Senator Elizabeth Warren has earned my total respect. After discovering that Cong Gowdy had already fundraised for himself off of Benghazi after warning others not to use it, you knew that ethics and honesty did not fit Mr. Gowdy. To read some of his questions for Elizabeth Warren concerning her being involved in setting up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Must admit that I am really not surprised. This is nothing but a witch hunt the Republicans led by Speaker Boehner think is a winning issue. All it has done has brought up the embassy deaths that happened under Bush 43 and Reagan. Almost seems like Karl Rove is advising them after his meltdown in 2012.
This article from Senator Warren gives the background on Rep Trey Gowdy. He is more of a joke then I thought when I first heard him. Should have known that any Republican who still had a shred of ethics and integrity wouldn't touch this Benghazi Investigation with a ten foot pole. He is the worst kind of Representative who is arrogant and thinks only he knows the facts. Dangerous combination.
BenghaziMay 9, 2014 | By Elizabeth Warren
Earlier this week, Speaker John Boehner announced the formation of a new select committee to investigate Benghazi led by Rep. Trey Gowdy.
All three of my brothers served in the military, and I know firsthand how much Americans serving abroad -- and their families -- sacrifice. What happened in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012 was a tragedy. Four Americans died putting themselves in harm's way in service to peace, diplomacy, and their country. I look at what happened in Benghazi with sadness, with seriousness, and as yet another call to honor the men and women who keep us safe.
So let me be blunt: that kind of seriousness is sorely missing from the no holds-barred political theater of the House Republicans.
I know a little bit about the way Trey Gowdy pursues oversight. I was on the other end of it when I was setting up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and I was called to testify before the House. As the Huffington Post reported at the time, Gowdy's interrogation of me "seemed to lack the basic facts" about the agency he was attempting to oversee. I'd like you to read their reporting on one of these exchanges just so you know what this Benghazi "investigation" is likely to look like:
Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) grilled Warren on whether the bureau would make public the complaints it gets. She answered that the complaint issue was a work in progress, but that at the very least, there was progress in creating a system for large credit card companies.
"Are any of the complaints public?" Gowdy demanded."Congressman, we don't have any complaints yet," Warren said of the still-nascent agency. "What we're trying to do is build the system."
Gowdy also seemed to think that Warren had written the Dodd-Frank law, and he was determined to know what Warren meant by defining "abusive" practices as something that "materially interferes" with the ability of a consumer to understand a term or a condition.
"That suggests to me that some interferences are immaterial. Is that what you meant by that?" he asked a momentarily perplexed-looking Warren.
"Congressman, I believe the language you are quoting is out of the Dodd-Frank act," she said. "This is the language that Congress has adopted."
Still, Gowdy insisted on her answer, although the definitions and regulations required by the law are still being written.
As a Senator, I take oversight seriously because it is powerfully important. But Trey Gowdy gives oversight a bad name. The House GOP is on a waste-of-time-and-resources witch hunt and fundraising sideshow, shamefully grasping for any straw to make President Obama, former Secretary Clinton, or Secretary Kerry look bad. This stunt does a disservice to those who serve our country abroad, and it distracts us from issues we should be taking up on behalf of the American people.
Click on Link for Full PostAs someone who has been around the military my whole adult life, I am appalled. One small example that we didn't hear\d the GOP say a peep including Lindsey Graham and John McCain plus Gowdy, Boehner, and the GOP House:
Sep 17th, 2008, Yemen Embassy attacked with 18 deaths and 16 injuries. Two of those deaths were a young couple who had just gotten married.How about Pakistan?
March 2, 2006. Karachi, Pakistan again. Suicide bomber attacks the U.S. Consulate killing four people, including U.S. diplomat David Foy who was directly targeted by the attackers. (This is the third Karachi terrorist attack in four years on what's considered American soil.)Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi had this to say about the Benghazi hearings in an interview with Steve Kornacki:
Rep. Pelosi was asked by Up host Steve Kornacki if Boehner had talked to her about the select committee on Benghazi that he was forming. Pelosi said, “That would be news to me. I have not been informed by the Speaker of his plans to establish such a commission is it? Benghazi is such a very sad event, more than an event — a tragedy. Ambassador Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty, Tyrone Woods, we carry their names in our hearts, pray for their families. And for the exploitation of it to just be never-ending by the Republicans is really hard to understand.”
Later, Pelosi explained why Republicans are exploiting Benghazi, “I think people are tired of that. What are your ideas about job creation. They have none…They have no plans. They don’t govern. They have no initiatives for the future, so they have to make personal attacks. I think most people want to know. What do you have to offer?…I consider them to be stuck in a poverty of ideas. They have none, and that’s where they have to go.”It is hard to understand how the Republicans in House can be so callous because they are the ones who voted not to fully fund security for the embassies/consulates. Why not why investigate why they are too cheap to provide proper security for our diplomats overseas?
There were 13 Benghazi's during President George W Bush years killing almost 100 people but that was not investigated. Why? Those numbers don't include the attacks on the diplomats in Iraq after the US took over Iraq with the coalition forces after Saddam was ousted and arrested plus his sons who were so brutal were killed. It certainly doesn't include 9/11. Yet three people plus one Ambassador die in Benghazi, and it is the end of the world when it is the only one attack under President Obama versus eight (8) attacks under Bush for the same amount of time. Cannot even fathom what the families of the four victims must be thinking of Republicans fundraising off their dead family member.
Whatever drives Republicans today, I have no clue. It is not a Party I recognize or want to be associated with at either the Federal or State level. They have lost their perspective, common sense, integrity, reality, and ability to compromise for the betterment of the American people. They are a total embarrassment to a lot of us who used to call the Republican Party home. Many of us are realizing that things got worse in the GOP in 1994 when the Contract with America kicked in and the hard right started slowing taking over the GOP to where ethics, integrity, and honesty mean nothing to most elected Republicans. The end justifies the means no matter what.
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