Subject: Correct The Record Friday July 11, 2014 Morning Roundup
From: Burns Strider <[email-masked]>
To: CTRFriendsFamily <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 09:50:13 -0400
List-Id: <CTRFriendsFamily.americanbridge.org>

**

*Correct The Record Friday July 11, 2014 Morning Roundup:*

*Headlines:*

*Politico: “GOP to Todd Akin: Shut up”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/todd-akin-gop-says-shut-up-108768.html>*

“‘Todd Akin’s discreditable jabs are coming from a former right-wing
politician who spent his entire time in public service opposing equal pay
laws and choice, and who in his new book reiterates his strong belief that
women’s bodies have the ability to shut down during what he calls
legitimate rape,’ said Adrienne Elrod, communications director for Correct
the Record. ‘Akin’s cheap shots at the Clintons are nothing but a desperate
and failed attempt to stay relevant.’”

*Concord Monitor (N.H.): Douglas A. Smith, Douglas A. Smith, former
assistant secretary for the private sector at the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security: “My Turn: Foreign tourism got boost from Clinton”
<http://www.concordmonitor.com/home/12709485-95/my-turn-foreign-tourism-got-boost-from-clinton>*

“Clinton understood that there was no need to make a false choice between
economic and national security and that we can – and must – have both.
There is no better example of this than in the support of international
tourism to the United States.”

*Business Insider: “Hillary Clinton 'Personally' Pays For Her Own Staff”
<http://www.businessinsider.com/hillary-clinton-personally-pays-for-her-own-staff-2014-7>*

“‘The Secretary's personal staff is paid for by her personally,’ the source
said. The source also noted Clinton draws no salary from the foundation.”

*New York Times: “A Provocateur’s Book on Hillary Clinton Overtakes Her
Memoir in Sales”
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/11/business/a-provocateurs-book-on-hillary-clinton-overtakes-her-memoir-in-sales.html?_r=0>*

“It is a powerful statement about today’s publishing realities that Mr.
Klein’s book, a 320-page unauthorized and barely sourced account full of
implausible passages, including one about a physical altercation between
Mrs. Clinton and President Obama, has landed atop the New York Times
best-seller list, knocking ‘Hard Choices’ to No. 2.”

*Politico: “New Hampshire 2016 poll: Hillary Clinton lead shrinks”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/hillary-clinton-2016-new-hampshire-108792.html>*

“Hillary Clinton still leads the Democratic field in the race for 2016, but
her advantage might be slipping in New Hampshire, according to a new poll.”

*Associated Press: “Officers Say No ‘Stand-Down Order’ For Benghazi”
<http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_BENGHAZI_STAND_DOWN_ORDER?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT>*

“Military officers testified that there was no ‘stand-down order’ that held
back military assets that could have saved the U.S. ambassador and three
other Americans killed at a diplomatic outpost and CIA annex in Benghazi,
Libya. Their testimony undercut the contention of Republican lawmakers.”

*New York Times: “Reputation for Zeal Precedes Republican Leading New
Benghazi Inquiry”
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/10/us/politics/reputation-for-zeal-precedes-republican-leading-new-benghazi-inquiry.html?smid=tw-share>*

“Mr. Cummings went to Mr. Gowdy to seek his reassurances that there would
be ‘no surprises’ before agreeing to serve with him. ‘I have a tremendous
amount of respect for Gowdy,’ Mr. Cummings said. ‘He has always treated me
with the highest level of respect.’”

*Huffington Post: “Here's Proof Bill Clinton Is Destined To Be The World's
Greatest Grandpa”
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/10/bill-clinton-grandpa_n_5568660.html?&ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067>*

“But worry not, Clinton already knows how to handle a baby. From these
signs below, it appears Clinton is practiced enough to take on the role as
a full-time job.”

*Articles:*

*Politico: “GOP to Todd Akin: Shut up”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/todd-akin-gop-says-shut-up-108768.html>*

By Anna Palmer and Tarini Parti

July 10, 2014, 2:25 p.m. EDT

Todd Akin is back talking about rape in his new book and Republicans have a
message for him: Shut up.

The Missouri Republican’s memoir offers no apologies for his comments on
“legitimate rape,” his bruising loss to Sen. Claire McCaskill or the effect
many Republicans say his remarks had on the 2012 field — when the Senate
slipped through their fingers.

Several operatives, consultants and politicians didn’t waste any time
responding to attacks in the book, “Firing Back: Taking on the Party Bosses
and Media Elite to Protect Our Faith and Freedom,” set to be released July
15. A copy was provided to POLITICO early.

