under the hammer

The senators who finally got Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to testify had a lot of fun speechifying instead of asking questions. Sen. Rand Paul made his point that Hillary Clinton should have been fired, but why didn't any senator ask her the question that should have been at the top of the list – why didn't she know what happened in Benghazi, if not while it was going on, shortly after?

The ambassador and three other State Department employees were killed, but most of the State Department employees who were there were still alive on Sept. 12 and are alive today. Does Hillary Clinton not know how to use a telephone? Why didn't she simply call one of the survivors and ask what happened?

If she had she would have known that it was not a spontaneous attack caused by a video or by people out walking around who decided they wanted to kill Americans. Hillary Clinton may not know that few people bring mortars and heavy machine guns to spontaneous rallies or take them on walks, even in the Middle East, but if she had simply talked to some of the survivors she would have known that it was not a spontaneous demonstration.

Rand was right that Hillary Clinton should have been fired for dereliction of duty for not reading the emails from her ambassador in Libya, but what was worse is that, according to what Clinton has said, she took no action to find out what did happen at the US compound in Benghazi and at the CIA compound where the ex-Navy Seals were killed.

For what possible reason did it take weeks for the US government to find out what happened? Why wasn't the compound sealed off? Why did it take weeks for the State Department to send the FBI to the scene to investigate?

Hillary Clinton has learned a lot from her husband, former President William Jefferson Blythe Clinton, the only elected president in this country's history to be impeached. Bill Clinton stood before the American people and said, "But I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time; never. These allegations are false. And I need to go back to work for the American people. Thank you."

Only because "that woman" Monica Lewinsky saved the blue dress with semen stains on it do we know that speech was a lie. We also know that Bill Clinton practiced to make it sound truthful. He did have sexual relations with that woman and he certainly didn't tell her to go out and tell the world that they were having sex. He also didn't tell her to tell his secretary that she needed to see him to have sex with him.

Bill Clinton did commit perjury based on the evidence supplied by the blue dress, but he is now one of the most respected members of the Democratic Party.

Hillary Clinton sounded remarkably like her husband when she said, "With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night decided to go kill some Americans? What difference, at this point, does it make?"

The fact that no senator had the gumption to tell her exactly why it does matter is appalling. That a cabinet secretary would be allowed to say something that incredibly offensive to a Senate committee and the American people is disturbing. If what Hillary Clinton said is true then there should be no murder investigations because what difference does it make who killed someone? They are dead whether the killer is found or not. There certainly should be no Senate committees calling people in to testify about anything, because what difference does it make? What's done is done.

Hillary Clinton is such a fake and a fraud it is embarrassing that she has served as secretary of state. If it doesn't matter what happened, why investigate anything ever?

For the record, one reason it matters is to make certain that it doesn't happen again. The next time an ambassador is begging for more security someone in the secretary of state's office should at least read his emails.

But it makes a huge difference whether this was a spontaneous uprising or a carefully planned terrorist attack by al Qaeda. It makes a difference for all the other embassies in the world. The spontaneous uprising fits in with the Obama world picture, but not with reality. It is more difficult for Obama to convince the American people that he has won the war against al Qaeda if al Qaeda is attacking American installations and killing American ambassadors.

Chris Stevens was Hillary Clinton's employee. She should want to know what happened to him. Why was he left behind apparently alive, and what happened to him after the other Americans left and he was taken to the hospital?

If a friend is killed, few of us say – No, don't tell me how he died, because it doesn't matter. But we are supposed to believe that is what Hillary Clinton says. She doesn't care how people, who were killed because of her incompetence, died. She doesn't care who has attacked Americans in the past because you can't do anything about it.

According to Hillary Clinton's philosophy the US could just get rid of the CIA and the FBI because primarily what they do is find out what happened.

I suppose Hillary Clinton would also say that it didn't matter whether or not while he was president of the United States her husband, Bill Clinton, had sex with a White House intern and lied about it. It may not have mattered to Hillary Clinton that her husband was taking advantage of a young White House intern, but it mattered to the majority of the House of Representatives who voted to impeach him.

What has Hillary Clinton done as secretary of state? She would say that it doesn't matter because whatever she has done is over. But it matters to some Americans. Has she accomplished anything other than having flown all over the world? What are her accomplishments? She managed to get one of her ambassadors killed by not bothering to read his pleas for more help, but she was probably too busy flying from plush hotel to plush hotel to bother with reading emails and the other mundane duties of being secretary of state.

Secretary of State John Kerry is a lucky man because he has some tiny shoes to fill. If he can manage to keep all his ambassadors alive he will have been far more successful than Hillary Clinton.

What would be wonderful if is this were the last the American people heard from Hillary Clinton, but that isn't likely. The Clintons are like bad pennies; they just keep turning up.

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It appears that The New York Times might be able to win some prize for being the least introspective organization in the world. An article on Sunday about Vice President Joe Biden states, "in a few short months, the motor-tongued, muscle-car-loving heartbeat-away hell raiser has been transformed from gaffe-prone amusement to someone whose star shines as brightly as his teeth."

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If that is true, it is only because the ultra-liberal New York Times, followed by the rest of the mainstream media, has worked overtime to make it true. Vice President Dan Quayle was handed a flashcard with potato misspelled on it and "corrected" a child to misspell the word. How many of us, if up in front of a room full of people and cameras and handed a card with a misspelled word on it would question the spelling on the card? But the media has had a field day with it.

