What happened when Hillary visited the Senate

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that 67 percent of Americans view her favorably, a career high and roughly double the popularity congressional Republicans have. So when Clinton clashed with GOP lawmakers Wednesday, it had the feeling of a Hummer colliding with a Smart Car. ...Dana Milbank, WaPo

The Washington Post starts off with a video of the hearing, zeroing in on the questioning by Rand Paul.  The Post calls it "Hillary Clinton and Rand Paul starting their campaigns?"  The answer is, of course.  But that applies in spades to Paul.  As the tea partyers become less and less popular, Paul really stands out as a kind of residue of that astroturf "party" -- the Armey army, the Kochs' costly mistake.  Post editorial writer, Dana Milbank, refers to Ron Paul as a "man of exotic opinions who is never going to be president."

Clinton did just fine.  She was there for six (6) hours.  There didn't seem to be anything on the Republican side that justified wasting the time.  Dana Milbank focuses on this exchange:

... Her anger boiled over when rookie Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) demanded to know why she and her aides didn’t immediately call those evacuated from Benghazi to find out whether a protest had preceded the attack. Clinton replied that she didn’t want to interfere with the FBI’s investigation — which is almost certainly what Republicans would have accused her of doing.

“That’s a good excuse,” Johnson said, scornfully.

“Well, no, it’s a fact,” Clinton retorted, growing irritated. Waving her index finger, she pointed out that much of what happened in Libya on Sept. 11 remains unknown.

“No, no, no, no,” Johnson rejoined. “We were misled that there were supposedly protests and then something sprang out of that, an assault . . . and the American people could have known that within days.”

Clinton raised her voice. “With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans,” she shouted at the lawmaker. Waving her arms and then pounding the witness table with her fist, she continued: “Was it because of a protest, or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they’d go kill some Americans? What difference, at this point, does it make?”

Johnson stopped interrupting as Clinton continued. “It is, from my perspective, less important today looking backward as to why these militants decided they did it than to find them and bring them to justice,” she said.

Johnson didn’t attempt a rebuttal. “Okay, thank you, Madam Secretary.” ...Dana Milbank, WaPo

Maybe something good will come out of this. Maybe Senate Republicans will actually give the State Department the money it asked for -- and clearly needs -- for embassy and consulate security. They've been trying to starve State and put it out of business for years.  Look what that effort ended in:   unnecessary deaths and ...the idiocies of Rand Paul.