American voters are certainly aware, at least one would hope, that congressional representatives put as much or more importance on the needs and demands of special interests as they do the public’s, but they likely have no idea how obedient some representatives are to outside forces. Most conservative voters, whether they are Republicans, teabaggers, or libertarians likely labor under the false assumption that their Republican champions in Congress are working for them and shape policy according to their needs to advance their favorite issues and agendas. It is true that some representatives do take and obey very specific directions from special interests as a matter of course, but because of the incredible amount of dark money the Supreme Court injected into campaigns, voters can only guess which special interest is driving Congress’s agenda.
It is difficult to comprehend exactly which conservative organization, or libertarian-owned corporation, or right-wing extremist talking head is calling the shots for the Republicans in Congress on any given day, but it appears it is a concerted effort that must leave Republicans wondering who they really serve. Based on an announcement yesterday by Speaker of the House John Boehner, the Republicans’ master du jour was a chorus of Fox News’ talking heads desperate to resurrect a conspiracy theory instigated by failed presidential candidate Willard Romney. Despite several investigations, hearings, and accusations by congressional republicans and conservative pundits that the Obama Administration exterminated four diplomats at a Benghazi outpost and covered up their murderous rampage were persistently debunked, Speaker Boehner allowed Fox News to “establish a new select committee to investigate the attack, provide the necessary accountability, and ensure justice is finally served.”
Americans should make no mistake that the decision to form a select committee to investigate the oft-debunked conspiracy theory surrounding the attack by Muslim protestors that claimed the lives of four Americans was not Boehner’s, he was just taking explicit orders from Fox News talking heads. Until yesterday, Boehner tasked the criminal head of the House Oversight Committee, Darrell Issa, to push the debunked Benghazi conspiracy theory, but even Speaker of the House John Boehner understands he takes orders from Fox News and quickly toed the line to avoid the wrath of Fox pundits that control House Republicans. Four different Fox talking heads ordered Boehner to announce the establishment of the select committee after seizing on an email issued three days after the Benghazi attack. Fox News claims an email written by Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor, proves that former United Nations’ ambassador Susan Rice’s appearance on Sunday talk shows was a carefully scripted plot by President Obama to conceal his Administration’s murderous role in the massacre of four American diplomats.
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The email from Rhodes that Fox fails to prove that Obama Administration used then-ambassador Rice to cover-up the diplomats’ murders, advised her ahead of appearances on political talk shows with information about global protests; specifically that “the currently available information suggests that the demonstrations in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the US Embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault against the US Consulate and subsequently its annex.” Language in the so-called “Rhodes email” is nearly identical to initial CIA talking points, and was consistent with the intelligence community that have only served to debunk Republican claims there is a Benghazi cover up or diabolical conspiracy. The Rhodes email is nothing new, except for Fox News desperate to help Republicans portray the Obama Administration in a negative light.
Fox stumbled on the Rhodes email on April 29 and within two days Boehner followed orders to form a select committee. On April 30 on Fox News’ the Kelly File, guest host Martha MacCallum interviewed Andrew McCarthy of National Review Online who complained that “five different Congressional committees coming at it are not equipped to conduct what needs to be conducted here; it’s got to be a select committee with subpoena power.” The next day, May 1, on Fox’s America’s Newsroom, Bill Hemmer reacted to testimony in congressional hearings on Benghazi debunking the conspiracy theory stating, “You heard this discussion about a special committee. Many in Washington believe that is how you go out and about to figure out what the truth is here.” The same day, Chris Stirewalt, Fox’s digital politics editor, touted testimony that he claimed showed the Obama administration did not do enough to rescue the victims of the attack, and concluded, “If that’s not enough for the Speaker of the House to call for a select committee, I frankly don’t know what would be.” As if to impress on Speaker John Boehner that he had better follow Fox pundits’ direct instructions and do their bidding, the co-host of Fox’s Outnumbered, Kimberly Guilfoyle, parroted war-monger John McCain’s claim that the “Rhodes email” gave “the appearance of a cover-up and is why we need a select committee to investigate.”
Also on May 1 on Fox’s America’s Newsroom, contributor Doug Schoen said, “I would make a simple suggestion. Let us have, now, a select committee with subpoena power to get the facts. Let’s put aside the rhetoric. Let’s put aside the posturing and get the facts once and for all. We need, frankly, the Republicans like Eric Cantor and John Boehner to step forward and not hide.” John Boehner may be an idiot, but after two days of Fox News’ demanding he form a select committee to investigate an often-debunked conspiracy theory, he got a clue that his masters were growing impatient with his impertinence at not following their orders forthwith.
The real question Americans in a quandary of who to support in the upcoming midterm elections, and one Democratic candidates should ask voters in their districts, is precisely why racist Republicans have wasted $14 million on a debunked conspiracy theory when they never blinked after any one of the 13 embassy attacks when a white guy, George W. Bush, was in the Oval Office. Voters should also ask themselves how their lives were improved by the preponderance of congressional Republican witch hunts and conspiracy theory-driven investigations into the tragic Benghazi attacks over the past year-and-a-half. More specifically, voters and Democrats should ask if the debunked witch hunts helped create even one job or aided even one American to gain access to affordable health care insurance. They should also ask if racist Republicans accusing President Obama and Hillary Clinton of murdering four diplomats at the Benghazi diplomatic outpost was to help Americans feed and house their families, or just a pathetic attempt to distract voters’ attention from the GOP’s wretched lack of policy ideas.
Unquestionably, conservative racists, gun maniacs, religious tyrants, and patriots lusting for armed rebellion will claim jobs, healthcare, and housing are of no interest to Americans compared to Republican fabricated scandals and conspiracy theories attacking the Black man in the Oval Office, but Democrats should seize on their extremism to portray the true nature of the conservative movement. It may be true that Boehner followed Fox’s directive to form a select committee on Benghazi to distract attention away from the promising unemployment report and success of the Affordable Care Act, but Fox News was pushing Boehner to form the select committee two days before news that unemployment was at a five year low. The proof that Fox News owns John Boehner and is the true Republican leadership in the House was their boasts that Fox News succeeded in forcing the Speaker of the House of Representatives to announce he was following orders and forming a select committee on Benghazi proving that the so-called synergy between Fox and the Republican Party is not a collaborative, but one of master and slave. No wonder Boehner drinks and cries.
Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn’t look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
