But of course they didn’t. They wanted to yell at Hillary for not providing additional security, without considering whether providing such security would have soured relations with the new Libyan government. Most of all, of course, they wanted to yell at her for allowing Susan Rice to say what the Republicans said she said (which is quite different from what she actually said) about what happened in Benghazi. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who is clearly planning to run for President, told Hillary that the four deaths were the “worst since 9/11,” and that if he were president, he’d have “relieved her,”* suggesting that he doesn’t really know how things work in the Executive Branch.
Hillary, for her part, played the tragedy card pretty shamelessly. ““I stood next to President Obama as the Marines carried those flag-draped caskets off the plane at Andrews. I put my arms around the mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters.” Well, fine. But does that explain what went wrong in Benghazi? There’s plenty that hasn’t been explained, but Republicans seem to have no interest in that. All they wish to do is berate Susan Rice for saying something she didn’t say, which makes them sound just the teeniest bit sexist and the teeniest bit racist.
*It’s too bad that secretaries of state aren’t allowed to tell senators things like “Well, I guess it’s lucky for me that you aren’t president,” or maybe “Where did you get that suit? JC Penney?” Or maybe “Senator, the jerk store called. They’re running out of you.”