“Todd Akin is an embarrassment to the Republican Party and the sole reason
Claire McCaskill is still part of Harry Reid’s majority,” said Brian Walsh,
who served as communications director for the National Republican
Senatorial Committee during the 2012 cycle.

“It’s frankly pathetic that just like Sharron Angle and Christine O’Donnell
in 2010, he refuses to take any responsibility for sticking his foot in his
mouth, alienating voters and costing Republicans a critical Senate seat.
Worse, he’s now trying to make money off his defeat. The sooner he leaves
the stage again the better.”

The GOP has vowed to prevent the stumbles on social issues that plagued
Republican candidates on the trail last cycle. So its overwhelming reaction
to Akin: his five minutes of fame need to be over.

In his book, Akin serves up harsh words for Mitt Romney, Sen. Roy Blunt
(R-Mo.) and GOP operative Karl Rove for abandoning him following his now
infamous line about rape and pregnancy, that “the female body has ways to
try to shut that whole thing down.”

Akin puts Romney in his cross hairs over the 2012 presidential candidate’s
decision to not defend him. He argues that Romney should have pivoted on
the issue to attack Democrats and former President Bill Clinton in
particular.

But former Romney aides say it sounds like a lot of sour grapes from Akin.

“Todd Akin has no one to blame for his loss but Todd Akin,” said Kevin
Madden, a former senior adviser to Romney.

“Anyone looking at the question reasonably would conclude it doesn’t make
any sense for a former candidate to just assign blame to a long list of
rattled off names. Mitt Romney, from Massachusetts, won Missouri by 10
points. Todd Akin lost by 16 points. It’s fairly simple.”

Akin writes that Romney should have defended him by using Clinton’s sexual
indiscretions and an alleged comment that one woman “put some ice on that”
as Clinton was set to give a keynote speech at the Democratic National
Convention.

Clinton allies also see Akin bringing up the former president as desperate.

“Todd Akin’s discreditable jabs are coming from a former right-wing
politician who spent his entire time in public service opposing equal pay
laws and choice, and who in his new book reiterates his strong belief that
women’s bodies have the ability to shut down during what he calls
legitimate rape,” said Adrienne Elrod, communications director for Correct
the Record. “Akin’s cheap shots at the Clintons are nothing but a desperate
and failed attempt to stay relevant.”

Akin’s defense of his controversial comments in the book only shows that
Rove and his Crossroads outfits made the right decision by pulling out of
the race, said Paul Lindsay, spokesman for Crossroads.

“Todd Akin’s increasingly intricate theories of legitimate rape only deepen
our conviction that we made the right call in 2012,” he said. “His failed
campaign ultimately helped convince us to get involved in primaries this
cycle to help the party avoid squandering more opportunities in winnable
seats.”

American Crossroads spent about $65,000 opposing McCaskill in 2012.

For Blunt’s part, the Missouri Republican appears to not be paying his
criticism any heed. Akin wrote that Blunt left a “bloody war club with his
fingerprints all over it” to get him to quit the Senate race.

“Sen. Blunt appreciates the service Todd Akin has given to our country and
the service his sons continue to give,” said Blunt spokeswoman Amber
Marchand. “He thinks Congressman Akin is a good man and well-intentioned,
but based on what he has heard about the book, Sen. Blunt has decided not
to read it.”

By attacking Blunt and others, Akin is pointing fingers at everyone but
himself, said David Barklage, a Missouri-based Republican consultant.

“This type of name-calling is to hide the fact that party leadership has a
responsibility to protect the party label and its interests,” Barklage
said. “People talk about personal responsibility in the party. He’s still
not admitting how much of a distraction this was for the election and the
Republican Party.”

Even though Akin’s book comes as the GOP tries to capitalize on its chance
of taking back the Senate in November, Barklage said Akin’s comments will
not hurt the party’s image like it did in 2012.

“It shows that the Republican Party has high standards. His story
illustrates that the Republican Party is its own best watchdog.”

Randy Gutermuth, a GOP strategist who has worked for several Missouri
politicians including Blunt and former Sen. Jim Talent, also said Akin’s
attacks were unwarranted, especially since there’s no way for the former
congressman to turn around his political career.

“It’s disappointing given the efforts the entire state delegation and Sen.
Blunt made to help him raise money and organize,” Gutermuth said.

“I’m not sure what a pathway to a comeback would be for him.”

