Senator Warren slams Benghazi chairman, Trey Gowdy, as a "grand-stander, pushing empty political points rather than conducting a serious investigation." Sounds about right.

Courtesy of Mother Jones:

In the email, Warren notes that she is particularly concerned about Boehner's selection of Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) to chair committee. She recalls testifying before Gowdy in 2011 when she was setting up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. "I know a little bit about the way Trey Gowdy pursues oversight," she writes. "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." 

Warren says Gowdy lacked basic knowledge of the new agency and was a grand-stander, pushing empty political points rather than conducting a serious investigation. She goes out of her way to make Gowdy appear foolish, quoting a Huffington Post account of the hearing that describes Gowdy as mistakenly suggesting that Warren had written rules that were, in fact, direct quotes from a bill passed by Congress. 

Warren continues: 

"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. 

With millions of people still out of work and millions more working full time yet still living below the poverty line, with students drowning in debt, with roads and bridges crumbling, is this really what the House Republicans are choosing to spend their time on? Even for guys who have so few solutions to offer that they have voted 54 times to repeal Obamacare, this is a new low. "

Yeah I think Senator Warren certainly has Gowdy's number. 

By the way even some family members of those killed in the Benghazi attacks are  saying "Please don't take us down this road again."

Can you imagine being one of those family members, and having this scab pulled off over and over again?

Juan Cole over at Common Dreams offers 10 very substantial reasons why this witch hunt should come to an end.

Here is the first:

Republicans keep posturing that their questions about Benghazi are intended to bolster US security. In fact, they are harming it. Republican hearings in the House of Representative have disgracefully revealed the names of Libyans talking to the US consulate, thus endangering their lives and harming US efforts to understand the situation in the country, since who would risk talking to the embassy if they know about Darrell Issa’s big mouth? Moreover, the constant baseless Republican drumbeat about the Benghazi events has caused the State Department to pull dependents from Tunis and Tripoli and keep only a skeleton crew there. These steps have limited US diplomatic activity in two transitional countries of the Arab upheavals of 2011, and so damaged US interests. The real, actual Libya needs US aid and training but all the GOP wants to do is discourage career diplomats from having anything to do with it. This standoffishness on the actual Libya is a US security problem waiting to happen. Sen. John McCain knows better than to behave this way.

Not exactly surprising to me that the  Republicans are willing to risk national security in exchange for a temporary political advantage.

I guess we know who to blame for the next attack on US diplomats, don't we?