Clinton’s State deputies testify: “We have to do better”

posted at 1:01 pm on December 20, 2012 by Erika Johnsen

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not make it in to testify in front of a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Thursday morning, sending a couple of her deputies in to do so instead. The State officials assured the committee that the department is working to quickly implement the recommendations made by the Accountability Review Board’s report on the “systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies” that led to the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi:

Deputy Secretary of State William Burns told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Thursday that the State Department has “already begun to fix” the security lapses that allowed the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya to succeed.

Burns told the committee that a harsh report issued Tuesday by the Accountability Review Board appointed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to investigate the attack “takes a clear-eyed look at serious, systemic problems. Problems which are unacceptable. Problems for which – as Secretary Clinton has said — we take responsibility.”

Burns was testifying in place of Clinton who has been out of the public eye for several days due to illness and a concussion she suffered after fainting recently.

The State Department may very well be making the changes and security additions the report recommended, but that will not be enough to excuse Clinton from testifying, and the House Foreign Affairs Committee is saying that she will need to come in testify before the Obama administration’s leadership changes, meaning sometime in mid-January:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will testify in January before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen told CNN on Wednesday. …

Ros-Lehtinen issued a statement saying, “We still don’t have information from the Obama Administration on what went so tragically wrong in Benghazi that resulted in the deaths of four patriotic Americans. We have been combing through classified and unclassified documents and have tough questions about State Department threat assessments and decision-making on Benghazi. This requires a public appearance by the Secretary of State herself. Other cabinet secretaries involved should also be held publicly accountable.”

A date has not yet been set for the mid-January testimony, Ros-Lehtinen said Wednesday, but said Clinton’s adviser Cheryl Mills told her the secretary would not be traveling and would be available.

And a good thing, too; as “harsh” as the ARB report may have been, it did not actually hold anyone directly accountable for the security failures and it did not answer any questions about the Obama administration’s subsequent handling of the situation. As Sen. Inhofe pointed out today, whoever it was who decided to change the Benghazi-related talking points from terrorism to a stupid YouTube video, is still a relative mystery. Via the WFB:

Well, if it is true that Obama, Clinton, and high-level officials knew immediately this was a likely terrorist attack performed by heavily armed militants, why did the State Department and White House’s narrative shift more towards the video after the fact?

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Arguably, what should be HAL’s ‘tombstone’ post.

socalcon on May 19, 2013 at 11:45 AM

The best way to ban someone is to ignore it.

HAL is now on my Banned List.

davidk on May 19, 2013 at 11:52 AM

On the other hand:

Keep Hot Air Liberal

1. When the latrine is full we need some where to take a leak.

2. When we do not have the time to check out the talking points of the loon left of blogs like Kos Kid Kult (KKK) we just read HAL post.

3. Do not let HAL take over threads as often. When there is play time , play it and see what the borg is up to, sort of free intel.

4. It is possible we may get a better foil later , a liberal with some thinking parts intact and at that point HAL would become even more useless to us.

5. Cheap fun.

APACHEWHOKNOWS on May 19, 2013 at 11:53 AM

That way we’d keep these threads clean of all the juvenile nonsense and stay somewhat centered to the topic at hand.

aquaviva on May 19, 2013 at 11:50 AM

Sometimes dissenters provide a service that they force us to strengthen and refine our arguments.

HAL–not so much. Its comments are devoid of content.

davidk on May 19, 2013 at 11:54 AM

… service in that …

davidk on May 19, 2013 at 11:56 AM

Interesting essay on the oxymoron of h0m0marriage: http://allengil.freeshell.org/marriage.html

davidk on May 19, 2013 at 11:58 AM

David Gregory is despicable.

aquaviva on May 19, 2013 at 10:45 AM

“Judicial Watch, a leading government open records organization, announced today that it has filed suit on behalf of Legal Insurrection to obtain documents regarding David Gregory’s violation of the District of Columbia gun laws and the investigation which led to the decision of the District of Columbia Attorney General not to prosecute…”

http://legalinsurrection.com/2013/05/legal-insurrection-and-judicial-watch-file-suit-to-obtain-david-gregory-gun-law-violation-documents/

workingclass artist on May 19, 2013 at 12:01 PM

No Hillary Clinton?

