They keep trying to turn this into 9/11 but I don't think it's working:
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) tore into Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the deadly attacks in Benghazi, Libya, on Wednesday, saying that her planned departure indicates that she accepts “culpability for the worst tragedy since 9/11.”
That comparison drew rebuke from Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where Clinton testified Wednesday morning. She is scheduled to give testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee later in the day.
“I think if some people on this committee want to call the tragedy in Benghazi the worst since 9/11, it misunderstands the nature of 4,000 Americans plus lost over ten years of war in Iraq fought under false pretenses,” newly elected Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said in response
Even some Republicans are obviously feeling a little bit funny about the scope of their outrage:
Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), on the other hand, used a different metaphor to describe the scale of the attack: the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion in 1986.
“I’ve kind of looked at it like the Challenger explosion where we lost those seven astronauts because of an O-ring and problems there. We didn’t see it coming but we could have seen it coming and should have seen it coming,” he said.
I don't recall Ronald Reagan himself being roasted over the coals for that but perhaps I'm mistaken. Anyway, it's reaching, to say the least.
So much of our politics is each party trying to fight the last war and mirroring each other's outrage to even things up. It gets really tiring after a while. If you want to see a bunch of shrieking banshees working themselves up into a complete frenzy, watch FOX today. If they really believe half of what they are saying, they are even nuttier than we knew. Oh, and once again here's a little friendly reminder: Seven U.S. Embassies And Consulates Were Attacked Under George W. Bush And this too:
1983: Bomb Blast At U.S. Embassy In Beirut Killed More Than 60, Including 17 Americans. From an ABC News article on the 25th anniversary of the April 18, 1983, bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon:
Beirut was arguably the most dangerous city in the world. Car bombs inside the city were common, and extremist elements plotted in the nearby Bekaa Valley. It was exactly 25 years ago today that a bomber detonated 2,000 lbs. of explosives in front of the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon and killed more than 60 people, including 17 Americans. Forty-four people inside the embassy survived. Among them was the man who leads the U.S. Embassy in what is now considered the most dangerous place for American diplomats: Baghdad. Ambassador Ryan Crocker was serving as a political officer in Beirut and survived the blast. It was at the time the deadliest terror attack on Americans abroad; six months later another bomber killed 241 in an attack on the U.S. Marine barracks near the Beirut airport. [ABC News, 4/18/07]
And then President Perfect withdrew altogether, a little piece of history the macho right wingers always choose to overlook. This Benghazi attack was a terrible thing and there are many real questions to be asked about our involvement in Libya in general. But to behave as if this particular event is something unusual or particularly significant is ridiculous. Embassies in hot spots are always in danger, as the history clearly shows, and diplomats who serve there know it. The Republicans are trying desperately to create some 9/11 equivalence with this thing and I have to say that it's one of the most absurd gambits I've seen them try in a long, long time.
But I will never say that it won't work. They impeached a president for unauthorized fellatio. Anything can happen.
Update: Listening to Rand Paul talk about what he would do if he were president makes my skin crawl. For so many reasons ...