Scrutinizing Hillary Clinton's E-Mails and Sidney Blumenthal

In the aftermath of GOP Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy's misstatement that the Benghazi hearings is a Hillary Clinton political witch hunt, House Benghazi Committee Chairman Representative Trey Gowdy (R-SC 4th) sent a fiery letter to Benghazi Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-MD 7th) sharing some findings about the former Secretary of State's e-mails.

Chairman Gowdy accused Clinton confidante Sidney Blumenthal of exposing a secret source in Libya as he lobbied the then Secretary of State for business concessions in Libya. 

These sorts of specific anomalies will be at the heart of First Lady, Senator, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's (D-AR NY) daylong testimony on October 22nd   Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY 25th) filed a privilege motion to disband the Benghazi  Select Committee, which failed on a near party line vote of 240-188.  It is likely that Democrats and Mrs. Clinton will use such streams of thought to minimize the findings of Gowdy's year and a half of investigations about the four deaths at the U.S. diplomatic outpost on September 11, 2012.

Latest Hillary E-Mail Dump Offers Incisive Oppo Analysis

The latest batch of Hillary Clinton's sanitized State Department e-mails offered some incisive analysis of the opposition by Clinton's "unofficial" advisor Sidney Blumenthal.   

Blumenthal's sharp criticisms from 2011 of the newly elected Speaker of the House John Boehner seem to reflect the initial animus against elites which the wave of Tea Party candidates harbored for a do nothing Congress.

However, the Clinton confidant goes much further than the public grousing against the putative head of the GOP-e Cocktail Party. The ad hominem attacks gut Speaker Boehner's leadership and loyalty.

Where "Sid Vicious"'s assessment seems awry is being "Delay without the whip".  Despite misgivings by many in the Republican Caucus, Boehner and the current leadership team have managed to retain their positions.

 John Boehner was be re-elected for another term as House Speaker in January 2015, despite a couple of last minute challenges by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX 1st), Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL 10th) et ali.  Boehner won re-election by two votes. This coup within the GOP caucus may have been thwarted because there were a number of missing New York Democrats who were attending former Governor Mario Cuomo's (D-NY) funeral the day of the vote, which lowered the threshold for  having a majority.

Dissatisfaction has not been abated from Tea Party types in the House Republican caucus. In July 2015, Representative Mark Meadows (R-NC 11th) introduced a Resolution to Declare the Office of Speaker of the House vacant.  Since this was not a privileged motion, the resolution needs to go through the regular committee process, in which it will likely be quashed by Republican Boehner supporters.

For his part, Speaker Boehner does not quietly suffer indignation from insurgents.  Recently, during a political fundraiser in Colorado, John Boehner noted that a leading Tea Party figure, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has been on the Presidential primary hustings which he said keeps that "jackass" out of Washington. So much for Reagan's 11th commandment.

The hallmark of the 2016 Republican Presidential primary campaign has been outsiders who are rally around the perception that Washington doesn't work with the current ineffectual leadership.  One wonders how an anti-establishment wave would work with the accomodationist leadership of Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).  Could Boehner co-opt incoming Freshmen again or would their anger at the system and earnestness effectuate real change in the District of Calamity (sic)?