Two old timers and a newbie considered to have promise within her party. A party in disgrace. An entire political party writhing in agony and bitterness and lashing out so publicly that many Republican voters are recoiling. Benghazi. The demise of Karl Rove and the (at least temporary) obliteration from headlines of Koch, Adelson, and all the most disgusting elements of a pretty dirty political fight that's been going on since 1980 when neocons began to surface as the engine of the Republican party.
Benghazi as an issue is extremely irritating to diplomats, foreign policy wonks, intelligence wonks -- and anyone who actually knows about and respects our diplomatic community. It's not just irritating to Democrats.
Still, it is and can continue to be yet another issue that Democrats can use to take power from a corrupted Republican party. It's a matter of understanding the issues involved and showing where Republicans really stand. The Republican party, tied up with the religious right, has lost all sense when it comes to foreign policy. Add that to their increasingly bad reputation when it comes to government spending, poverty, racism, immigration, women's issues, defense contractors, the nation's infrastructure, and on and on and on...
In their anger and frustration, they're turning on each other. Dana Milbank, in the Post, sympathizes with Senator Cole.
It seems the Republicans have run out of squishy moderates to purge. Now they’re starting to run conservatives out of town for being insufficiently doctrinaire.
Cole, a deeply conservative congressman from deeply Republican Oklahoma, is not to be confused with a RINO: Republican in name only. But when the lawmaker, who has been part of House GOP leadership, floated a perfectly sensible notion this week — that Republicans should accept President Obama’s offer to extend tax cuts for the 98 percent of Americans who earn less than $250,000 a year — he was treated as if he had been caught reading Marx in the Republican cloakroom. ...WaPo
I hope Democratic strategists are putting all this to good use..
Benghazi isn't the biggest screw-up in our recent history, but in the right hands (and with a percipient media), it could be the pistol in the current duel that fires accurately. McCain, Graham, and Ayotte are seconds in that duel and may find their position in the picture very awkward --if not fatal -- in the long run.
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