure we had in Libya. We practically offered the guy up on a silver platter for slaughter. What’s important now is to avoid another screw up like this in the future. Perhaps fire a few folks directly responsible for denying the additional security that the ambassador pleaded for.
There’s no need to make this political. A few low level bureaucrats in the state dept screwed up. They denied critical support when it was requested. The troops guarding the ambassador were withdrawn a month before his death. This is a personnel issue. Identify the people responsible, fire their asses and move on. There’s nothing political here. Obviously routine staffing decisions like this are not decided by the Sec of State nor the President. Their involvement is simply limited to how the story was released. Nothing more.
Do you really think he is the only person that asked for more security and they just sat on it and denied it knowing he was going to be killed?
It’s a matter of allocating resources. It doesn’t help that republicans voted for cutting embassy security. They knew the risk was someone would die, but they took a gamble and now have the balls to blame it on the administration.
Republicans are against Obama - whatever he does - they say they would have done the opposite.
Conservatives that complain that Obama fucked up are no different than the Liberals who think 9/11 was totally foreseeable - or those like John Kerry who say we messed up at Tora Bora. It is real nice to do Monday morning quarterbacking.
And from what I’ve read - even if they had approved it - it was for Tripoli - not the ambassador himself - and wouldn’t have made a difference.
I have no problem with an investigation, but based on every thing the republicans have done in the past four years - this is zero percent about getting to the truth and 100% about embarrassing Obama.
What exactly do you think Clinton is keeping secret? What can’t wait a few more weeks?
If she stalls long enough and steps down then she won’t have direct access to State Dept files. She’ll be testifying from memory and maybe some personal notes.
I have no idea why she’s delayed testifying. She should have testified a month or more ago. Instead they sent Rice. That’s whats so frustrating about this administration. Getting a straight answer from them is like pulling hens teeth. They are creating the problem themselves by not being more transparent.
Ironically, the administration probably didn’t do anything wrong at the higher levels. Those security issues were handled by very low level people. At most, Rice and Clinton tried to spin the story by blaming the attack on a provocative anti Islam film. But, by dragging this out it’s getting politicized. Stories are spun everyday in Washington. I’m not concerned that the early Libya attack stories were wrong.
What possibly could be in the files? You think the ambassador asked for protection and they said - fuck you - we want you to die? I mean really - other than that - what bad stuff could be in there? The request for security was turned down. The republicans voted against the the increase in security that the administration requested.
If low level people are responsible what good is it have high level people testify?
To me - this was an accident. There is only so much money to go around. To suggest that Patraeus and Clinton are avoiding testifying stretches any rational thought. No matter who turned down the security request - this wasn’t done with malice. Any republican senator could easily have complained about this ahead of time - they didn’t because it wasn’t conceivably any bigger risk than what was already there and they Fred against funding.
Terrorists hate us. There are terrorists in the middle east. We are in the middle east. If we don’t have security - bad things can happen.
They did.
If they know something bad happened - and they want to cover it up - all they have to do is say “I don’t recall”, “I don’t know”, “I wasn’t there”…
Blame the chairmen of the congressional committees for waiting three months to schedule a hearing, then. And Rice did not testify before Congress. Get your facts straight.
And I feel dirty just watching. You don’t mind if I watch, do you?
Here it is dopers: concussions are dangerous. You need to rest and not concentrate for at least two weeks. Otherwise you end up like a football player, or George W. Bush: mentally impaired for life.
I guess my general frustration with the gridlock in Washington is boiling over. Nothing gets done anymore without a huge political battle. Now even investigating and correcting a security failure gets politicized. So far I haven’t heard one word about correcting the problem. Allocating more money for embassy security, punishing the low level bureaucrats that screwed up and so forth.
I understand some issues will always be political. But issues like keeping our embassy staff safe should be addressed more directly. I’m sure everyone agrees their safety is what matters. Correcting whatever mistakes were made is important before another embassy gets attacked.
Hillary did say (a couple months ago) that she was launching an internal investigation within the State Dept. Which is a good start. I’m guessing those results will be part of her testimony. Finger pointing only goes so far. Lets fix the problem so that our embassy’s are ready for the next terrorist attack.
I had my bell rung a few times playing basketball in high school and college. Usually an elbow to the face or getting knocked down hard. I still recall the headaches and nausea that lingered for a few days. I still managed to attend school, do my homework, take any scheduled tests, and yes usually attend practice. Back then you were lucky to get a day or two off from practice unless you were badly injured.
Today, we know how important it is that someone doesn’t get hit too soon after a concussion. They aren’t allowed to practice or play for several weeks. Which is smart.
All I suggested with Hillary is that she’d probably feel ok after a couple days rest. That’s just based on my own experiences. The first couple days are usually the worst after a pop on the head. Republicans may be partisan but I don’t think they’d inflict any head injuries.
<shrug> Anyway, I hope she rests, has a fun Christmas and New Years Holiday. Maybe they can get her rescheduled for January.
Unless you were a 65-year-old woman at the time of your high school football injuries, I don’t think your experiences are particularly relevant. I sprained my ankle when I was 12 and wrapped it up for a couple days and went about my business. My 70-year-old mother-in-law sprained her ankle and wound up on crutches for a couple of weeks.
It’s also reported that she has a virus which is being called the reason she fainted and hit her head. If you’re under the weather to the point that you pass out – whether or not a concussion follows – it seems totally reasonable to take a few days to get over the virus.
Shoot, I had the flu three years ago and it took me two weeks to feel well enough to be productive at work. I don’t begrudge anyone with a nasty virus taking a few days off, no matter how much football they played in olden times.