*Concord Monitor (N.H.): Douglas A. Smith, Douglas A. Smith, former
assistant secretary for the private sector at the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security: “My Turn: Foreign tourism got boost from Clinton”
<http://www.concordmonitor.com/home/12709485-95/my-turn-foreign-tourism-got-boost-from-clinton>*

By Douglas A. Smith

July 10, 2014

Summer is finally here – the busiest travel season of the year, when
tourists from all over the world flock to the United States, and
particularly here in New Hampshire, to enjoy all that our great nation has
to offer.

Growing up in Durham, I witnessed the power of foreign tourism first hand,
spending my summers working on whale-watching boats out of Portsmouth.

The money spent by foreign tourists fuels economic growth and supports
hundreds of thousands of American jobs.

In 2013 alone, international visitors spent $180.7 billion on U.S. travel
and tourism-related goods and services.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, for every 65 international
visitors, one American job is created, a job that cannot be exported. Over
this past July Fourth weekend, 880,000 tourists came to the Granite State,
strengthening tourism here as the No. 2 industry in the state.

In fact, over the course of the summer, the total number of visitors who
will come will equate to more than 10 times the state’s population.

Just last year, the New Hampshire ski industry added a record $1.15 billion
in direct and secondary sales to the state.

At the time both Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and I were sworn into
office, the United States government wasn’t fully taking advantage of the
international tourism industry’s economic trade opportunities, and our
share of the market had decreased throughout the past decade. After 9/11,
our nation had to basically “pull up the welcome mat” to foreign visitors.
But after making many changes to our national security system and creating
the Department of Homeland Security – where I served as an assistant
secretary from 2009 until 2013 – our nation made incredible progress to
enhance our national security and keep America safe.

Our economic security, on the other hand, had declined. America was dealing
with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

With millions of Americans out of work, forced out of their homes, and
struggling to make ends meet, we needed to do everything possible to help
them and protect the security of the world’s largest economy.

Clinton understood that there was no need to make a false choice between
economic and national security and that we can – and must – have both.
There is no better example of this than in the support of international
tourism to the United States.

I worked alongside Clinton’s team to promote international tourism when I
served as the DHS representative on the president’s Travel and Tourism
Advisory Board.

We implemented a variety of policies to increase international tourism to
the United States, and the number of international tourists to the United
States increased from 55 million in 2009 to 70 million in 2013 – which gave
the American economy a boost when it needed it the most – while never
compromising America’s national security. This was no easy task.

A number of federal agencies were involved in the process, including the
departments of Homeland Security and Commerce, along with foreign
governments and members of the private sector tourism industry – all of
whom had different interests at stake.

Clinton coordinated with each of these moving parts to increase
international tourism, grow our ailing economy, create jobs for hardworking
Americans and keep our borders safe.

The increase in foreign travelers under Clinton’s watch spurred economic
growth and created jobs at a time when America needed it most.

This kind of smart, pragmatic leadership is just what Americans want and
just what America needs from its leaders.

*Business Insider: “Hillary Clinton 'Personally' Pays For Her Own Staff”
<http://www.businessinsider.com/hillary-clinton-personally-pays-for-her-own-staff-2014-7>*

By Hunter Walker

July 10, 2014, 7:09 p.m. EDT

Hillary Clinton has responded to criticism of her six figure speaking fees
by noting much of the money has gone to her family's foundation. This has
led some Republicans to wonder whether the foundation funds political
operations for Clinton, who is considered the Democratic frontrunner in the
2016 presidential election. However, a source close to Clinton told
Business Insider she "personally" pays for her staff.

"The Secretary's personal staff is paid for by her personally," the source
said.

The source also noted Clinton draws no salary from the foundation.

On Tuesday, the conservative America Rising PAC published a blog post
featuring five "burning questions" about the finances of the Bill, Hillary
& Chelsea Clinton Foundation. One of the group's questions was about
Clinton's staff, which includes spokespeople and other aides.

"Is the Foundation paying for Clinton’s political staff or being used as a
holding ground for future Clinton Presidential staff?" the group asked.

Republican National Committee Press Secretary Kirsten Kukowski also
questioned the Foundation's finances in an email sentWednesday in response
to a New York Times article published earlier that day. The newspaper
article noted Chelsea Clinton gives all of her income from speaking fees to
the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation. Kukowski's email noted
"there aren’t any documents to prove" Hillary Clinton gives speaking fees
to the foundation.

"Might be time for some transparency from the Clinton Foundation," she
wrote.

