The five stages of an Obama scandal

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The other day I wrote that as investigators got closer and closer to the truth about Benghazi democrats would max out the volume on the shriek meter. It’s begun.

The are five stages to a scandal. They are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

We have already passed Stage 1: Denial

House Democrats Dismiss Existence Of Obama Scandals

Rep. Gerry Connolly refuses to use the word “scandal.”

After two weeks of brutal news cycles — with frenzied Republicans and a hyped up press corps aggressively covering every inch of three controversies surrounding the Obama administration — Connolly insists this too, shall pass.

“I think when the media repeats the word ‘scandals’ you are repeating partisan lines. They are issues that have occurred that have to be addressed. I don’t think they rise to the level of a scandal,” he said. “We had a bunch of idiots at IRS in Cincinnati who didn’t know how to aggregate a flood of tax-exempt applications … but this is not some major scandal in the order of magnitude like Watergate. That’s absurd.”

Connolly was also critical of the way Republicans have investigated the terrorist attack in Benghazi that killed four Americans.

“Don’t get me wrong, Benghazi was a tragedy, but it has no traction. They can continue to talk about it to feed their base, they forget we have a base too. Everytime they do that they are firing up our base too and alienating moderate and swing voters.”

Democrats: No scandal in Benghazi deaths

WASHINGTON (AP) — Politicians love few things better than a scandal to trip up their opponents, and Republicans hope last year’s fatal attack on U.S. diplomats in Libya will do exactly that to Hillary Rodham Clinton and other Democrats.

History suggests it might be a tough lift. The issue is complex, the next presidential election is more than three years away, and a number of reports and officials have disputed criticisms of Clinton’s role when she was secretary of state.

Still, Republicans and conservative talk hosts are hammering away at Clinton’s and the Obama administration’s handling of the 8-month-old tragedy. A daylong House Oversight Committee hearing Wednesday starred three State Department officials invited by Republicans.

Security was poorly handled in Benghazi, Libya, they said, and administration officials later tried to obscure what happened.

Stage 2: Anger

Fox’s Brit Hume shouts down Democrat after she compares Benghazi to Area 51

Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume on Sunday lashed out in anger after former Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) mocked conservatives’ obsession with Benghazi by comparing to conspiracy theories like aliens at Area 51 and the murder of Vince Foster.

During a panel segment on Fox News Sunday, Harman pointed out that recently-released emails about how the Obama administration prepared talking points after the Benghazi attack did not prove that there was a conspiracy to deceive the public.

“We didn’t have actionable intelligence about 9/11,” host Chris Wallace argued. “But that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.”

“No, it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, and I would call that an intelligence failure,” Harman agreed. “This was an intelligence failure, but it wasn’t a conspiracy.”

“And there aren’t aliens in Area 51, and Vice Foster wasn’t murdered,” she added in frustration. “And it’s time to move on, and focus on the real problems in Libya.”

“You’re right, there wasn’t a conspiracy in the United States to mount the Benghazi attack,” Hume shot back, raising his voice. “The question was, in the aftermath of the attack, when the administration sent its U.N. ambassador out to explain it to everybody — and she did so falsely — that there wasn’t a conspiracy to create the false talking points she used!”

Democrats walk out of Benghazi Hearing Before Families Testify

During the second portion of a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing about Benghazi Thursday on Capitol Hill, the majority of Democrats on the Committee left the room and refused to listen to the testimony of Patricia Smith and Charles Woods. Ms. Smith is the mother of Sean Smith, an information management officer killed in the 9/11 Benghazi attack. Charles Woods is the father of Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods, who was also killed.

Oversight Democrats demand end to Benghazi probe

All 17 Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are demanding that Chairman Darrell Issa end his year-and-a-half-long probe into the Benghazi attacks, which left four Americans dead and have become a catchphrase signifying conservative suspicion of the Obama administration.

Led by ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the move to end what Democrats dismiss as a “partisan investigation” is part of a broader effort by party leaders on Capitol Hill to finally move past the political furor surrounding the incident.

Democrats and Obama administration officials complain that the probe has cost millions of dollars while forcing the Pentagon and other federal agencies to respond to seemingly endless congressional demands for more information, all without yielding any coverup or conspiracy. They argue that the investigation has not produced any information related to allegations that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to “stand down” military units that could have been sent to Benghazi in a bid to save U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and the other besieged Americans.

This will cost nothing in contrast to Michelle Obama’s vacations.

And the anger is deepening

Jay Carney rails against Benghazi ‘conspiracy theories’

White House press secretary Jay Carney dismissed a GOP special committee tasked with investigating the Benghazi terrorist attack as illegitimate and accused conservatives of stoking “conspiracy theories” about the Obama administration’s reaction to the Sept. 11, 2012, strike.

