We teach our children that bullying is wrong. It never occurred to me that we would have to bar them from watching C-Span. In order to find out what is wrong with the country one need look no further than the reaction to Hillary Clinton's illness and her subsequent testimony on the Benghazi incident. First, the right was awash with claims that her illness, her fall, her injuries, evens her eyeglasses were all part of some scheme to keep her from testifying before she resigned. I suspect that a political party that seeks to suppress voting under the guise of non-existent voter fraud has no difficulty in presuming the existence of a lie to cover a true purpose.
But lo and behold, Hillary Clinton did appear before the Senate, and it is difficult to discern whether that brought disappointment or glee to the Republicans. What it did without fail was demonstrate a total lack of respect for the office of Secretary of State and for the person who served so diligently and successfully in that position. What I find particularly galling (and this is not my first rant on the subject) is the complete failure on the part of the grilling Senators to understand the purpose of a Congressional hearing. It is to gather information for a variety of purposes usually legislative of investigative; not to hear them spout off on the subject at issue. But this hearing had no such purpose. All of the information had been gathered and a full report made with numerous recommendations. They were more interested in their questions than in the answers.
No, the purpose of this hearing was to lay blame on the administration for the tragic deaths in Benghazi and sully the reputation of Hillary Clinton in the process. Who cares whether Rand Paul would have fired Hillary Clinton if he had been President? Is that part of the fact finding or just some wishful fantasy about being President? And his implication that her long-announced resignation was somehow prompted by the Benghazi incident was a new low. Hearings Senator--- means that you ask questions and the information comes from the witnesses---not from you. If our elected representatives show so little respect for those who serve our country, is it any wonder that they are held in such low esteem? Why and how Benghazi happened are appropriate and necessary subjects for inquiry in order to avoid a recurrence; what was said about it afterwards has no such purpose--except a political one.