Could she be hiding something aside from her pervert hubby and fat ankles?

IlikedAUH2O on May 19, 2013 at 12:04 PM

AZfederalist on May 19, 2013 at 11:37 AM

sigh.. you sir, are the cooler head.. and almost certainly right.. I had already promised not to rise to the bait, but as you said, it’s hard. Especially when a good name is trashed by a ghoul for sport..

I’ll try and follow your example..

and my apologies to Hotair for loosing my temper like that, and the commenters who deserve better of me.. but my apology ends there..

on that note.. hal can just imagine the words in my head about his lack of social skills.

I’ll try and do better.

mark81150 on May 19, 2013 at 12:07 PM

One liberal blog thinks Hillary is being helped by Benghazi.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/05/16/witness_the_devastating_impact_the_benghazi_story_has_had_on_hillary_clinton.html

IlikedAUH2O on May 19, 2013 at 12:11 PM

Midas on May 19, 2013 at 11:41 AM

Libfreeordie is living and breathing proof of a truth I discovered years ago; The phrase “liberal twit” is an inherent redundancy. It takes a special brand of sophomoric pseudo-intellectualism to be a liberal to begin with, and they just keep building on that foundation until they eventually graduate into full blown multi-variate morons.

Lew on May 19, 2013 at 12:13 PM

Tax his land,
Tax his bed,
Tax the table,
At which he’s fed.

Tax his tractor,
Tax his mule,
Teach him taxes
Are the rule.

Tax his work,
Tax his pay,
He works for
peanuts anyway!

Tax his cow,
Tax his goat,
Tax his pants,
Tax his coat.

Tax his ties,
Tax his shirt,
Tax his work,
Tax his dirt.

Tax his tobacco,
Tax his drink,
Tax him if he
Tries to think.

Tax his cigars,
Tax his beers,
If he cries
Tax his tears.

Tax his car,
Tax his gas,
Find other ways
To tax his ass.

Tax all he has
Then let him know
That you won’t be done
Till he has no dough.

When he screams and hollers;
Then tax him some more,
Tax him till
He’s good and sore.

Then tax his coffin,
Tax his grave,
Tax the sod in
Which he’s laid…

Put these words
Upon his tomb,
‘Taxes drove me
to my doom…’

When he’s gone,
Do not relax,
Its time to apply
The inheritance tax.
Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Excise Taxes
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax (currently 44.75 cents per gallon)
Gross Receipts Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Personal Property Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service Charge Tax
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
Sales Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
Telephone Recurring and Nonrecurring Charges Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax
Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Utility Taxes
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax

STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, & our nation was the most prosperous in the world. We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

http://www.therightplanet.com/2013/01/read-it-and-weep-545-vs-300000000-people/

davidk on May 19, 2013 at 12:14 PM

Could she be hiding something aside from her pervert hubby and fat ankles?

IlikedAUH2O on May 19, 2013 at 12:04 PM

Off at a spa drying out, losing weight and getting a second facelift.

Watch her show up at Dem-only venues for a re-debut into public life.

Wethal on May 19, 2013 at 12:17 PM

I never hated Hillary and respected the battle made against President Obama during the campaign by her staff and her supporters. The fact that it went on even after the prominent blacks and media turned on them was really impressive since, as for Democrats, that is the equivalent of a two week old fetus living outside the womb.

Last night I was lectured on:

1) Hillary and O hatching the weird video story in a late phone call.

2) Both of them wanting the continued void to continue to exist as to what exactly they were doing while Benghazi was being slaughtered.