“There is a problem when you have so many conspiracy theories that get knocked down by the facts and yet, the adherents to those theories only become more convinced that the facts aren’t what they so clearly are,” Carney said, calling the special committee “so partisan in nature.”

Carney went on to criticize the “information loop” on Benghazi, saying that Republicans and “certain media outlets” were fueling a false narrative on the attack that killed four Americans.

The White House has been on the defensive in the wake of the release of an email showing a senior administration official promoting the false theory that an anti-Islam video was the root cause of the attack.

Bargaining will be the next phase of the scandal. Watch for it. In the meanwhile there are more developments. It turns out that there are differences between the emails the White House sent to Congress and those it was forced to release by Judicial Watch.

Documents reviewed by Fox News show there are differences between Benghazi emails released through the federal courts to the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch and emails released to the House oversight committee as part of its investigation into the attacks.

The discrepancies are fueling allegations the administration is holding back documents to Congress.

“The key question is whether Congress now has all the documents,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, a member of the oversight committee, said. As for differences between the two sets of documents, Chaffetz alleged: “They are playing games. The classification and redactions are different. Why should Judicial Watch get more than Congress after issuing a subpoena?”

The emails published by Judicial Watch last week, which showed additional White House involvement in shaping the public explanation of what happened, helped trigger the announcement Friday by House Speaker John Boehner of a select committee to investigate.

and check this out:

While the text and subject line are redacted in full for both Judicial Watch and Capitol Hill, there are unexplained differences in the classification. The emails, originally marked “unclassified,” were retroactively classified in February by the Department of State.

The email released to Judicial Watch is now marked “SECRET,” and the same email released to the Oversight Committee is marked “Confidential.” Both are marked to “DECLASSIFY” on Sept. 13, 2037 — 25 years after the terrorist attack which killed four Americans.

Fox News also reviewed an email from Sept. 12, 2012 from Rice to members of the U.S. team at the United Nations where Rice was U.S. ambassador at the time. This unclassified email, whose subject line and text are also redacted in full, was retroactively classified on April 16, 2014, one day before it was released. While the contents and subject line were redacted in both versions, the email released as a result of the federal lawsuit to Judicial Watch does include the names, while the other does not.

democrats are now threatening to boycott the Select Committee.

A former US Attorney thinks that’s great:

Former U.S. Attorney Joseph diGenova says he’ll be happy if Democrats decide not to appoint members to the special select committee on Benghazi that Republicans plan to establish.

“I’m delighted the Democrats don’t want to participate. All they would do is obstruct,” diGenova told WMAL talk radio in Washington, D.C. Monday morning.

“The president is going to pay a price ultimately,” he added. “It may not be today, it may not be tomorrow, but his performance and Leon Panetta’s was shameful that night.”

A democrat boycott would prove two things- first, that there is something to hide and second, that democrats have no interest in the truth.

And the clown formerly known as Jay Carney hinted that the White House might refuse to cooperate, inferring that the Select Committee was “illegitimate.”

“We have always cooperated with legitimate oversight,” Carney said this afternoon during the daily White House briefing. Asked whether the panel qualified as “legitimate,” he said: “I think if you look at what even some Republicans have said, it certainly casts doubt on the legitimacy of an effort that is so partisan in nature.”

“You know, at some point, you just have to assume that Republicans will continue this because it feeds a political objective of some sort,” he added. “At the same time you have to ask, ‘What about the American people who want to see Congress work for them?’”

Constitutional crisis, anyone?

What is it that democrats really are afraid of? If there’s nothing there, this won’t take long at all. democrats can’t be bothered about the cost. These hearings won’t cost a penny compared to a Michelle Obama vacation.

I want to know where Obama was during the attack. We know he wasn’t in the situation room. I want to know who concocted the video canard. I want to know why Obama lied to the United Nations. I want them to tell us why Chris Stevens really was in Benghazi. Trey Gowdy says he has more evidence and I cannot wait to see it. There is one simple statement made by Mike Morrell that underscores the absolute need for this Committee’s investigation:

“The analysts said from the get-go that al Qaeda was involved in this attack.”

Bargaining. Depression. Acceptance.

They’re coming.

UPDATE

Trey Gowdy’s life has been threatened by liberals:

The U.S. Capitol Police are investigating threatening emails against Rep. Trey Gowdy, the South Carolina Republican recently tapped to lead a special panel probing the Benghazi terrorist attacks.

The investigation follows emails sent to news outlets warning that Gowdy would be “assassinated.”

