It was probably a coincidence. On the same day officials said the Pentagon would lift its ban on women serving in combat, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton engaged in some combat of her own, dodging verbal grenades at congressional hearings on the Benghazi affair.
There was no clear winner.
To her credit, Ms. Clinton stood her ground. She has taken responsibility for missteps that led to the debacle at Benghazi, where terrorists killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three others in a September 2012 attack, and she took responsibility again at the Wednesday hearings.
The fireworks came as she responded to assertions that the Obama administration tried to cover up the terrorist attack by initially describing it as a spontaneous protest turned lethal.
“With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans,” she said at one point, her voice rising in anger. “Was it because of a protest? Or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they would go kill some Americans? What difference, at this point, does it make?”
She pounded the table.
“It is our job to figure out what happened,” she said, “and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, Senator!”
Later, conservatives ridiculed the exchange while liberals applauded it. To us, Ms. Clinton’s response seemed forced and theatrical.
The Republican senators who drew her ire didn’t come off well, either. Too many were fixated on statements made by U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice in the days immediately after the attack. Conspiracy theories abounded.
In an Oct. 18 editorial, the Daily News argued that the real issue in the Benghazi affair is not who said what and when. The real issue is the failure to secure the U.S. mission, the need to hunt down the terrorists who overran the compound, and the vital task of making sure that such failures aren’t repeated.
Last week’s hearings did nothing to alter that view.
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EDITORIAL: Clinton vs. a combative Congress
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