3) Our president’s comment on “no there, there” was the conclusion of (a result of?) a massive check for (scrubbing of?) incriminating records in concert with Hill’s folks.

So I expected the newly prepared and fresh innocents to be out talking.

IlikedAUH2O on May 19, 2013 at 12:27 PM

They must be clairvoyant.

I found this five minutes ago, well maybe ten:

Even in the conservative press, it has become received wisdom that President Obama was AWOL on the night of September 11, after first being informed by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, in the late afternoon, that the State Department facility in Benghazi was under attack. You hear it again and again: While Americans were under attack, the commander-in-chief checked out, leaving subordinates to deal with the crisis while he got his beauty sleep in preparation for a fundraising campaign trip to Vegas.

That is not true . . . and the truth, as we’ve come to expect with Obama, is almost surely worse. There is good reason to believe that while Americans were still fighting for their lives in Benghazi, while no military efforts were being made to rescue them, and while those desperately trying to rescue them were being told to stand down, the president was busy shaping the “blame the video” narrative to which his administration clung in the aftermath.

Jay Carney first revealed the existence of the phone call and the time in February. Hillary Clinton confirmed she spoke to Obama “later that evening.” What was said between the two?

We now know from the e-mails and TV clips that, by Sunday morning, the White House staff, State Department minions, and Susan Rice were all in agreement that the video fairy tale, peppered with indignant rebukes of Islamophobia, was the way to go.

How do you suppose they got that idea?

The theory makes sense. What’s more, there may be a phone log of the conversation and what was discussed in the records of both principles.

That would be a fascinating document to discover.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/05/m-phone_call_between_hillary_and_obama_may_be_genesis_of_anti-muslim_video_lie.html

IlikedAUH2O on May 19, 2013 at 12:30 PM

I’ve never seen so members of the State Run Media defend the IRS…hmmm.

d1carter on May 19, 2013 at 12:31 PM

mark81150 on May 19, 2013 at 11:32 AM

This guy needs a glass of cold water and a hug.Just dont pop a vein with all hate.

HotAirLib on May 19, 2013 at 12:33 PM

All of a sudden jobs are important to the dems….lol…lol.

CW on May 19, 2013 at 8:32 AM

Someone has to represent what majority of Americans truly care about you know. Last I heard, Benghazi trials do not feed the kids.

HotAirLib on May 19, 2013 at 9:53 AM

This explains why your Democrat Media has been afraid to do “polling” on Benghazi. There has only been one such “poll” since early December of 2012.

By the way, that new “poll” shows that nearly half of Americans are following the Benghazi story, despite your desperately wishing it would all go away. And that is a Leftist PEW poll, so you can’t shoot the messenger.

Del Dolemonte on May 19, 2013 at 12:36 PM

‘You might want to ask your trailer trash daughter that question. You know she’s the one servicing your buds don’t you?’

– HotAirLib on April 29, 2013 at 11:39 PM

Cold glass of water and a hug needed by this one.

Any volunteers or will libfree come through for us?

Bishop on May 19, 2013 at 12:36 PM

Most Americans aren’t stupid.

HotAirLib on May 19, 2013 at 9:59 AM

Romney won the college graduate vote in 2012. Your guy won 80% of high school dropouts.

Del Dolemonte on May 19, 2013 at 12:37 PM

The president not only knew, he ordered it. Impeach and convict.

Attack.

Philly on May 19, 2013 at 11:06 AM

Music to my ears if he knew and ordered it. After all, He is Above the Law.

HotAirLib on May 19, 2013 at 11:32 AM

Edited for accuracy.

Del Dolemonte on May 19, 2013 at 12:41 PM

The best way to ban someone is to ignore it.

HAL is now on my Banned List.

davidk on May 19, 2013 at 11:52 AM

I check Firefox Add-Ons regularly for an ‘ignore’ function that would work with Drupal, haven’t found one yet. (Hint for you software guys out there.)

slickwillie2001 on May 19, 2013 at 12:42 PM

Laugh, laugh.