*New York Times: “A Provocateur’s Book on Hillary Clinton Overtakes Her
Memoir in Sales”
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/11/business/a-provocateurs-book-on-hillary-clinton-overtakes-her-memoir-in-sales.html?_r=0>*

By Amy Chozick and Alexandra Alter

July 10, 2014

Of all the headaches of her current book tour — the declining sales, the
constant travel, the interviews that generated unkind headlines about her
family’s wealth — this one may sting Hillary Rodham Clinton the most: Her
memoir, “Hard Choices,” has just been toppled from its spot on the
best-seller list by a sensational Clinton account by her longtime
antagonist Edward Klein.

It is a powerful statement about today’s publishing realities that Mr.
Klein’s book, a 320-page unauthorized and barely sourced account full of
implausible passages, including one about a physical altercation between
Mrs. Clinton and President Obama, has landed atop the New York Times
best-seller list, knocking “Hard Choices” to No. 2.

Despite criticism from some right-leaning commentators, Mr. Klein is
capitalizing on the confluence of two potent market forces: the
conservative book-buying public, which has continued to generate sales
despite the industry’s overall slump, and the seemingly insatiable appetite
for intimate details about the Clintons’ family lives, even when the
details themselves are factually suspect. (In one section in Mr. Klein’s
book, former President Bill Clinton demands that his wife get a face-lift.
When she refuses, he gets one instead.)

In the week that ended July 5, Mr. Klein’s book, “Blood Feud: The Clintons
vs. the Obamas,” had sold 20,105 copies, an 18 percent increase from the
previous week, compared with 16,646 copies sold of Mrs. Clinton’s book, a
36 percent decrease from the previous week. On Thursday, “Blood Feud” held
the No. 11 spot on Amazon’s best-seller list, while “Hard Choices” came in
at 103. “Hard Choices” was released on June 10 and is still leading in
overall sales over “Blood Feud,” which came out on June 23.

While conservative readers may form the foundation of Mr. Klein’s sales,
some publishing industry insiders say liberals — and readers who are simply
looking for irresistible entertainment — are picking up the book, too.

The suspenseful page-turner paints a Shakespearean (if unbelievable)
portrait of power, lust and clashes between and within the two first
families. In one passage, Mr. Clinton says: “I hate that man Obama more
than any man I’ve ever met, more than any man who ever lived.” In another,
Michelle Obama refers to Mrs. Clinton as “Hildebeest.” Other stretches of
Mr. Klein’s writing are devoted to marital tensions. Mr. Klein quotes an
anonymous friend of Mr. Obama as saying: “Barack gets so fed up with her
behavior that he actually encourages Michelle to take separate planes when
they go on vacation, so he doesn’t have to fly with her.”

Of “Blood Feud,” Rush Limbaugh, the popular conservative radio talk-show
host, said he wasn’t “alleging  it doesn’t exist, it isn’t true,” but he
added that “some of the quotes strike me as odd, in the sense that I don’t
know people who speak this way.”

In a telephone interview on Thursday, Mr. Klein said he stood by his
reporting and likened his reporting techniques to those of the Washington
Post reporter Bob Woodward.

Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story

Continue reading the main story

“I don’t make this stuff up,” Mr. Klein said on a break from a media blitz
to promote the book. “The quotes come from sources who were present when
the statements were made or who were told about the statements shortly
after they were made.”

Nick Merrill, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, disagreed.

“Let’s strap Ed Klein to a polygraph machine and let the needle do the
talking,” Mr. Merrill said.

Conservative books have been a booming category in publishing, tracing back
to the rise of conservative talk radio and cable channels in the 1980s.
Mainstream publishers have embraced the trend and introduced imprints aimed
at conservative audiences. Simon & Schuster’s Threshold Editions, which was
created in 2005, publishes books by Glenn Beck and Mr. Limbaugh. Penguin
Random House has two imprints dedicated to conservative books. And in 2011,
HarperCollins started Broadside Books, which has published works by Donald
Rumsfeld  and Sarah Palin.

“Blood Feud” was originally acquired by HarperCollins’s William Morrow
imprint, but this past spring, Mr. Klein broke with HarperCollins and moved
to Regnery Publishing, a conservative imprint that published Mr. Klein’s
2012 anti-Obama book, “The Amateur.” Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corporation
controls HarperCollins, is quoted on the back of “Blood Feud” as saying
“every voter should read” “The Amateur.”

