In that sense, this week’s emails are superfluous. The facts about Benghazi have been clear to anyone willing to see them, as those Autumn 2012 columns of mine illustrate. But the American people were disinclined to see them – like the dysfunctional rural family in that Sam Shepard play where everyone knows there’s a baby buried in the backyard but they’ve all agreed not to talk about it.

Well, Benghazi’s a long way away. Who cares? It’s not like Washington’s Libya policy makes any difference to the average guy in Des Moines, is it? Ah, but if you swallow Benghazi you’re not really in any position to complain about the IRS or if-you-like-your-plan-you-can-keep-it or whatever’s next down the pike, are you? Healthy political cultures punish the first lie – because otherwise it never stops.

And this wasn’t a small lie. It was a bold, audacious lie on a date the American people are supposed to hold in sacred memory: 9/11. Nixon lied about a “third-rate burglary”. But, as I told Hugh Hewitt earlier today, nobody died at Watergate. There weren’t four bodies left on the floor. And the Administration didn’t attempt to pin the quadruple murder on some other fellow entirely.

But that’s exactly what the Obama crowd did.

Was it worth it? Silly question. For these guys, it’s always worth it.