'If this review is to be fair, it must be truly bipartisan,' Pelosi says. Benghazi panel: 7 GOPers, 5 Dems

The select committee that will probe the attacks in Benghazi will have seven Republicans and five Democrats, according to the resolution creating the panel.

The resolution — posted to the House Rules Committee website on Tuesday night — will come to the floor Thursday and is expected to pass by a wide margin. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has tapped South Carolina GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy to chair the panel.


The Gowdy committee, as it’s being informally called among House aides, will “conduct a full and complete investigation and study and issue a final report” to the House on “all policies, decisions an activities that contributed to the attacks on United States facilities in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012, as well as those that affected the ability of the United States to prepare for the attacks. …”

( Also on POLITICO: Gowdy gets into Benghazi)

Also under consideration will be “all policies, decisions and activities to respond and repel the attacks” on the Consulate in Benghazi.

U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans died in that episode.

Despite the fact that eight congressional committees have already looked into the incident, as has a State Department-appointed “Accountability Review Board,” Speaker John Boehner and other Republicans — and conservative activists and pundits — don’t believe the Obama White House has come clean with its handing of the incident, either before or after Stevens and the other Americans were killed.

Under the House resolution, the Gowdy committee is directed to look at “internal and executive branch communications of about the attacks,” in addition to “accountability for polices and decisions related to the security” of the Benghazi site.

Compliance with the congressional probes on Benghazi will also come under scrutiny.

The Gowdy panel will determine what steps the Obama administration has taken to track down those who killed Stevens and the other Americans.

Gowdy will have full subpoena power, as well as the same access to the classified material as the Intelligence Committee.

Staffers for the South Carolina Republican’s panel will come from existing committees, the resolution directs, which will help Gowdy get his probe up and running.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has objected to the 7-5 ratio on the select committee, and some of her members want Democrats to boycott the Gowdy committee as a needless partisan fishing expedition.

On Tuesday morning, Pelosi called for an equal number of her members and Republicans to sit on the committee. By late in the day, Pelosi was deliberating whether she would appoint members to the panel; she wanted to see the details of the resolution before committing, according to a source familiar with her thinking.

“If this review is to be fair, it must be truly bipartisan,” Pelosi said in statement released by her office. “The panel should be equally divided between Democrats and Republicans as is done on the House Ethics Committee. It should require that witnesses are called and interviewed, subpoenas are issued, and information is shared on a bipartisan basis. Only then could it be fair.”

In the strongest statement thus far expressing Democratic disapproval of the panel, Rep. Jim Clyburn, the South Carolinian who serves as the assistant Democratic leader, said he would be “dead set against” participating unless there’s an even split between the two parties. Clyburn said he is “”not bringing the noose to my hanging.”

There is only one House committee that is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans — the Ethics Committee. All other standing committees have more members of the majority party than the minority. Pelosi’s call for the committee to be evenly split could set the stage for boycotting the panel if Republicans rebuff her suggestion.

Republicans, however, noted that Pelosi’s select committee probing global warming had nine Democrats and six Republicans.

This article tagged under: Nancy Pelosi

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