Some publishing industry executives say that the legal department at
HarperCollins was uncomfortable with the material and wary of inviting a
lawsuit, but Mr. Klein said he broke with the publisher over “editorial
differences” that arose from his book on Mr. Obama. “I felt they didn’t
understand how to market the book properly, so I decided to move to
Regnery,” he said.

Regnery has a history of publishing books critical of the Clintons, and it
timed the publishing of Mr. Klein’s latest book to coincide with the
release of Mrs. Clinton’s memoir.

“We thought, what better way to take advantage of the fact that Hillary and
the Clintons would be in the national conversation than to come in right
afterwards and say, ‘That’s one point of view, here’s another side of the
story,’ ” said Marji Ross, Regnery’s president and publisher.

To date, Regnery has printed 225,000 copies of “Blood Feud” and has shipped
more than 200,000. Sales are strong in a range of retail outlets, including
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walmart and Costco.

While the work of Mr. Klein, a former editor at Newsweek  and The New York
Times Magazine, continues to rise, some Clinton allies have become
sensitive about falling sales for “Hard Choices.”

By normal nonfiction standards, “Hard Choices” has sold extremely well. But
Mrs. Clinton’s multimillion-dollar advance and status as a probable 2016
Democratic presidential candidate have put added pressure on the publisher,
Simon & Schuster.

Current sales figures of 177,234 copies not including e-books, according to
Nielsen BookScan, mean Simon & Schuster is unlikely to recoup Mrs.
Clinton’s advance and could fall far short of the one million copies
shipped to bookstores, industry executives said. Cary Goldstein, a Simon &
Schuster spokesman, said the publisher was delighted by the sales of “Hard
Choices” and expected it to sell for years to come.

Mrs. Clinton’s supporters, concerned that soft sales would be interpreted
as a lack of enthusiasm for her potential presidential candidacy, have
tried to position “Hard Choices” as a hit.

At a meeting with supporters of Ready for Hillary, a “super PAC” that
supports Mrs. Clinton, Harold M. Ickes, a former deputy chief of staff to
Mr. Clinton, told potential donors that, despite reports to the contrary,
“Hard Choices” was a success, said one person who attended the event. A
spokesman for Ready for Hillary declined to comment.

*Politico: “New Hampshire 2016 poll: Hillary Clinton lead shrinks”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/hillary-clinton-2016-new-hampshire-108792.html>*

By Nick Gass

July 10, 2014, 8:55 p.m. EDT

Hillary Clinton still leads the Democratic field in the race for 2016, but
her advantage might be slipping in New Hampshire, according to a new poll.

Fifty-nine percent of 257 likely Democratic voters in the state say they
would vote for the former secretary of state in the presidential primary,
per the latest WMUR Granite State poll released Thursday. While Clinton
still holds a 45-point advantage on Vice President Joe Biden, the results
mark a drop of six percentage points in the Granite State since April and
an overall drop of 15 points in the last six months.

Other potential candidates grabbing votes include Massachusetts Sen.
Elizabeth Warren (8 percent), Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (5 percent), New
York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (3 percent) and Virginia Sen. Mark Warner (1
percent).

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie leads a crowded GOP field among 251 likely
primary voters with just 19 percent. But voters indicated that if Mitt
Romney were to jump in the race, he would lead the field by a significant
margin. Romney grabbed 39 percent of the hypothetical vote, leading the
runners-up Christie and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, by 32 percentage points.

The University of New Hampshire Survey Center conducted the poll between June
19 and July 1, surveying 669 New Hampshirites, including likely GOP and
Democratic voters. The margin of error among Democratic voters is 6.1
percent and 6.2 percent among Republicans. The overall sampling error is
3.8 percent.

*Associated Press: “Officers Say No ‘Stand-Down Order’ For Benghazi”
<http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_BENGHAZI_STAND_DOWN_ORDER?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT>*

By Bradley Klapper and Donna Cassata

July 11, 2014, 6:11 a.m. EDT

Military officers testified that there was no "stand-down order" that held
back military assets that could have saved the U.S. ambassador and three
other Americans killed at a diplomatic outpost and CIA annex in Benghazi,
Libya. Their testimony undercut the contention of Republican lawmakers.

The "stand-down" theory centers on a Special Operations team - a detachment
leader, a medic, a communications expert and a weapons operator with his
foot in a cast - that was stopped from flying from Tripoli to Benghazi
after the attacks of Sept. 11-12, 2012, had ended. Instead, it was
instructed to help protect and care for those being evacuated from Benghazi
and from the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli.

