Benghazi hearings no waste of time

In the May 10 Daily Herald, Roger Frankel takes issue with House Speaker John Boehner forming a special committee to "once again investigate events in Benghazi, even though there is no new information," and implies this to be a waste of time. In fact, Mr. Frankel, there is new information revealed in emails the administration reluctantly released after exhausting every effort to prevent such release, prompting Boehner to seriously try to place the blame where it belongs.

We citizens, being used to the mediocrity of our government, can forgive its failure to protect the four victims of the Benghazi attack. What we can't forgive is an attempted cover-up of the shoddy way they operate. The administration knew immediately it was a planned terrorist attack, and they weren't prepared. Obviously because the presidential election was in the near future and Obama could be defeated because of his failure to protect, they propagated the lie that the attack was not planned by terrorists, but was the result of a video the radical Islamists didn't like. They continued blaming the video for weeks, knowing how mendacious they were.

Before dismissing Boehner's investigation of the Benghazi cover-up as a waste of time, Mr. Frankel should think about what happened after the break-in at the Watergate hotel, a laughable case of stupidity which would have been forgotten if not for the attempted cover-up which resulted in people serving time in prison and President Nixon resigning his office. And in Watergate four fewer people died than in Benghazi.

Mr. Frankel quotes a portion of Lincoln's Gettysburg address. Allow me to quote from Thomas Jefferson, paraphrased: "The government should always fear the people. The people should never fear the government".

Gene Maril

Arlington Heights