Hunting Hillary Clinton

Well, it was bound to happen. The first “shut up” within the Republican Party ruling Capitol Hill came in advance of the Republicans’ trumped-up hearings about the 2012 attacks on an American diplomatic compound in Libya. An ambassador and three others tragically were killed. Hillary Clinton, secretary of state at the time, handled the incident properly and defended her actions publicly.

But Republicans have sensed political advantage here ever since Clinton’s campaign for the 2016 Democratic nomination has gotten stronger and the GOP field has gotten ... well, more confusing, to put it politely.

U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy, a hard-core South Carolina tea partyer leading the latest inquiry to get testimony on Benghazi from Clinton, scheduled for Thursday, issued a “shut up” this week in frustration. The problem is, two Republicans, including Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the one-time leading candidate for speaker, have pretty much acknowledged Gowdy’s hearings are little more than an attempt to hurt Clinton politically.

They’ve merely spoken truth. Yes, there have been criticisms of Clinton’s use of a personal email server while secretary of state, but there’s been virtually nothing of a concrete nature to discredit Clinton’s performance, particularly in the matter of Benghazi. It was a tragedy, but it was one that resulted from a necessary U.S. presence in a troubled and hostile place. The ambassador and his fellow diplomats knew the risks and accepted them.

Clinton did her job in 2012, and the Republicans just embarrass themselves as desperate to find anything they can use against a candidate they fear will mop the floor with them in 2016.

This story was originally published October 20, 2015 at 7:02 PM with the headline "Hunting Hillary Clinton."