The House Select Committee On Sidney Blumenthal -- UPDATED

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.

And yea, though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death I will fear no evil, 

For I am the baddest motherfucker in the goddamn valley.

There's a scene between Fast Eddie Felson and Minnesota Fats which comes roughly in the middle of "The Hustler" (which is basically the same scene which comes at the end of "The Cincinnati Kid" between the Kid and Lancey Howard, but that's a different chapter of comparative cinema for a different day.)

Fast Eddie is a prodigy.  A hungry prodigy and the motor that drives him is the dream of facing down the old cue-slinger's and kicking him ass.

And, finally, he gets his wish.

Eddie find himself up big.  Over 11 grand big.  But he doesn't have it in him to quit because winning is not enough.  His ego demands that he destroy the king, and he hasn't gotten Fats to cry "Uncle!" -- to confess that Fast Eddie Felson is the greatest pool player of all time, and hand over the crown.

And because Eddie does not know when to stop, Fats guts him.  After playing and drinking hard all night long, Eddie has nothing in reserve.  Fats, on the other hand, splashs a little water on his face, re-powders his hands, pops a new flower into his lapel and he's ready to go, fresh as a daisy.

And he takes Eddie for every nickel.  Because while Eddie played pool, Fats played Eddie.

Which brings us 'round to yesterday's House Select Committee On Sidney Blumenthal, which featured a marathon and resoundingly presidential performance by the woman who formerly-famous gay conservative Catholic bedwetter, Andrew Sullivan, described less than two weeks ago as a "talent-free hack" who is terrible on the teevee machine.

Yesterday I watched almost the whole, wretched spectacle.  My blow-by-blow of Hillary Clinton's 15 round comprehensive beat-down of the Republican goon squad is here and I have little to add to it, other than I should probably spell-check the damn thing before it becomes part of the Authorized History of the Death of the Party of Lincoln.

What I can say is that this ongoing molestation of our democracy by the Right will never end as long as Fox News voters continue to elect Fox News Republicans who promise to enact Fox News talking points rather than engage in the hard and boring job of responsible self-governance.  Because Benghazi is Whitewater.  Benghazi is Obama's birth certificate.  Benghazi is Planned Parenthood and ACORN and Jade Helm and WMD in Iraq with a side of Freedumb Fries.

As everyone now knows (but the media refuses to say out loud), the Right is now defined entirely by a wildly paranoid "secret narrative" of vast conspiracies, villainous betrayals and promises of ultimate victory that reads like the Book of Revelations as written by Alan West and edited for teevee by Joseph Goebbels.

Benghazi is just another in that endless parade of spiteful, popskull delusions with which the bigots and imbeciles on the Right shut out the real world.   Benghazi is their bottle and their needle, and because today's Benghazi is always doomed to fall apart once it touches the scalding rays of reality, the Right is forever scuttling on to the next Benghazi, and the one after that, and then the one after that.  And they will pay anyone, elect anyone, worship anyone who will promise them that the river of bullshit in which they live will never run dry and leave them flopping around in the open, humiliated and destroyed by those horrible Liberals.

This is why they hate us: not because of some disagreement over policy or platform or philosophy, but because of all the creatures in the forest, the Dirty Liberals are the only ones who dare to hold a mirror up to the Right (and to their enablers in the Beltway media) and show them for craven idiots, sullen losers and seething bigots they really are.

Ten years ago, "Benghazi" was the mounting evidence that the Bush Administration had not only lied us into the wrong war, but was botching that war and pissing away America lives and treasure on their bloody, failed Randite experiment in the deserts of Iraq.  Here is what I wrote back then:

...

The idea is actually so painfully, prima facia absurd that it no more merits “refutation” than does Flat Earthery. It is kinda funny to see what happens when the malformed little homunculi who live inside the Fart Rebreathing GOP Bell Jar try to catapult their house-organ lunacy into the outside world.

Such remarks do have the salutary effect of accidentally setting off a million-candle-power magnesium flare smack in the middle of their own camp. Suddenly, bright as day, you can clearly see what squirmy little monsters they are. You can really do little but shake your head in sad wonder that what once may have been considered the Best and the Brightest are now such craven, lumpen fucktards.

...

Sadly, I would not have to alter a single word to describe all the Bengahzies since.

And sadly, I will not have to alter a single word to describe all the Bengahzies yet to come.

Meanwhile, and to no one's surprise, the Pig People will go right on believing that yesterday was one more glorious triumph on their Shining Path to Total Victory:

Watch: Congresswoman Slams 2 Piles Of Paper On The Table, Then Drops A Bomb On Hillary https://t.co/noOgEj5asr

— Warner Todd Huston (@warnerthuston) October 23, 2015

UPDATE:

Don't look now, but here comes the new Benghazi, right on schedule:

First on CNN: Former IRS official will not face charges for targeting political groups

By Evan Perez, CNN Justice Reporter

Updated 2:40 PM ET, Fri October 23, 2015

Washington (CNN)The Justice Department notified members of Congress on Friday that it is closing its two-year investigation into whether the IRS improperly targeted tea party and other conservative groups.

There will be no charges against former IRS official Lois Lerner or anyone else at the agency, the Justice Department said in a letter.

The probe found "substantial evidence of mismanagement, poor judgment and institutional inertia leading to the belief by many tax-exempt applicants that the IRS targeted them based on their political viewpoints. But poor management is not a crime."

"We found no evidence that any IRS official acted based on political, discriminatory, corrupt, or other inappropriate motives that would support a criminal prosecution," Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik said in the letter. "We also found no evidence that any official involved in the handling of tax-exempt applications or IRS leadership attempted to obstruct justice. Based on the evidence developed in this investigation and the recommendation of experienced career prosecutors and supervising attorneys at the department, we are closing our investigation and will not seek any criminal charges."

...

Cue the squealing from the usual suspects about Betrayal! Cover-up! and demands for a House Select Inquisition in 3...2...1...

And when that Benghazi fails, the next Benghazi is already in the pipeline:

Boehner’s next select committee, focusing on Planned Parenthood, to be led by Marsha Blackburn

Beats working.