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Friday, October 30th, 2015

The House science committee is worse than the Benghazi committee

Author:     David Roberts
Source:     Vox
Publication Date:     October 26, 2015, 1:19 p.m. ET
Link: The House science committee is worse than the Benghazi committee
Stephan:   Lamar Smith went to Yale so I think we can accept that he is not a man of low IQ. He is however, at least publicly, a man of astonishing willful ignorance, a representative whose public profile is that of a hardcore Theocratic Rightist. I also think that history will come to know him as a villain guilty of crimes against both humanity and the planet. Here is why I think that. I should also say this is why I do not believe that we as a nation will be prepared for the catastrophic devastation that climate change is is going to bring to our country.
Republican Representative Lamar Smith of Texas' 21st District Credit: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call

Republican Representative Lamar Smith of Texas’ 21st District
Credit: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call

Last Thursday, the nation watched with a mix of amusement and horror as the House Benghazi committee spent 11 hours grilling Hillary Clinton on a bizarre farrago of issues, many of which bore only tangential connection to the Benghazi attack.

Over the past few weeks, the political narrative seems to have shifted from “Clinton in trouble” to “congressional witch hunt seeks to take down Clinton.” Between McCarthy’s accidental truth telling, an ex-staffer confirming the worst reports about the committee, and another House Republican conceding the obvious, it has become clear that the Benghazi committee is a thoroughly partisan political endeavor. Opinion has turned, but Republicans are trapped.

The thing is: The Benghazi committee is not even the worst committee in the House. I’d argue that the House science committee, under the chairmanship of Lamar Smith (R-TX), deserves that superlative for its open-ended, Orwellian […]

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