In the 20 months since four Americans were killed in the attack on the U.S. consulate and CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya, two official investigations have reached pretty much the same conclusions. The State Department Accountability Review Board (ARB) and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) looking into the tragedy found an opportunistic attack that should have been prevented but was not due to poor intelligence, inadequate security on the ground, and dismal information sharing between the U.S. military, the State Department and the CIA. There was no military response that could have been launched in time to save Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. And there was no cover up by the Obama administration.
But that just won’t do for a Republican Party determined to exploit the deaths to sabotage both President Obama and his possible successor, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. So on Friday, Speaker John Boehner announced he would appoint a select House committee to expand on Darrell Issa’s Benghazi inquisition that has already produced 13 hearings, 25,000 pages of documents and 50 briefings. That means the American people will be subjected to the spectacle of endless hearings, deceptive leaks, fabricated stories and altered emails through the November midterms and beyond, all because the GOP and its right-wing allies can’t handle the truth.
Which is why when President George W. Bush and his defenders found themselves besieged by real scandals, they didn’t turn to the truth as a defense. Instead, Bush and his minions turned to these 15 tactics (among others) to survive:
Accuse the Opposition of Slandering the President
Oppose the Investigation
Agree to Testify, But Not Under Oath
Ignore Congressional Subpoenas
Claim Executive Privilege
Threaten to Fire the Wrongdoers--and Then Don’t
Accuse the Opposition of "Criminalizing Politics"
Attack the Victim...
...And Attack the Victims' Families
Use a Popular Military Hero as a Human Shield
Say the Administration Lost the Emails Due to Buggy Software
Delay the Findings for Years
Give Rice Better Sound Bites
Declare That "Nobody Could Have Predicted" the Disaster
Make Fun of Your Mistakes That Killed Americans