The senior military officer who issued the instruction to "remain in place"
and the detachment leader who received it said it was the right decision
and has been widely mischaracterized. The order was to remain in Tripoli
and protect some three dozen embassy personnel rather than fly to Benghazi
some 600 miles away after all Americans there would have been evacuated.
And the medic is credited with saving the life of an evacuee from the
attacks.

Transcripts of hours of closed-door interviews with nine military leaders
by the House Armed Services and Oversight and Government Reform committees
were made public for the first time on Wednesday.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the oversight panel, has suggested
that Hillary Rodham Clinton gave the order, though as secretary of state at
the time, she was not in the military chain of command.

Despite lingering public confusion over many events that night, the
testimony shows military leaders largely in agreement over how they
responded to the attacks.

The initial, Sept. 11 assault on the diplomatic post, which killed
Ambassador Chris Stevens and another American, prompted immediate action
both in Benghazi and in Tripoli. Though not under any known further threat,
the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, was evacuated early in the
morning of Sept. 12, its sensitive information and computer hard drives
destroyed. Diplomats and military officials left in armored vehicles for a
classified U.S. site several miles away. Upon arrival there, the head of a
small detachment entrusted with training Libyan special forces told his
higher-ups he wanted to take his four-member team to Benghazi.

Military officials differ on when that telephone conversation took place,
but they agree that no help could have arrived in Benghazi in time. They
put the call somewhere between 5:05 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. local time. It would
take about 90 minutes to fly from Tripoli to Benghazi. The next
U.S.-chartered plane to make the trip left at 6:49 a.m., meaning it could
have arrived shortly before 9 a.m., nearly four hours after the second,
11-minute battle at the CIA facility ended at about 5:25 a.m.

Republicans investigating Benghazi have clashed over whether military
superiors, in effect, ordered the team to stand down. Rep. Howard "Buck"
McKeon, R-Calif., the Armed Services Committee chairman, has cited previous
testimony from military officers that ordering the foursome to stay in
Tripoli and protect embassy personnel there didn't amount to "standing
down."

Others, such as Issa and Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, have said a
stand-down order was given.

"We had proximity, we had capability, we had four individuals in Libya
armed, ready to go, dressed, about to get into the car to go in the airport
to go help their fellow countrymen who were dying and being killed and
under attack in Benghazi, and they were told to stand down," Chaffetz said
more than a year ago. "That's as sickening and depressing and disgusting as
anything I have seen. That is not the American way."

Beyond questions of timing, the testimony of Rear Adm. Brian Losey, who was
then Special Operations commander for Africa, also challenged the idea the
team had the capacity to bolster security in Benghazi.

Losey said there was "never an order to stand down." His instruction to the
team "was to remain in place and continue to provide security in Tripoli
because of the uncertain environment." Earlier on Sept. 11, the U.S.
Embassy in Cairo had been breached as well.

Losey questioned what the four could have done to aid the situation in
Benghazi, where American personnel were preparing to evacuate as soon as
possible. He said assigning the small team to defend a perimeter wouldn't
have been appropriate and would have meant the military's losing its
command operation in Tripoli "for the benefit of four riflemen who weren't
even riflemen."

"The guy's command and control, he's communications, medical," Losey
recounted. "I've got one weapons guy with his foot in a cast. Didn't make a
lot of sense."

The Special Operations detachment leader's name is omitted from the
testimony transcript, but he previously has been identified as Lt. Col.
S.E. Gibson. More than a year-and-a-half later, Gibson, who is now a
colonel, agreed that staying in Tripoli was the best decision.

"It was not a stand-down order," he testified in March. "It was not, `Hey,
time for everybody to go to bed.' It was, you know, `Don't go. Don't get on
that plane. Remain in place.'"

"Initially, I was angry," Gibson said. "A tactical commander doesn't like
to have those decisions taken away from him. But then once I digested it a
little bit, then I realized, OK, maybe there was something else that was
going on. Maybe I'm needed here for something else."

His contingent would indeed prove useful in Tripoli, according to the
testimonies.

When the Americans from Benghazi arrived, among the wounded was one person
with a unique blood type. Gibson and others credited the medic in the team
with saving a life.

*New York Times: “Reputation for Zeal Precedes Republican Leading New
Benghazi Inquiry”
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/10/us/politics/reputation-for-zeal-precedes-republican-leading-new-benghazi-inquiry.html?smid=tw-share>*

By Jennifer Steinhauer

July 9, 2014

Representative Trey Gowdy was cutting the grass in the front yard of his
Spartanburg, S.C., house when Speaker John A. Boehner called with a special
assignment.

