Pruden: Gumming Up the Works Over Benghazi

Pity the American voter. Angry, frustrated and desperate, in successive elections he delivers more Republican soldiers to Congress, all in the spirit of Dr. Johnson’s famous description of a second marriage as “the triumph of hope over experience.” All that changes in Washington is the size of the nothingburgers.

For four years the public has been waiting for answers about what happened at Benghazi, and so far the only thing clear is that four Americans, including an ambassador, were abandoned and left to die when the shooting started. (Guns do so frighten Democrats.)

Four years later we don’t know who was asleep at the White House, snoring at the State Department and dozing at the Pentagon. Probably everyone. Hillary Clinton, who as the secretary of State was first in line of responsibility, has consistently refused to talk about it, offering only talking points and invoking Fourth of July humbug. President Obama has the luxury of assigning others to take the questions; he was busy working on a speech. Someone at the Pentagon no doubt has some real answers, but the first thing an ambitious general learns is that it’s the president who punches his ticket.

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