Ron Johnson: Hillary Outburst Was a Dodge
Well, duh.
The Republican senator whose aggressive line of questioning prompted an eruption Wednesday from Hillary Clinton during a hearing on the Benghazi attacks suggested her angry outburst was just a dodge.
Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson pressed Clinton on why her office wasn’t able to immediately discover whether the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. consulate in Libya were executed by terrorists or spontaneous protesters. He repeatedly asked her why she didn’t pick up the phone that day and find out the facts, to which Clinton eventually responded sharply, “With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. What difference, at this point, does it make?”
“I’m not sure she had rehearsed for that type of question,” Johnson told BuzzFeed Wednesday afternoon, after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. “I think she just decided before she was going to describe emotionally the four dead Americans, the heroes, and use that as her trump card to get out of the questions. It was a good way of getting out of really having to respond to me.”
I’ll say it if he won’t: yeah, she rehearsed it.
She saw how Barack Obama had dodged the very same issue in the very same way in the debates, seemingly with success. HOW DARE YOU! WE ARE TALKING ABOUT DEAD AMERICANS!! HAVE YOU NO SHAME, SIR!
Well, yeah. We’re talking about dead Americans YOU failed to protect, who YOU lied about. After all, you had $16 million for Kindles but no cash for security.
I have to say, though, that Sen. Johnson is a day late and a dollar short. When someone throws you the “What difference does it make?” softball, you don’t watch it float over the plate and let the crowd think you just got burned by a 100-mile-per-hour fastball. You knock it out of the park. Everybody knows what difference it made. It made a difference to whether the Administration was telling the truth. Whether Barack Obama told lies to keep his terrorist fighting credentials burnished.
Johnson should have been the one pounding the table.
Love their photo, by the way. I guess shrill is the new passionate.
How dare she ask what difference does it make!!!!!
We have four dead Americans!!!!!!!!!!!
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 1/24/2013 @ 1:03 pmIt’s back again! (the post)
Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 1/24/2013 @ 1:03 pmWashington is one great Kabuki Theatre, and the show failed to close in New Haven as it should.
askeptic (b8ab92) — 1/24/2013 @ 1:04 pmSometimes I think we should invite the Brits back to complete the job they botched in 1814.
It’ takes you back, a bit to be so brazen, I would have responded with why did the President chose to
narciso (3fec35) — 1/24/2013 @ 1:11 pmimprison a filmmaker, why did you authorize commercials to be run in Pakistan, if the riots weren’t the problem,
No, “passionate” is when a Democrat does it, “shrill” is when a Republican does it.
Chuck Bartowski (11fb31) — 1/24/2013 @ 1:16 pmit’s hard to argue with the idea that this Hillary Clinton person is the epitome of the sort of nasty ill-groomed unethical trash America is very much deserving of for their next president
the times being what they are
happyfeet (4bf7c2) — 1/24/2013 @ 1:18 pmDidn’t Carvel say something about dragging $100 bills through trailer-parks to get to this point?
askeptic (b8ab92) — 1/24/2013 @ 1:22 pmOh….he wasn’t talking about Hill?
Pity!
As I commented before (not original to me), I think this kind of hearing requires the skills of a trial lawyer or someone else (psychologist, etc.) who is capable of real time evaluation and conduct of an interchange/interrogation. It takes a certain mindset to be in a discussion and realize “this person may be intentionally or unintentially trying to deceive me, so I need to be prepared to respectfully (or not) question and/or challenge everything they say or don’t say”.
Most of us are not wired that way, and even some of us who can do it tend to do it only when we have “the switch on”.
So I give Johnson some credit for calling it what it was, even if he did not make the most of the opportunity in real time. I do not know how much of our host’s position actually puts him on the forefront in a courtroom, but that experience would surely be welcome in such a hearing.
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 1/24/2013 @ 1:37 pmAlso, I give Johnson some credit for being aggressive enough in actually asking questions that forced her into cover mode, instead of spending time talking nice-nice.