Mr. Gowdy, a South Carolina Republican and a former prosecutor whose
peculiar hairstyle has generated almost as much news media coverage as his
voting record, has made a name for himself over his barely two terms in
office with his tenacious questioning of Obama administration officials in
committee rooms. Yet his relationships with Democrats on Capitol Hill are
far more nuanced than many of his conservative brethren.

Which made him the speaker’s ideal choice for leading a new politically
charged congressional committee investigating the 2012 attack on the
diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. Despite skepticism in many quarters,
Mr. Gowdy promises a process — which began Wednesday when his full
committee met for the first time — that will be both plodding and fair.

“This will not be what people on the left fear it is going to be,” Mr.
Gowdy said over lunch at the Capitol Hill Club, a dining room for
Republicans where he has the same dinner — varying species of fish as well
as fresh fruit — every night that Congress is in session, most often with
his fellow South Carolina Republican, Senator Tim Scott.

Nearly two years after the attack in Libya that killed the United States
ambassador there, J. Christopher Stevens, and three other Americans,
Democrats are increasingly angry that Republicans are not relenting in
their criticism of the administration over Benghazi, which has already been
examined by six congressional committees. To them, the issue has devolved
from national tragedy to partisan farce.

“The day the committee was announced, Republicans began fund-raising off
it,” said Representative Steve Israel of New York, who also leads the
committee to elect House Democrats.

Yet many lawmakers on both the Oversight and Government Reform Committee
and the House Judiciary Committee who serve with Mr. Gowdy — as well as
some Obama administration officials who have entered his jurisdictional
cross hairs — say he may be the most favorable Republican for the job. (For
one, they say that he has not been fund-raising off his work on the
committee and that he is critical of the practice.)

“Trey has a real existential moment of what imprint he wants to make,” said
Representative Gerald E. Connolly, Democrat of Virginia, who serves with
Mr. Gowdy on the oversight committee. He can be, Mr. Connolly said,
“another partisan flare who came and went, or acquit himself as an
honorable person, which I think he is.”

“If he does that, he will be a very serious player in the United States
Congress,” Mr. Connolly said.

Richard W. Vieth, a criminal defense lawyer who worked with Mr. Gowdy as a
prosecutor and later against him in courtrooms, echoed that assessment. “He
was someone I knew I could trust,” he said. “But I knew in the courtroom
he’d be very combative.”

Mr. Gowdy’s habits of tearing up during floor speeches, ripping into
witnesses and general acts of excoriation find their roots in his 16 years
of prosecutorial work in South Carolina, where his record of convictions in
more than 100 cases was nearly unblemished.

His style was foreshadowed in his emotional closing arguments, as in a 2008
case of the murder of a married couple. “Sometimes death walks slowly and
knocks gently,” he said, describing the crime to the jury. “Sometimes it
kicks in the front door.”

He has set no deadline for the committee, composed of seven Republicans and
five Democrats, to complete its work. His annual budget for the committee
is $3.3 million.

Mr. Gowdy’s passion for debate surfaced early in life, when he would argue
politics with his parents and three sisters at the dinner table, said his
mother, Novalene Gowdy. “If he were still in the law and I committed a
crime, he’d prosecute me,” she said. “He is very law oriented.”

At Baylor University in Texas, Mr. Gowdy, 49, was a cheerful student who
devoured episodes of “Miami Vice,” said Robert Thornton, his fraternity
brother in Kappa Omega Tau.

A quick wit, love of metaphors and penchant for quoting philosophers were
Mr. Gowdy’s hallmarks. “I might be showing him a house,” said Mr. Thornton,
a home builder in Texas, “and he will drop a reference to Kierkegaard.”

Mr. Gowdy graduated from college in 1986 with a degree in history, went on
to the University of South Carolina School of Law and clerked for two
judges. After a family friend was murdered in Charlotte in 1994, he said he
“felt a strong pull to be a prosecutor.”

He worked as an assistant United States attorney until 2000, then took on a
sitting solicitor and won, continuing to prosecute for the next decade. In
2010, he routed Representative Bob Inglis in the Republican primary, then
easily won the seat that fall in his heavily Republican district.

For some Republicans, Mr. Gowdy’s predilection for picking off members of
his own party has made him akin to Inspector Javert in “Les Miserables” —
devoted to the law but not always to mercy. “I’m sure he has some rationale
for the things he has done,” Mr. Inglis said in a phone interview.

