Some Thoughts on Hillary and That Ben Ghazi Guy

I've never been a fan of Hillary Clinton and she scored no points with me today. For a win today, all she needed to do today was not disrespect the dead and she couldn't even do that. What does it matter? Even with the qualifier (and the Clintons are all about qualifiers) of what does it matter today, the administration LIED to the American people about this incident. and that's the good version of that particular story, because the alternative is that they were IGNORANT and not even I can buy that...

Jeff Flake made a few good points in his post on Facebook today:

It is regarding the aftermath of the Benghazi tragedy that the Obama Administration still has not come clean. It seems clear that the President and his team fostered a world view with which a premeditated terrorist attack in Benghazi did not comport, so they spun these attacks (largely through Ambassador Rice's TV appearances) as a spontaneous protest.

Secretary Clinton's response during the hearing: "What difference does it make?" It makes a big difference, actually. To wage effective diplomacy, statecraft and military strategy, you have to see the world as it is, not as you wish it to be.

Madam Secretary, it matters to the families that you lied to on that tarmac. In today's testimony, you claim that you cried and hugged family members of the fallen, but those families tell a much different story and they have FAR more credibility on ANY subject than you.

Flake was much more forgiving about the actual event than most of us who actually know that Benghazi isn't some dude who got kicked off American Idol. And unlike most pontificators (including myself) on the subject, he looks to the future.

"It's easy now, with hindsight, to see the warning signs regarding the lack of adequate security for our Ambassador and others. Requests for additional security were not heeded, but that is not an infrequent occurrence regardless of the Administration in charge. Attacks happen, and we are often unprepared for such attacks. We hope to be better prepared next time.

...

The recent events in Mali and Algeria are a reminder that we'd better understand this principle. If we don't, Benghazi will be just the beginning of our troubles."

The world is full of evil and people who wish to do us harm. While I agree that we shouldn't let that fact cripple us or interfere with our diplomatic efforts, we must take that threat seriously or people will continue to die.

UPDATE: How bad was this Clinton performance? It was so bad that the administration let it leak that Panetta is planning to announce Women in Combat so that the talking heads in the 527 Media would have something else to talk about tonight...