Sometimes I think we should invite the Brits back to complete the job they botched in 1814.
Comment by askeptic (b8ab92) — 1/24/2013 @ 1:04 pm
Definitely the Brits under Churchill, probably under Thatcher, maybe even under Blair, but not those of today, sadly enough.
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 1/24/2013 @ 1:40 pmIt is just a snapshot, but it appears that she is looking down more than looking directly at Sen. Johnson. I am no expert in interpreting body language, but I would think if one was truly angered and indignant in an interchange it would be pretty natural to confront the other person eye to eye, FWIW.
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 1/24/2013 @ 1:47 pm“Didn’t Carvel say something about dragging $100 bills through trailer-parks to get to this point?”
askeptic – No, Carvel is “Whale of a Cake for a Whale of a Dad” and “Buy one get one Free.”
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 1/24/2013 @ 1:47 pmI think it is sad that a person at the top of their accomplishment and responsibility is reduced to deceit and posturing, but I guess that is so 1900’s of me.
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 1/24/2013 @ 1:49 pmIt’s called the game of “uproar.” There was a book about that years ago. It still works.
Mike K (187f3b) — 1/24/2013 @ 1:51 pmWhat is this word “Responsibility”?
f1guyus (647d76) — 1/24/2013 @ 1:52 pmMeanwhile, my local newspaper which traditionally has had a center-right editorial board but has started to veer leftward, ran this cartoon today. Clearly there are lots of media hacks who are going to paint Hillary as a modern Joan of Arc for her testimony yesterday.
JVW (4826a9) — 1/24/2013 @ 2:17 pm“Cut! Print! Beautiful, baby…”
mojo (8096f2) — 1/24/2013 @ 2:18 pmIt is just a snapshot, but it appears that she is looking down more than looking directly at Sen. Johnson. I am no expert in interpreting body language, but I would think if one was truly angered and indignant in an interchange it would be pretty natural to confront the other person eye to eye, FWIW.
Nice observation, MD. I’m guessing that HRC had trouble remembering whether her media consultants told her to be angry or sad when delivering that line, so she made a clumsy juxtaposition of both.
JVW (4826a9) — 1/24/2013 @ 2:19 pmImagine if George Bush had huffed and puffed,
“What difference does it make now whether or not there were WMDs !”
Dana (292dcf) — 1/24/2013 @ 2:21 pmComment by JVW (4826a9) — 1/24/2013 @ 2:19 pm
What, they wouldn’t let her read her testimony off of a teleprompter?
askeptic (b8ab92) — 1/24/2013 @ 2:32 pmThe cads!
Sen. Johnson can’t hit softballs.
mg (31009b) — 1/24/2013 @ 2:44 pmPerhaps a tee is needed.
What difference does it make?
Ask Nakoula Nakoula.
If he hasn’t hung himself in jail yet.
Patricia (be0117) — 1/24/2013 @ 3:39 pmHillarry: “Even today there are still questions being raised.”
Sooper Sekrit intelligence.
Hillary says people were going in real time. There is a process.
Hillary: More important to find out who did it, than why.
If you don’t find out why, you may not find oijut who – or who was behind it.
Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 1/24/2013 @ 4:39 pmSomeone check Gitmo for the Benghazi survivors yet?
gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 1/24/2013 @ 5:15 pmSo, just who are those 25 to 30 Benghazi survivors, and where are they, and what do they have to say about the attack, and about why they haven’t come forward and told their story. Assuming the State Department is through water-boarding them.
There must be at least one real TV journalist left who would like to interview them on the record.
ropelight (cf9068) — 1/24/2013 @ 5:29 pmThey are all still working for the U.S. government, most of them for the CIA, and under instructions not to talk to the press, and even their families have been so urged, and everything they would have to say is either classified, or related to an ongoing criminal probe by the FBI.
