While many of us hit by Superstorm Sandy were still struggling to
recover, Saturday Night Live opened with a dueling press conference by
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie,
each accompanied by his personal ASL translator. At one point, Fred
Armesen, broke into some very Bloombergesque español and asked New York's
Hispanic population to please be patient with white people who, with no
electricity, internet, or cable have been missing
Homeland, and missing Homeland is the worst thing that ever happened to them.
Some people are simply so impatient for the new season
of
Homeland that they have launched a spin-off. A huge hit during
season one beginning last fall,
Benghazi returned to the Fox
News Channel in prime time last week, and its fans cannot get enough.
During season one, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as the Carrie
Mathison figure, returning from an extensive trip to the South Pacific
and Asia immediately had to respond to an attack on a US installation in
northern Libya.
Her State Department had lost four good men.
Hillary took full responsibility for everything and assigned two top
people, Ambassador Thomas Pickering and Admiral Mike Mullen to assemble
an Accountability Review Board to investigate what had happened and what
had gone wrong.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee clamored for
her to appear before them. She assured them that she would cooperate
after the ARB had completed its investigation and submitted its report,
but meanwhile assured them that she would gladly send State Department
personnel to testify as requested and well as provide documents as
requested,
which she did.
In the course of the live telecast of the testimony, Rep. Jason
Chaffetz, ever petulant and dramatic, exposed the Benghazi installation
not really to be a State Department operation at all but rather a CIA
site under DOS cover, but never mind!
Meanwhile, Hillary attended to
her myriad other duties as Secretary of State as well as President
Obama's duties at the U.N. General Assembly through the end of
September.
She traveled extensively in October and November Peru,
Algeria, the Balkans, Australia, and one last swing through Asia with a
sudden assignment to the Middle East. In December, finishing her last
trip to the Czech Republic, NATO in Belgium, Ireland, and Northern
Ireland she fell ill with a serious virus, fainted, and sustained a
concussion. Later a blood clot was found.
All of this time the
HFAC clamored for her appearance, however, the ARB report had not as yet
been completed, and Hillary was not going to testify until she had that
report to read and submit. Hillary as villainess in the Fox News
series
Benghazi was now being accused of faking her illness and injuries to avoid testifying.
Recovering
at home, she received the completed report and sent it to Congress with
a cover letter (see the sidebar for the links), but she was still under
doctors' orders to remain at home, rest, and heal. December and
Christmas passed, the New Year came in, and Hillary's people were all
very worried about her condition while the
Benghazi show on Fox insisted she was faking.
Season one of
Behghazi ended when Hillary spent January 23 on Capitol Hill and testified before the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the
House Foreign Affairs Committee (videos of full testimony have been added to these links). Like her confirmation hearing, these testimonies together amounted to the equivalent of multiple dissertation defenses.
In the interim, the Republican Conference launched an investigation of the ARB investigation and
issued a report in
late April. Missing from the committee assigned to the investigation
was the House Appropriations Committee which, for the two years in a row
since the election of Tea Party candidates to the Republican majority
Congress, had cut Hillary's budget for Embassy security by hundreds of
millions of dollars. But never mind!
We have a basis for a new season
of ...
Benghazi! Let's do it!
Season two opened last
week to much fanfare regarding State Department "whistleblowers"
testifying - now to the House Oversight and Government Reform
Committee. Covered exclusively by Fox, since they own
Benghazi,
the season debut featured questions from Republican members, often
delivered with great melodramatic flair (Jason Chaffetz, Trey Gowdy).
In this episode a great fuss was made regarding the ARB, the depth,
breadth, and nature of the investigation as well as personnel
interviewed.
In a review of season two/episode one last week, ARB
co-chair Ambassador Thomas Pickering told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell that
both he and his co-chair Admiral Mullen had offered their testimony to
HOGR chair, Darryl Issa, prior to last week's hearing but they were
declined.
Drama built as Pickering sat beside Issa on Meet the Press on Sunday. I will let you read the deliciousness here.
By: Sarah JonesMay. 12th, 2013Darrell
Issa (R-CA) made a fool of himself on “Meet the Press” Sunday as he
tried to defend his Benghazi conspiracy. David Gregory (R-TV) pushed
back hard, even bringing up the GOP’s defunding of security.
Issa
even accused General David Petraeus of lying for the administration. As
soon as Gregory would call Issa on one thing, he’d say he was
investigating something else. Issa accused Tom Pickering of refusing to
testify when in fact, Issa had not invited him to speak and Pickering
was told that the Republican majority did not want him there. Issa ended
up backtracking on that one, too, and it was super awkward when it came
out that Issa never asked for him to appear.
Read more >>>>
It was even better than any of the Fox coverage. So in this week's episode, the previews show this coming.
WASHINGTON
— House Republicans pushed ahead Monday with their investigation of the
deadly assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, last
year as President Barack Obama asserted that GOP charges of a cover-up
are baseless.
The latest Republican focus is the independent
review that slammed the State Department for inadequate security at the
installation before the twin nighttime attacks that killed Ambassador
Chris Stevens and three other Americans on Sept. 11, 2012.
Rep.
Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government
Reform Committee, asked the two authors of the investigation – veteran
diplomat Thomas Pickering and retired Adm. Mike Mullen, the former
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff – to meet privately with committee
staff to answer questions about their review. Democrats countered that
if Congress wants to talk to them, Issa should hold a full open hearing.
Read more >>>>
I have a feeling this season will not go well for
Benghazi, Issa or for Fox.
I can understand being frustrated between seasons of
Homeland.
I am a fan myself. Going to this extent seems an exaggeration,
however. There are alternatives. While it is entirely based in
fantasy,
Game of Thrones, for example, could be very instructive viewing for Issa and his army.
They should become acquainted with
Daenerys Targaryen . I believe her character is based on Hillary Clinton. Like Hillary, she is blonde, beautiful, smart, kind, and a gifted leader. Princess of the
Targaryen dynasty and widow of Dothraki warlord,
Khal Drogo, she is the Khaleesi of the Dothraki people. When faced
with enemies, she buys their slaves to be her army and buys their female
slaves, befriends them and makes them her close staff and guards. She
is very powerful. Everyone adores her, and she has dragons. Fierce dragons. Protective ones.
Speaking of dragons, Hillary also has
fierce dragons. We are legion. We are
everywhere, and even if they try to keep this
Benghazi series going,
our Khaleesi will win in the end.
