Most of us, old enough, remember the song “Send in the Clowns.”  It was actually based on an old circus saying that if the act wasn’t going well, then send in the clowns to do some jokes.  Yesterday, Nancy Pelosi chose the same tactic with regard to the Select Committee on Benghazi.  She is quite literally sending in the clowns:

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/nancy-pelosi-benghazi-john-boehner-panel-106937.html

Boehner, on the other hand, named some very serious people:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/boehner-names-members-benghazi-select-committee_791211.html

So let’s look at the starting lineups:

Democrats

Elijah Cummings

Adam Smith

Adam Schiff

Linda Sanchez

Tammy Duckworth

All are on record as saying there is nothing to investigate and this is a Republican waste of time and money.  All are famous for giving Democratic talking points instead of answers.  They were clearly given the assignment to defend the Obama administration against the other committee members.

Republicans

Susan Brooks

Trey Gowdy

Jim Jordan

Mike Pompeo

Martha Roby

Peter Roskam

Lynn Westmoreland

The Republicans are all attorneys and several are former prosecutors.  It would be hard to image a committee with such an obvious mismatch.  If the people want to see a political circus, the Democrats have the upper hand.  If they want to see someone drill down and get the truth, the Republicans are in a far superior position.  I think it is pretty safe to say that any additional information is bad for the Obama administration or they would have released it a long time ago.

I think the Democrats have made an enormous mistake.  Public sentiment is strongly in favor of getting answers.  Few people believe the Obama administration is telling the truth about anything.  In addition, the timing is terrible, for Democrats.  The House is going into summer recess.  All of the network shows are going into the re-run mode.  Even American Idol and Dancing with the Stars are done.  That means there is really nothing else happening, that is remotely interesting, other than baseball and the Benghazi hearings.

Go ahead.  Send in the clowns.  Do you think even CNN will buy it?

TDM