The Capitol Police would not comment on the scope of the investigation but Officer Shennell Antrobus confirmed that there is “an active, open investigation.”

Gowdy was tapped on Monday to lead a new select committee on Benghazi. His office referred all questions to the Capitol Police.

UPDATE

The bargaining phase has begun.

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It is my personal hope that the Democrats stonewall the select committee. If they think that such an action will play well with Americans who want to know why four FSOs were allowed to be slaughtered like lambs in Benghazi, they will overplay their hand. It will only look like they are taking actions to cover up what they know is a failure, and a scandal, on the part of this Administration.

So it is pretty simple, Democrats: if there is no there there, has the president release the PDB from September 12, 2012 and explain where the President was the night of the attack in Benghazi.

We can only hope the Democrat “depression” phase hits the country in, let’s say, October 2014.

Acceptance phase can start the day after the elections.

No Democrats, therefore no bargaining. Appoint prosecutorial types and FBI, CIA types( both current and retired). Watch the fur fly! Dems will be soiling their drawers. Subpoenas and witnesses under oath.

@retire05:

And what do you suppose this PDB will say? Just curious. But why not after all this time have Bush release all PDBs related to 911? We already know he was warned in one of them. Here is your real criminal. Investigate Benghazi? Let’s investigate Bush and company and their war crimes! You got nothing but bluster.

And while you’re at it:

Don’t forget to thoroughly investigate these incidents. We need answers:
January 22, 2002; US Consulate at Kolkata, 5 killed
June 14, 2002 US Consulate at Karachi, 12 killed
February 28, 2003; US Embassy at Islamabad, 2 killed.
June 30, 2004 US Embassy at Tashkent, 2 killed
December 6, 2004 US Compound at Saudi Arabia, 9 killed
March 2, 2006 US Consulate in Karachi, 2 Killed
September 12, 2006: US Embassy at Syria, 4 killed
March 18, 2008: US Consulate at Yemen, 2 killed
July9, 2008 US Consulate at Istanbul, 6 killed
September 17, 2008 US embassy at Yemen, 16 killed

Total Deaths: 60
Outraged Republicans:0

@DrJohn: I don’t know, don’t you think we need to find out? But nice try with deflection.

While we’re at it, lets get all Bushs’ PDBs related to 911. We all know who the criminal is here. Well, the smart ones do, anyway.

As usual, Stewart puts it all in perspective:

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/06/jon-stewart-rips-gop-and-fox-where-was-your-outrage-and-sanctimony-over-iraq/

Jon Stewart?

Trey Gowdy’s life has been threatened by liberals:

The U.S. Capitol Police are investigating threatening emails against Rep. Trey Gowdy, the South Carolina Republican recently tapped to lead a special panel probing the Benghazi terrorist attacks.

The investigation follows emails sent to news outlets warning that Gowdy would be “assassinated.”

The Capitol Police would not comment on the scope of the investigation but Officer Shennell Antrobus confirmed that there is “an active, open investigation.”

Gowdy was tapped on Monday to lead a new select committee on Benghazi. His office referred all questions to the Capitol Police.

Shouldn’t the FBI/CIA (instead of the U.S. Capitol Police) be ‘investigating’ yet another potential ‘attack’ aka ‘assassination’ (another murder?) on an American Citizen….a Republican Congressman… this time on American Soil??

@This One:

The Benghazi scandal actually starts in Cairo,

On September 10, 2012, the day before rioting at the U.S. embassy in Cairo, an Egyptian weekly, El Fagr, reported that several jihadist organizations, including the Blind Sheik’s group (Gamaat al-Islamia, or the Islamic Group) and al-Qaeda emir Ayman al-Zawahiri’s group (Egyptian Islamic Jihad), were threatening to burn the American embassy in Cairo to the ground. The promised action against the embassy was an effort to extort the release of Abdel Rahman and other jihadists jailed by the United States.

(If you follow the link, you’ll see the source article for that statement was actually PUBLISHED the day before the 9/11/12 riots.)

The “demonstrations about an internet video” meme credited to the Cairo riots was actually debunked BEFORE Embassy Cairo published those fateful tweets (before the riots, which tells us the Cairo Embassy knew what was coming and started the political deflection early).

Could Bush have stopped 9/11/01? The 1993 WTC bombing sure would have been a good sign, so would the reports from the Phoenix FBI. But nothing has surfaced as blatant as an Islamist group claiming ahead of time they were going to hijack airliners and turn them into missiles. Not as blatant as Islamists claiming a day ahead they have plans to attack the embassy in Cairo.

Since the lies start in Cairo, that’s where the Select Committee needs to start. Who told Cairo to start the “blame the video” meme before the Cairo riots?