This liberal thinks Hillary has been helped by Benghazi. Yes, helped !

Oh, I was informed that the site was correct about the last POTUS election.

Someone was concerned enough to poll…

http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/05/16/witness_the_devastating_impact_the_benghazi_story_has_had_on_hillary_clinton.html

IlikedAUH2O on May 19, 2013 at 12:42 PM

Could she be hiding something aside from her pervert hubby and fat ankles?

IlikedAUH2O on May 19, 2013 at 12:04 PM

There’s more hidden on the Clinton Crime Family than not.

slickwillie2001 on May 19, 2013 at 12:45 PM

“Burglar locks homeowner in gun closet” thread now timewarped back to May 10th.

slickwillie2001 on May 19, 2013 at 12:46 PM

I’ve never seen so members of the State Run Media defend the IRS…hmmm.

d1carter on May 19, 2013 at 12:31 PM

“What is there to like?” is always a question for the left.

Even “low info” voters have an impression of the IRS and Dems have run from it in public since Roosevelt’s time. Not that they don’t love to use it as a hammer.

Anyone who has ever sent in a return knows the IRS has two strikes before they pick up a bat.

Those guys can easily be pro choice since they never had cold steel rip their limbs as a fetus or lived a day in a clinic and watched the action.

IlikedAUH2O on May 19, 2013 at 12:48 PM

slickwilley 2001,

Seems like the google boiler room crew has plummers messing with the inflow outflow lines inside Hot Air .com….

APACHEWHOKNOWS on May 19, 2013 at 12:59 PM

davidk on May 19, 2013 at 12:48 PM

What is your point?

We don’t have a sea to cross and place to go when DHS is chasing us down with their armored cars and ammo. (Which they bought with our money.)

Check your history.

Prior slave populations were much better off for an escape than Jews under Hitler or whites and Christians in the US today.

We have no other aspects of slavery? Check out affirmative action and job prospects for young folks today while they pay off college loans to the liberals.

Are you feeling it?

We are totally stuck!

All we have is our guns and they are trying to take them (And I’m not even worried about background checks, you wait and see what they want to do!)

Correct me if I am wrong.

I’m a gone and grateful for the venting opportunity about ole Hillary. Whom I never hated till lately, like 1990.

IlikedAUH2O on May 19, 2013 at 1:04 PM

Cold glass of water and a hug needed by this one.

Any volunteers or will libfree come through for us?

Bishop on May 19, 2013 at 12:36 PM

and it thinks I need a hug?

ok..

nice to see my opinion confirmed,,, carry on good sir.. I’ll leave it to an expert troll trainer.

mark81150 on May 19, 2013 at 1:12 PM

wierd

APACHEWHOKNOWS on May 19, 2013 at 1:15 PM

Cold glass of water and a hug needed by this one.

Any volunteers or will libfree come through for us?

Bishop on May 19, 2013 at 12:36 PM

That would be a low hug.

tom daschle concerned on May 19, 2013 at 1:17 PM

Another day, another HA thread polluted with troll turds.

farsighted on May 19, 2013 at 1:22 PM

Hillary and Biden are awful taciturn lately.

Schadenfreude on May 19, 2013 at 1:29 PM

google bing and ask them what’s up…

APACHEWHOKNOWS on May 19, 2013 at 1:30 PM

Obama hates the middle class, did, does, and always will.

Obama lives the life of the 1%rs and supports them in full. They brung him and they keep him. It’s the biggest foolery he’s performing in front of yer eyes. The leftists are too stupid to see.

Schadenfreude on May 19, 2013 at 1:33 PM

5. Cheap fun.

APACHEWHOKNOWS on May 19, 2013 at 11:53 AM

Best part, lots of HA Capitalism, even if he breaks the HA posting ‘rules’ and is allowed to get away with it, every thread.

It’s like the Clift congress constitution thread. Who cares? Everything goes, so long as communism and Capitalism flourish.

