Oh, brother.
Vocal Few in Congress Keep Benghazi Issue AliveMAY 7, 2014
Derek Willis
The 2012 Benghazi attack has become a rallying point for many conservative figures in the news media, but only a handful of Republicans in Congress have continued to call public attention to it. Just six members of the House and Senate mention it regularly in official statements.
All are Republican, and two lead the way. Representative Frank Wolf of Virginia has issued 27 news releases on the subject in the past year, and Martha Roby of Alabama has sent out 21. Mr. Wolf and Louie Gohmert of Texas have spoken about Benghazi the most in speeches on the House floor.
In the Senate, the Republican threesome of John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, who often speak from the same playbook on foreign policy, are among those who talk about Benghazi the most, along with fellow Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Ted Cruz of Texas. Almost no Democrats in either chamber talk about Benghazi in official speeches or news releases, aside from a few members of the House and Senate intelligence committees.
When House Republican leaders announced that they would create a select committee to investigate the attack, dozens of conservatives praised the move in news releases. But for many of them, it was the first time they had mentioned the topic in official statements or on the House floor in months.
Mentions of Benghazi by lawmakers have ebbed and flowed during the past year, peaking around the anniversary of the Sept. 12 attacks and then falling away again. Between April 9 and April 29 this year, no news releases with Benghazi in the title were issued by members of Congress, the longest such absence for a year. A news release, being the official statement of the politician, is a good proxy for intensity of the politician’s sentiment.
