Following Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s candid boasting about how the House Benghazi committee has been a great tool to take down Hillary Clinton—an admission being furiously rowed back as we speak—Rep. Adam Smith suggested that maybe it was time to call a spade a spade:
The committee is a joke and I think Democrats ought to call it what it is and say we’re not going to participate in this anymore. And that’s
my initial reaction. I’ll listen to my leadership on this and perhaps they will again have greater wisdom, but it just has been an embarrassment.
This is a possibility that’s long intrigued me, but I can’t make up my mind if it would be a good decision. On the plus side, letting Republicans meet all by themselves would pretty dramatically make the point that this is little more than a partisan boondoggle. On the minus side, losing access to the committee’s materials would prevent Democrats from fighting back whenever Trey Gowdy or his staffers decide to leak a partial transcript to the New York Times.
Decisions, decisions. Maybe everyone should resign except for Elijah Cummings, who wouldn’t actually attend most hearings but would still retain the minority’s access to committee materials.
It would be interesting to see what happens if Democrats did this. But I suspect it’s the kind of thing that sounds better to a blogger with nothing on the line than it does to the actual Democratic leadership in the House.