House Speaker John Boehner John Andrew BoehnerLongtime House parliamentarian to step down Five things we learned from this year's primaries Bad blood between Pelosi, Meadows complicates coronavirus talks MORE's (R-Ohio) ploy to create a House select committee to waste taxpayer dollars running a partisan, political witch hunt about Benghazi is the worst Republican idea since some Republicans in New Jersey tried blocking traffic on a bridge. By the time the dust settles on this foul-smelling ploy, the big winners will be former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonJeff Flake: Republicans 'should hold the same position' on SCOTUS vacancy as 2016 Momentum growing among Republicans for Supreme Court vote before Election Day Warning signs flash for Lindsey Graham in South Carolina MORE, who has emerged from previous GOP Benghazi ploys with landslide leads over Republican opponents in 2016 polling, and House Democrats, who are being given a golden issue to paint House Republicans as offering the kind of low-grade politics that voters detest in Washington.

As soon as I heard heavy-breathing rightists and nervous Republican partisan mouthpieces parroting the Benghazi ploy Friday morning, I touched base with Democratic congressional leadership and learned they had not even been told at that point about the Boehner Benghazi super-duper, super-special committee ploy. My advice is that congressional Democrats should refuse to participate in this sham, which would leave the super-duper Benghazi committee as an all-Republican public relations operation, which it is.

ADVERTISEMENT

I feel the Republicans' pain.

The new strong jobless numbers are good news for Americans — and Democrats — and bad news for Republicans.

The surge in ObamaCare signups, including many young and healthy customers, means premiums for policyholders will be lower than Republicans wish.

Boehner recently made fun of rightists in the House Republican Conference who oppose immigration reform, which the Speaker now supports, because he understands the GOP does not want to be accused of a war against Hispanics alongside its war against women and its war against jobs programs. I understand that he needed some red meat for the right wing, but the Benghazi ploy is red meat for the right with a foul taste for Americans who want more jobs, better healthcare and immigration reform.

The recently released email is not a smoking gun, and the Boehner ploy is a form of smoke and mirrors, a smoke that smells like something some states have begun to legalize, which might make Republicans on the right high but only hurts Republicans with voters who want this kind of GOP junk politics to stop.

Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was then chief deputy majority whip of the House. He holds an LL.M. degree in international financial law from the London School of Economics. Contact him at brentbbi@webtv.net.