State Department playing No Card Monte with Senators on Benghazi?

Three card monte at least affords the subject to actually choose a card after being deceived. In this game played by the State Department, the cards are shuffled and removed before the subjects have the opportunity to even flip them over.

Before continuing, see if you can find the metaphor for what you’re about to read:

Enter the State Department. According to Foreign Policy’s The Cable, the State Department is making documents relative to the Benghazi investigation, available to Senators for two days only and, coincidentally, those two days are at a time when there are no Senators in town.

Via Foreign Policy:

“We are currently in the process of gathering and reviewing record responsive to Congressional requests. Our efforts have already identified a large volume of potentially responsive records that address the security situation leading up to the attack,” State Department Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs David Adams wrote to Kerry on Nov. 2 in a letter obtained by The Cable.

“To facilitate your committee’s work, we want to offer you and other members of the committee the opportunity to review these cables and memoranda. This set of material contains classified and other sensitive information… Mindful of these concerns, the Department is prepared to make copies of these documents available for the committee’s in camera review.”

One senior GOP Senate staffer told The Cable that State is only making the documents available for senators and committee staff to view today and tomorrow, which won’t actually allow the members to prepare for the hearing. Staffers for committee members are also not allowed to see the material.

“Funny since no member is in town,” the aide said. “The timing and limited access clearly demonstrates the administration cares more about playing politics with the tragedy than accepting responsibility.”

Committee members Bob Corker (R-TN) and Johnny Isakson (R-GA) sent Clinton a letter Nov. 2 asking that the documents be sent to the committee, not just made available for viewing on a limited basis.

It is indeed interesting that Hillary Clinton appears to be assuming a position similar to one Attorney General Eric Holder assumed in Fast and Furious – obfuscation and stonewalling in an attempt to run out the clock. Again, House Speaker John Boehner essentially stayed in the shadows when it came to Fast and Furious. It’s time for him to step out, front and center, over Benghazi-gate and show solidarity with the leaders of the House committees that need to be able to rely on him for leadership.

Then again… we are talking about Boehner…


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