Sammy Finkelman (728434) — 1/24/2013 @ 5:40 pmA real cross examination and no perjury would have revealed impeachable offenses and no one wants to go there because the democrat controlled senate will never vote to impeach. This is the reason for Obama’s arrogance and contempt for the comnstitution, he has effective legal immunity.
dunce (15d7dc) — 1/24/2013 @ 7:45 pmI hate being so superficial, but half the country would want to regularly view Mrs. Kruschev on the evening news?
She hasn’t even started with banging the flats and I’m repulsed. Babushka belongs in a sod hut boiling borscht.
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=babushka+russian&ei=UTF-8&fr=w3i&type=W3i_DS,136,0_0,Search,20110939,6901,0,8,0
gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 1/24/2013 @ 9:41 pmshe looks like one of those nasty hoarder women you see on the cable tv
happyfeet (ce327d) — 1/24/2013 @ 9:51 pmMrs. Potato Head needs a new pant dress.
mg (31009b) — 1/24/2013 @ 10:17 pmclotty clotty tater head knockin at my door
go away clotty tater head or I call the popo I swear I will
“WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE” shrieked the clotty tater head
and man I don’t mind tellin you I was freaking scared
happyfeet (ce327d) — 1/24/2013 @ 10:31 pmScripted, focus grouped, news releases prepped, talking points created and approved by Bill Clinton.
But it’s really hard to act as well as Bill.
cedarhill (ed9238) — 1/25/2013 @ 4:24 amComment by dunce (15d7dc) — 1/24/2013 @ 7:45 pm
Agreed that it is hard to imagine what the one would have to do in order for the Senate to impeach him. Short of that, what would he have to be caught at that would change the senate in 2014.
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 1/25/2013 @ 4:25 amLooks to me like extremist and rude Republicans have started their 2016 campaign already by steadfastly alienating an important demographic. There are ways to disagree without being totally disagreeable, a lesson not yet learned.
Perry (232770) — 1/25/2013 @ 5:03 amWhat demographic is insulted by asking Hillary to justify her record? She blamed a video, then said she didn’t. She failed to even read requests for protection, and then that failure got Americans killed.
Is this important demographic die-hard partisan democrats?
Refusing to answer crucial questions with ‘what difference does it make’ was a slap in the face to the few folks who pay attention and care.
Dustin (73fead) — 1/25/2013 @ 5:09 amLooks to me like extremist and rude Republicans have started their 2016 campaign already by steadfastly alienating an important demographic. There are ways to disagree without being totally disagreeable, a lesson not yet learned.
Comment by Perry (232770) — 1/25/2013 @ 5:03 am
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
JD (b63a52) — 1/25/2013 @ 5:10 ama slap in the face to the few folks who pay attention and care
Dustin- that’s the growing demographic that is alienated, those who aren’t paying (close enough) attention.
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 1/25/2013 @ 5:16 amRemember, it’s Hillary who was yelling. At the congressmen who had every right to ask some very basic questions. And Hillary had dodged the inquiry for a long time.
Yet it’s the people asking the questions who are ‘extremist and rude’.
If Hillary really thought it made no difference, she should have just answered the question instead of throwing the tirade as though it makes a very big difference if you lie to the American people about a deadly attack.
Dustin (73fead) — 1/25/2013 @ 5:19 amAmen, MD.
Dustin (73fead) — 1/25/2013 @ 5:20 amComment by Perry (232770) — 1/25/2013 @ 5:03 am
Dems have their new talking point. The previous one was that Hillary put Johnson in his place.
Gerald A (f26857) — 1/25/2013 @ 6:09 amSen. Johnson can’t hit softballs.
Perhaps a tee is needed.
Comment by mg (31009b) — 1/24/2013 @ 2:44 pm
— Well said.
Icy (dd199d) — 1/25/2013 @ 6:22 amNaw, not at all.
“Bitch” is the new “black”
(whys it always gots to be “black”?)
Or maybe not…
Maybe it’s the same old incompetent BITCH it’s always been.
Smock Puppet, 10th Dan Snark Master and Labeler of the Obama-Naut (98ae1f) — 1/25/2013 @ 6:29 amNotice Hillary fudged on the number of survivors? When asked directly she said there were between 25 and 30. No one followed up and asked for a accurate figure or for the names, or asked why it was that she couldn’t give a firm number.