Raw Nerve endings are erupting in and around this administration…over the Lies…the coverup…

@This one:

Deflection is precisely what you did, in addition to transference. I merely asked questions about your deflection. As for the pdb’s, they prove Bush was actively involved, in contrast to Clinton.

My mistake at #7

I should have added after “Jon Stewart?” one more word:

“Really?”

Stewart is a lot more credible than the comedians on Fox News.

@This one:

Only to absolutely flaming hemorrhoid morons…..

@This one:

And what do you suppose this PDB will say? Just curious. But why not after all this time have Bush release all PDBs related to 911? We already know he was warned in one of them.

That’s right, it has always been public knowledge, no attempt at a coverup. What will BHO’s say, hopefully the truth. Where he was and why he didn’t do anything.

@This one:

Outraged Republicans:0

and don’t forget: Lies about events:0
Coverups: 0
Dimocrats curious: 0

@This one:
The list of other embassy attacks as if they are in any way parallel to the Benghazi aftermath is a hilarious Leftist talking point.
None of these were covered up or ignored.
After none of them was a false blame laid on anyone.
Almost all of them had ended up with every perpetrator killed or imprisoned.
Outrage would thus dissipate.
So, I don’t get it.
Why should there have been equivalent outrage?
The cover-up is why there is outrage now, not just the attack itself.
None of the REAL perps have been arrested or killed from this Benghazi attack.

@Nanny G: I don’t think This One gets it.

this one at #13

More credible as a comedian?

Agreed.

My good Dr.

Depressed and Angry, Yes. That’s a Democrat”s natural state. But, I wouldn’t be looking for any bargaining, nor accepting from their ilk.

The stages of:

1. denial
2. anger
3. bargaining,
4. depression
5. acceptance.

Are the inviolable Natural course of events. These rules apply to us, as human beings, and is witnessed also in Nature.

The rule applies also to nations. Collections of individuals. I.e. nations. Would not these various phases, that must be played out by the patient suffering; Then be decomposable? Assignable?

These are cases of arrested development through an intentional division of a once united nation. Like a tic, or a vice. The origin of this process is pure evil.

It’s simple. One group of people: Modern Democrats, or progressives as you will, are the principals of stages #1 and #2. Whereas, the principals of stages #3, #4, and #5; The bargaining, depression and acceptance stages, have been conveniently transferred to The Republicans. Both cheerfully accept their new stations of Dhimmitude and satisfy the natural cycle. Because we are united as one, two horns on the head of the same goat, this situation is metastable. Hence, the reason the regime is still in power. Islam has engaged in active war with the world for at least 35 years. And, if we dare look back further, we would still see it far beyond that. It certainly didn’t start with the peanut farmer throwing the Shah of Iran under the bus. The Gran Mufti of Jerusalem was allied with Adolf Hitler. Islam and socialism are completely compatible. The former requires the latter. Through the decomposition of our nation by abandon of its constitution; When we violate the inviolable law of nations, we thus pay the fine. We, after all, some how, anoint a non Natural born citizen as sovereign. It is a matter of fact and public record, on which side he would favor. What should we really expect?

Perhaps, they are just buying time. Will this nation make it to 2016 to even have an election? Stalling. The fifth column has subverted our nations. Our substance is being consumed right before us, and we still do nothing. On January 21, 2009, you could get 2 whoppers for $2.00; And, gasoline was a $1.79/gallon. Today, we can get whoppers 2 for $5.00, and lucky to find gasoline under $3.70/gal. And, I just heard this morning that my electric rate, (which has already doubled in the past 5 years), is going to go up 38% this summer. In the back of my mind I hear: “Under my plan of cap and trade, electric rates need to necessarily sky-rocket.” “I’m going to bankrupt the coal industry.” The earth has more resources than man could ever imagine. This country in particular now knows it’s fact that it’s oil reserves dwarf those of the Middle East. Yet, we pay even more now than ever for the Middle Eastern stuff, and loot the treasury to pay men to do nothing with our own resources.

After he was warned not to put troops in Beirut, Reagan decided to put them there anyway. Unarmed. The result; 241 killed. Was this investigated? Was Reagan impeached? Nnnnope.

You got nothing with Benghazi except a bunch of pea brained politicians who are politicizing this tragedy and now even fund raising off the deaths of Americans.

@This one:

The result; 241 killed. Was this investigated? Was Reagan impeached?

but the killers were killed. How many presidents have been impeached because someone got killed by terrorists? Is that a practice we want to start? If so, start now.

@This one:
It is better to keep ones mouth shut and only have people think you are a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt.

Clueless again you.