With Monica Lewinsky back in the news this week, let's all go back to 1998, shall we?Actually, I'd rather not. But none other than George Will brought up that specter yesterday on Fox News, when he said that congressional Republicans run the risk of turning off independents and the middle of the country if they go overboard on their latest Benghazi special congressional investigation, this one to be headed by South Carolina Representative Trey Gowdy.
House Democrats haven't said definitively whether they'll participate in the panel, and it'll be interesting to see how they decide to go on this. Nancy Pelosi says that there should be an equal number of Republicans on the committee, but Harry Reid has already declared that he won't bring it up at all in the Senate. “Now the latest smoking gun is a memo preparing people to go on the Sunday shows. Don’t you think everybody gets some preparation before they go on the Sunday shows?” Reid said when asked by a reporter about Benghazi. “So the answer is no, we’re not going to do any select special committee over here.”
But that email's exposure was important in that the White House failed to provide it when originally asked. That is what has given this somewhat tired scandal fresh legs, and the administration has to own that reality to some extent.
Back to George Will: "I would remind my Republican friends of one thing, 1998," the conservative commentator said yesterday. "Every disaster in politics is at some point or other a disaster of disproportion, and the Republicans in 1998 got the bit in their teeth, ran on impeachment of Bill Clinton, and he managed to gain seats in an off-year election in his second term, really hard to do."
That scenario seems unlikely at this time. But it depends on how the GOP handles this ninth investigation into what happened in Libya on September 11, 2012.
Meanwhile...
A new report on global warming came out yesterday, and it doesn't end well. How long do we have to dither?
Free wi-fi for all! Well, at least in downtown Tampa parks. Beginning later this year, that is.
And we've got ourselves a battle between two liberal Democrats in the countywide District 7 Hillsborough County Commission seat that takes place in August. Read about Mark Nash here.