Now why is that? Or is it rude to ask?
ropelight (658857) — 1/25/2013 @ 7:34 amComment by ropelight (658857) — 1/25/2013 @ 7:34 am
Well, I guess if it was essentially a CIA operation I understand why they want details kept to a minimum, which is great if we had a govt. of elected officials in the WH and Congressional oversight that we could trust, but…
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 1/25/2013 @ 9:37 amI said on the other thread that I thought Hillary looked bad at the hearings appearance-wise and acted (her over all demeanor) like there’s something wrong with her. Drudge has this from the NY Daily News:
A close inspection of Hillary Clinton’s glasses worn during her Wednesday testimony on Benghazi shows an adhesive Fresnel prism, which is usually used to ‘bring things into focus’ for those with double vision or muscle weakness in the eye. A Clinton spokesperson confirmed that the new specs are related to her head trauma and blood clot.
I’m not excusing her lies and evasion. But clearly she is not operating on all cylinders. It’s scary to have a medically impaired SoS. I wonder how long this condition has been lurking in the background possibly affecting her performance.
elissa (fa8810) — 1/25/2013 @ 3:28 pmHil has given some good head for the old U.S.A.
mg (31009b) — 1/25/2013 @ 3:48 pmAll is well, nothing to see here;
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/libyan-pm-calls-reaction-benghazi-attack-exaggeration
narciso (3fec35) — 1/25/2013 @ 4:06 pmelissa,
I’m not a doctor but I had something similar from a concussion in a wreck. Thus, I wonder if it’s the result of a head injury sustained in her fall.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 1/25/2013 @ 4:34 pmI’m not a doctor either… but have dabbled in pharmaceuticals.
It’s time the old mare was put out to pasture, where the media can continue spinning tales of her inspired political acumen and gravitas. Truth be told… she’s an in inept underachiever of historic proportions. Symptomatic of the incompetence that is the hallmark of the 0bama administration.
Colonel Haiku (eb2f08) — 1/25/2013 @ 5:02 pmTurning over nearly all of North Africa, to the Salafis, Algeria is kind of a holdout, is no small accomplishment,
narciso (3fec35) — 1/25/2013 @ 5:09 pmRef #21 – by Patricia (be0117) — 1/24/2013 @ 3:39 pm
“What difference does it make?
Ask Nakoula Nakoula.
If he hasn’t hung himself in jail yet.”
= = = = = =
I keep wishing some intrepid young reporter would go interview him in jail, and ask if he made that video on his own, or …mmm… whether somebody “suggested” it to him.
Nakoula had been involved in something described as bank fraud, and turned informant in return for a promise of leniency. Then suddenly he’s making a video about Mohammed and Islam? The background that’s been reported about him doesn’t hint that he was passionately anti-Islamic.
It just seems to me he got put on ice REALLY QUICKLY after the Benghazi thing blew up…. seized in the dead of night and whisked away, tried, sentenced, and locked up within just a few weeks. Yet- Jon Corzine is still running around free as a bird. Interesting.
A_Nonny_Mouse (57cacf) — 1/25/2013 @ 5:30 pmComment by elissa (fa8810) — 1/25/2013 @ 3:28 pm
How long?
askeptic (2bb434) — 1/25/2013 @ 5:31 pmI think it goes back to the Re-Set.
51) which I never understood, Bush gave Volodya a green light when it came to Chechnya, which they returned the favor, by bashing on Iraq, the invasion of Georgia, which was detained at least part of the way,
narciso (3fec35) — 1/25/2013 @ 5:39 pmShe is clearly faking emotion. As someone else mentioned, she is reading, not addressing anyone. Second, her expression is wrong. No true signs of rage. Her mouth is wrong, her eyes are wrong, no signs of high blood pressure…
Phillep Harding (1b8b26) — 1/26/2013 @ 12:16 pm