The incident could have been laughed off as a silly mistake, like Biden thinking he was in North Carolina instead of Virginia; or forgetting what century he lived in; or making fun of an Indian at a convenience store; or saying that the president was worried about one three-letter word, J-O-B-S. Quayle can't spell and Biden can't count.

I have never seen ruder, more boorish behavior by a politician, even on the local level, than Biden during the vice presidential debate. We had a gang leader – now in the federal penitentiary serving a lengthy sentence – run for City Council and he behaved much more civilly than Biden did in the vice presidential debate. Yet some news analysts said, in their opinion, Biden had won the debate. If you can win a vice presidential debate simply by shouting and refusing to allow the other candidate to answer a question we have entered a whole new realm of politics. Many people thought Biden was insane, and in fact several people asked me if something had happened to him because he didn't act like a normal human being. His behavior was aberrant, but the news media simply reported that he was on the "offensive" and wanted to show off his wide knowledge. It wasn't true, but most people are easily swayed.

The media has decided that anything Biden does is cute and funny. He can say incredibly rude and stupid stuff and it just Joe being Joe. Even the emperor himself, President Barack Hussein Obama, doesn't get the pass that Biden gets. And then The New York Times has the gall to write that Biden has been "transformed." The New York Times and company have transformed him.

If they presented Biden the way he is, people would know that he is a not very bright, rude, boorish, dishonest snob, but people think he is cute because what they know about Biden is what is reported.

The New York Times is free to report whatever it wants about people, but to act like this is something Biden has accomplished on his own should be beneath them. But unfortunately it is not.

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A statement that rivals Hillary Clintons in outrageousness is Obama's statement about gun control legislation: "If it saves only one life, it is worth it." That is so stupid it is hard to believe that Obama's speechwriters allowed him to utter that phrase.

Lowering the national speed limit to 45 mph would save thousands of lives. Putting a trauma center in every little town in this country and in every neighborhood in cities would likewise save thousands of lives. One of the major causes of death in homes is falls, particularly in the bathroom. Ladders and bathtubs have no constitutional protection. So if Obama outlawed ladders and bathtubs thousands of lives could be saved.

For older people, taking a shower is particularly dangerous. Outlawing showers and forcing everyone in the country to take baths would save lives.

Over 800 people die every year from drowning, many of them in swimming pools. Once again swimming pools have no constitutional protection, so Obama could just outlaw swimming pools and safe hundreds of lives.

Obama could also save lives by putting up fences around every body of water in the country. It would be ugly and expensive, but it would save lives.

People die every year surfing. Obama is from Hawaii, so it might be tough for him, but if he wants to save just one life, then he should simply outlaw surfing.

Lately several people have died from being pushed on to the subway tracks in New York. Obama could easily save those lives by closing all the subways, including the ones in Washington, DC. It would inconvenience a few million people but it would save more than one life.

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The Stupid Party is at it again. The Republican Party suffered a disastrous defeat in 2012. The Republicans were running against a president who had presided over a recovery so weak it seems like a recession. Unemployment, even according to the president, is at an unacceptable level. But it wasn't just the presidential race. North Carolina is one of the few states where Republicans made any gains. The Republicans lost ground in the Senate and have less of a majority in the House.

It was a bad year for Republicans, yet the Republican Party reelected Reince Priebus as chairman of the Republican National Committee. It seems like after suffering a stunning defeat in 2012 that the Republican Party would want to see if someone new could do a better job, but that's not how the Republican Party works.

They don't call it the Stupid Party for nothing.

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Many people who have been active in politics their entire lives – meaning not that they have run for office but that they read newspapers and watch the news on television, go to political events, contribute to candidates and generally keep up with what is happening politically – have told me that since the election they can't watch the news anymore.

Almost three months after the election they are still so upset by the choice that the country made they can't stand to watch what is going on. These are, of course, all conservatives, and they will be a huge problem for Republicans in 2014 and 2016 if the Republican Party can't give them some reason to get active again.

I understand the problem. I rarely watch the news because I know first hand how terribly inaccurate television news is, but I have to force myself to read the news because it's my job.

It is difficult because it doesn't matter what anyone reports: Obama, who I think is the worst president in my lifetime, is going to be president for 1,450 more days.

For four years conservatives had hope that the majority of the country would see what they see when they look at our president, which is a charlatan. Books were written about how misleading Obama's book – which they used to call an autobiography – is. Articles were written about how his own economic advisers said he didn't understand economics. His lack of experience showed in his interaction with foreign dignitaries. His insults to Israel and Great Britain were particularly obvious.

He put $1 trillion into the economy and most of it went to the government, not to business, and the economy floundered. His idea evidently was not to help out private industry – with the notable exception of private industry dependent on union labor – but to make sure that the government didn't have to be cut.

Around here the local governments have faired very well during the recession. Greensboro for a while implemented a rolling hiring freeze, which meant that for three months they wouldn't fill a position. This was considered a horrible burden for other city employees who had to fill in for three months, assuming that the person who left did something. But that is long gone and the city is back adding employees like it was before the recession. It was merely a hiccup for local government, while small businesses by the score went out of business.

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Obama seemed to many to be anti-business, and in some cases anti-American. Many conservatives said they thought this was the most important election of their lives and they believed that. They said they didn't know if the country could survive another four years of Obama and remain the country we know and love. Now they are unengaged from political activity waiting to see what will happen next.

The Republicans should win big in 2015, but they won't if half of their team is not in the game.