The long grudge
by digby
I could hardly believe what I was hearing when this came up this morning:
[Senator Susan]Collins said Rice’s response to Benghazi had an “eerie echo” of the 1998 bombings of two African embassies, which occurred when Rice was an assistant secretary of state for African Affairs.
“Those bombings in 1998 resulted in the loss of life of 12 Americans as well as many other foreign nationals, and 4,000 people were injured,” Collins told reporters after her hourlong, closed-door meeting with Rice.
“And what troubles me so much is that the Benghazi attacks echoes the attacks on those embassies in 1998 when Susan Rice was head of the African region for our State Department. … She had to be aware of the general threat assessment and of the ambassadors’ request for more security.”
Right. But she could probably find something a bit more recent than that if she wants to see a great example of government officials ignoring threat assessments. September 11th, 2001 comes to mind.
Just as they convinced themselves that Whitewater was their Watergate, they think Benghazi is their 9/11 commission. I assume they persist in this endless round of idiotic payback politics because it's just in their nature. It serves a political purpose too, of course. It's a great distraction and destroys comity and purpose on the other side as even liberals with common sense start abandoning the field either because they buy into the "smell test" theory or figure they should cut their losses.
But in the end, I think it's just because the right wing personality is one that holds grudges forever and always always hits back, no matter how long it takes. My observation of this phenomenon over the years leads me to believe that the most successful liberals are those who show resilience in the face of these attacks. It's not a matter of being aggressive, it's a matter of being tough.
As for the press, they are as easily duped as ever. To take a metaphor I've used many times before, they are like baby birds waiting to be fed something juicy and they gulp it down without even knowing what it is. And the result is inevitable.
This one's dumber than usual but you have to give the Republicans credit for finding the energy for it even in the face of their epic loss. If nothing else, they've got moxie.
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