Schadenfreude on May 19, 2013 at 1:43 PM

This azzhole has it wrong. The question is not “bla, bla, bla, fix…bla, bla, bla”.

The job of Obama is to prevent this from happening, you incredible fool. Pfeiffer is an incredible Goebbels.

Obama, Hillary and Biden are in hiding.

This ship is rudderless.

Enjoy, world and USA. You brung this idiocy upon yourself. May PC eat you all, alive, slowly.

Schadenfreude on May 19, 2013 at 1:48 PM

Thank you, my friends.

HAL, it must really stink to be you. I pity you.

kingsjester on May 19, 2013 at 1:52 PM

H/t VegasRick

Schadenfreude on May 19, 2013 at 2:01 PM

Someone has to represent what majority of Americans truly care about you know. Last I heard, Benghazi trials do not feed the kids.

HotAirLib on May 19, 2013 at 9:53 AM

Ruh-Roh, HAL, CNN came out with a “poll” today, and a majority of Americans (55%) now say that Benghazi is very important.

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2013/images/05/19/rel6a.pdf

Thinking specifically about the inaccurate statements made by the Obama administration and not about the initial attack which occurred in Libya, how important an issue do you think this is to the nation-very important, somewhat important, not too important, or not at all important?

Very Important = 55%

More Bad News for HAL:

Do you think the U.S. government could or could not have prevented the attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya?

Could Have: 59%

That’s up 11 points from their previous “poll” last December.

And finally:

Do you think the Republicans in Congress are overreacting to this matter or are they reacting
appropriately?

Overreacting: 37%

Reacting Appropriately: 59%

I didn’t bother to look for their “polling sample” but they usually oversample Democrats.

Del Dolemonte on May 19, 2013 at 2:14 PM

So Obama gets a 53 percent approval rating in a CNN poll in which only 24 percent of the respondents were republicans and they think that is good news for him? They think that gives him a reservoir of good will? Democrats in the sample weighed in at 33 percent and independents (liberals who wanted to make sure they got counted) were over 40 percent.

Is also appears from the numbers that women and non-whites were heavily over sampled. I can’t even believe they are out there running with these numbers.

NavyDavy on May 19, 2013 at 2:23 PM

Crunching the numbers, I’m coming up with 305 dems in the poll, 221 repubs, 397 indies (yeah, right).

I’m getting 295 or so non-whites and 628 or so whites.

First off, how do you have only 305 dems in a crowd with 300 non whites?

I have not extrapolated the male/female numbers yet…

NavyDavy on May 19, 2013 at 2:54 PM

I’m coming up with approx 510 men and 413 women fwiw.

NavyDavy on May 19, 2013 at 3:12 PM

You all don’t think they’d put out a crap poll to support Zero, do you?

dogsoldier on May 19, 2013 at 4:21 PM

IlikedAUH2O on May 19, 2013 at 1:04 PM

Dude! All I wanted to know is has this been peer reviewed and verified or debunked.

What’s your point?

davidk on May 19, 2013 at 4:21 PM

Here’s where Obama, Holder, Hillary, et al all belong.

The scourge needs to be scourged.

And purged.

D-emetic-rats

profitsbeard on May 19, 2013 at 4:51 PM

So Obama gets a 53 percent approval rating in a CNN poll in which only 24 percent of the respondents were republicans and they think that is good news for him? They think that gives him a reservoir of good will? Democrats in the sample weighed in at 33 percent and independents (liberals who wanted to make sure they got counted) were over 40 percent.

Is also appears from the numbers that women and non-whites were heavily over sampled. I can’t even believe they are out there running with these numbers.

NavyDavy on May 19, 2013 at 2:23 PM

They load this poll data into an Excel program and adjust the D/R/I weighting until they get the approval results that they want, then hit Save, Print.

slickwillie2001 on May 19, 2013 at 7:10 PM

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