After weeks of posturing, the Democrats have done the sensible thing and agreed to participate in the select committee to investigate Benghazi. Today, Nancy Pelosi named her five allotted members. They are:
Elijah Cummings (Maryland)
Tammy Duckworth (Illinois)
Linda Sánchez (California)
Adam Schiff (California)
Adam Smith (Washington)
Cummings gained invaluable experience carrying water for the administration during hearings by the House Oversight Committee (of which he is the ranking member) on the IRS targeting scandal. Indeed, according to Committee chairman Darrell Issa, there is evidence that Cummings colluded with the Internal Revenue Service in its targeting of the conservative nonprofit group True the Vote.
Cummings has also participated in Benghazi hearings conducted by the Oversight Committee. Partisan Democrats will cheer for him, but he’s too much the knee-jerk partisan to impress folks who haven’t yet fully made up their minds about Benghazi.
Sanchez is the ranking member of the House Ethics Committee. Smith holds the same status on the House Armed Services Committee, which has conducted its own limited hearings on Benghazi.
Schiff has denounced the Benghazi select committee as a “colossal waste of time.” He went so far as to say the Democrats should not to participate. That’s a good tip-off on what to expect from him.
Duckworth is an Iraq war veteran who lost her legs during that conflict. She has been extremely critical of the Veterans Administration in the wake of the current scandal.
I expect her to act as a Democratic partisan in the Benghazi hearings. But given her status as a wounded warrior she will have, and deserve, more credibility than her four fellow Dems. In addition, her demeanor the few times I’ve seen her in action is good.
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