Benghazi significance

Glenn Reynolds may have nailed it when he said that it was a politically motivated cover story that the White House knew was false.

Do you recall how it all started?  Somehow it has all changed from being about a cheesy internet flick that nobody saw to a terrorist attack that caught the administration flat-footed.  Why lie about it if you're innocent?

The flat-footed part is what's being covered up, I suspect.  The excuse now for not sending aid to the besieged consulate was that it would have taken too long.   Implied in that is a lack of preparation.  You can't get anything to a scene within 8 hours?  Come on.  The Pentagon gets plenty of money.  It shouldn't be too much to ask to put a small number of assets that they have into an area a few hundred miles away.  They just needed to send a few planes in so that they'd have time for the cavalry to arrive.

It will all be spun up to make the administration look good and their critics to look bad.  But look at the bottom line:  They failed to spot an impending attack, and failed to respond to one that was ongoing, and then lied about it.

At the very least, they are guilty of gross negligence.  But all the lying makes me suspicious that they are covering up much more.

Update:

But the real significance for the Republicans is to ask themselves why their own presidential candidate allowed himself to be silenced on the issue when Benghazi was before the American people?  Media silence on the issue was no excuse.  Romney had the attention of millions and could have said much, much more.

In short, why did Romney go bean-bag?  He had it exactly right when he criticized the administration for taking the side of the rioters on an issue of freedom of expression and religion.

There was never any excuse to come up with a cover story like that because the cover story itself, even if it were true, was downright un-American and shameful.  Romney had it right, but he let himself be silenced.

That's the big story.

Update

One more thing.  Romney had the greatest aplomb for attacking Republicans in the primary season.  Why couldn't he have done the same to Obama with respect to Benghazi?  Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?