Mr. Gowdy responded: “The graveyard is full of people waiting on open
seats. I have this belief that if you are qualified and you believe that
you would do a good job doing something, there is no reason you shouldn’t
run.” He once vowed to retire after two terms. This summer, he officially
unretired to run for a third term.

Some Democrats on the committee have longstanding relationships with Mr.
Gowdy, among them Representative Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, the
committee’s ranking Democrat. Mr. Cummings went to Mr. Gowdy to seek his
reassurances that there would be “no surprises” before agreeing to serve
with him.

“I have a tremendous amount of respect for Gowdy,” Mr. Cummings said. “He
has always treated me with the highest level of respect.”

On Wednesday, Mr. Gowdy’s committee received a classified briefing from
various agencies about Ahmed Abu Khattala, the Libyan militia leader
charged in connection with the killing of the four Americans in Benghazi.
The committee will continue to meet this month, with public hearings weeks
if not months away.

Some believe that Mr. Gowdy might take the investigation into at least one
area that binds both parties.

“There is the question of what you do to bring the perp to justice,” said
Matthew Miller, a former spokesman for Eric H. Holder Jr., the attorney
general who once roasted under the Gowdy boiler during hearings on the
botched gun-trafficking case called Operation Fast and Furious. “You would
think Gowdy might respect, as a prosecutor, the need to let the government
do its job.”

*Huffington Post: “Here's Proof Bill Clinton Is Destined To Be The World's
Greatest Grandpa”
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/10/bill-clinton-grandpa_n_5568660.html?&ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067>*

By Kate Bratskeir

July 10, 2014, 11:36 a.m. EDT

Former president Bill Clinton has a very particular set of skills -- skills
he has acquired over a very long career.

He created tens of millions of jobs. He perfected the art of charisma. He
even adopted a plant-based diet. And soon, Clinton will take on the
monumental, onerous task of being a grandfather.

This is a lifetime commitment that requires a certain amount of dedication
and grit, and the will to get one's hands dirty (in dirty diapers and
spit-up, to start). But worry not, Clinton already knows how to handle a
baby. From these signs below, it appears Clinton is practiced enough to
take on the role as a full-time job.

[PHOTOGRAPHS OF PRES. CLINTON WITH BABIES]

*Calendar:*

*Sec. Clinton's upcoming appearances as reported online. Not an official
schedule.*

·  July 17 – Ridgewood, NJ: Sec. Clinton makes “Hard Choices” book tour
stop at Bookends (Star-Ledger
<http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/07/hillary_clinton_to_visit_nj_for_book_signing_next_week.html>
)

·  July 19 – Madison, CT: Sec. Clinton makes “Hard Choices” book tour stop
at R.J. Julia (Day of New London
<http://www.theday.com/article/20140708/NWS01/140709708/1047>)

·  July 20 – St. Paul, MN: Sec. Clinton makes “Hard Choices” book tour stop
at Common Good Books (AP
<http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2014/07/08/hillary-clinton-plans-st-paul-stop-on-book-tour/>
)

·  August 9 – Water Mill, NY: Sec. Clinton fundraises for the Clinton
Foundation at the home of George and Joan Hornig (WSJ
<http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/06/17/for-50000-best-dinner-seats-with-the-clintons-in-the-hamptons/>
)

·  August 28 – San Francisco, CA: Sec. Clinton keynotes Nexenta’s OpenSDx
Summit (BusinessWire
<http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140702005709/en/Secretary-State-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton-Deliver-Keynote#.U7QoafldV8E>
)

·  September 4 – Las Vegas, NV: Sec. Clinton speaks at the National Clean
Energy Summit (Solar Novis Today
<http://www.solarnovus.com/hillary-rodham-clinto-to-deliver-keynote-at-national-clean-energy-summit-7-0_N7646.html>
)

·  October 2 – Miami Beach, FL: Sec. Clinton keynotes the CREW Network
Convention & Marketplace (CREW Network
<http://events.crewnetwork.org/2014convention/>)

·  October 13 – Las Vegas, NV: Sec. Clinton keynotes the UNLV Foundation
Annual Dinner (UNLV
<http://www.unlv.edu/event/unlv-foundation-annual-dinner?delta=0>)

·  ~ October 13-16 – San Francisco, CA: Sec. Clinton keynotes
salesforce.com Dreamforce
conference (salesforce.com
<http://www.salesforce.com/dreamforce/DF14/keynotes.jsp>)