opinion

Montini: Benghazi hearing an undisguised witch hunt

Hillary Clinton isn't in Washington on Thursday to answer questions from Congressional committee on the subject of Benghazi.

The Republicans who control the House of Representatives and the special Benghazi committee haven't decided on a presidential nominee for their party yet. But they're pretty sure Clinton will be the Democrats choice, and that she will be tough to beat. Unless they can ruin her reputation. Unless they can transform the presidential election in 2016 from a race between Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump, or Hillary Clinton versus Ben Carson, or Hillary Clinton versus Jeb Bush into Hillary Clinton versus Anyone-who-is-NOT-Hillary-Clinton.

A Congressional hearing is supposed to be a fact-finding endeavor. This is a witch hunt that can no longer be disguised.

No matter what your feelings are about Clinton, imagine yourself going against such a group of judges, jurors and executioners, knowing what we now know. Would you expect to get a fair shake?

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the Republican one-step below the Speaker of the House, said on TV, "Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today?"

Another Republican, Rep. Richard Hanna, said in an interview that the committee “was designed to go after” Clinton.

A former staffer for the Benghazi committee has said publicly that the investigation is a partisan vendetta against Clinton. (He's been dismissed as a disgruntled former employee, but what he says sure sounds familiar.)

Finally, the Republican congressman running the show, Trey Gowdy, was found to have accepted campaign donations from a political committee called Stop Hillary PAC, which has produced ads attacking Clinton's handling of Benghazi. (Gowdy is returning the money.)

How would you feel if you were to appear before such a panel? Or if someone you admired were to appear?

Would you trust it?

Would you believe, even for a minute, that the real purpose of the hearing was to get to the bottom of what happened on Sept. 11, 2012, when terrorists overran a U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, and four Americans died.

And do you believe now, even for an instant, that Thursday's hearing is meant to honor the memory of Ambassador Christopher Stevens, State Department information management officer Sean Smith, and CIA contractors Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty and not simply to further smear the reputation of Hillary Clinton?