Discussion: Pelosi 'Leaning Toward' Full Participation In New Benghazi Probe

It’s a big crap sandwich, and we all have to take a bite.

Yaa we know how you feel. You have not a clue about Nancy Pelosi She knows what she’s doing far better than you. If we don’t participate, they will be allowed to say anything without rebuttal and there are other rules that may preclude the dems from even getting access to the hearing notes.

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Thanks Plucky. You do understand as does Little Girl and myself. Dontcha just love the knee jerk reactions?

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It’s a “no-brainer” that Democrats should appoint only one person to that committee. (And I think it should be Grayson.)

So what does that say about the intelligence of Pelosi and Hoyer?

While Benghazi has all the appearance of a national security issue, it continues to radiate a dog whistle message complete with serious racial undertones. Remember, Susan Rice was in line to become the first Black Female Secretary of State until the GOP started squawking and called for her scalp. Now they want Obama’s, while Cheney and Bush, whose transgressions and lies to the public dwarf any attempted by the current administration, sip Pina Colada’s in the heartland . The Democrats should have none of this BS.

Grimes is going to have to step very gingerly, reminding voters that ACA or Kynect is working there and Mitch opposed it while also distancing herself from the author of the bill and her own party. I have read, however, that his approval ratings are in the toilet and they’re just a little tired of him after 30 years, and hers are so far pretty good. But I also take hope in the fact that she is an elected Democrat from KY and the governor is also a Democrat.

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What you’re saying sounds very good - on paper. However, in reality, the Dems don’t really excel at that sort of thing. We had 8 YEARS of the Bush maladministration to prove that. It’s really hard to “expose the falsehoods and bullshit talking points” when that’s all there is to this. We have lots of dry powder for our pains.

And another point: how can the Dems expose bullshit when it’s already been exposed? How much more repeating can we do? The entire point of this theater of the absurd is to gin up their base. Which will be ginned up no matter what. Even some of the media is seeing that. What MORE is to be countered by participating in this?

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Repugs like talking to empty chairs. Let 'em.

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One thing she can do is run some of the tea party ads used against Mitch in the Primary.

Exactly. Well put. Sort of leads you to believe that this is a hate fest being undewritten at the taxpayer’s expense.

Absolutely correct. Additionally, if Dems did boycott this,they would be totally shut out of every discussion on it going forward. You can just see Dancin’ Dave with his gleeful little smile “But you chose not to participate…How can you criticize anything now?”

Boycotting this would be a serious error for the Dems. Pick a few very outspoken Representatives like Grayson and interrupt and shutdown this thing every step of the way. Turn the media story into how contentious Dems and republican House members are to each other. That’s exactly the sort of thing the media laps up eagerly.

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How exactly is giving republicans an uninterrupted forum to gin up their base a good thing? How do you think that days and days of republican spin (because without any Dems to counter it each step of the way, the media has no choice but stenograph what republicans say) is going to somehow fire up the Dem base?

Dems expose the bullshit by pointing out that it is bullshit every single time they bring it up. Put some folks on their like Grayson and Waxman and counter every bit of nonsense republicans utter.

The other choice is to say absolutely nothing, be shut out of the media and let republicans gin up falsehoods and accusations unimpeded. If Dems aren’t on the committee, they will have zero chance of countering anything in the media afterwards.

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Not participating would give the R’s too much power.

The Dems need to study each and every technique they can use to disrupt the R’s potential show trial. They need to be ready for anything, and stack the panel with people who are gonna stand out if the R’s act up.

No more bullcrap stunts like Issa turning off the microphone when Elijah Cummings tried to speak.

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And I’m sick of progressives like you complaining about spinelessness, when it ultimately was the spinelessness of progressives that created this mess.

This committee only exists because Republicans control the House, and they control the House because too many folks like you ranted about spineless Democrats in 2010 and helped the Republicans win the election. I’ve had it with the loudest of progressives acting like they know everything better than the Democrats do. When have these loud progressives actually WON an election?

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He will fail in a huge way trying that approach. He has already tried various attempts and each one has fallen to the way side. Grimes is not Obama; there are quite a few policy points that they seriously disagree. That’s why she said,as a delegate for KY at the Democratic Convention that she voted for the party’s candidate…not that she voted for Obama.

McConnell is going to spend most of the next 6 months on the defensive, trying to fend off her attacks; not the other way around. He still hasn’t answered her repeated requests to meet up for a discussion at a shooting range…because he knows he will be embarrassed. So keep that image in context…screaming that she is just like Obama while she is receiving full throated support from the coal industry and challenging him to a debate on gun rights at a shooting range which he keeps ducking? Nobody is going to buy that narrative.

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She doesn’t have to walk on eggshells at all. Kynect is popular in Kentucky; she has no need to run away from it. Actually she is one of the few Dem candidates this year that gets the best of both worlds on that issue. She can and does fully support all of its strengths, while suffering none of the pushback because…she didn’t vote for it. Her campaign has been very good about keeping her right in that sweet spot,too.

She will slam McConnell on women’s rights, healthcare, jobs and just about anything else she wants. He is an unpopular politician in the state that no longer brings home the bacon like he used to. Add to that a 500,000 voter advantage on the voter rolls, not only a Dem governor but nearly every elected position outside of the Legislature held by Dems. She has a solid base already,and has been barnstorming all over the state…the single most effective mode of campaigning… while McConnell has been busy with the primary, and I think she is in a very strong position for this fall.

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Hypothetical press conference question for Grimes in September 2014:Senator McConnell supports a measure that would introduce articles of impeachment against President Obama based upon the latest revelations of of the Select House Committee’s Benghazi investigation. What is your position?

The republicans trying to move the national discussion to Benghazi…again…just shows how desperate they really are this year. Obamacare has blown up in their faces, and is trending more positively with Americans every day. It has all but disappeared from discussions now. Out of the 6 seats they need to win the Senate, they are only polling above water in the 3 that Dems essentially spotted them, MT, WV and SD. No where else do they have anything that comes close to a commanding lead in the polls. Indeed, in AR their candidate is falling like a stone. In AK,they don’t even know who they are running yet, but the Dem is out polling everyone.

The question you have to ask every time someone says that republicans have a 50/50 or better chance of winning the Senate is…show me 6 races where they have a significant polling lead. Nobody can because it isn’t happening.

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Nancy Peolsi is no fool. She should be trusted. I do think Grayson is up to the task.

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The GOP will spin falsehoods whether we are there or not. If Gowdy wants to cut any Dems’ mics, he’ll do as Issa did with Cummings. Dems can counter this kangaroo court without acutually participating in it and giving it legitmacy. Boner absolutely wants to show the country that this fiasco is something NEW and that something different will be discovered. Of course it won’t.

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