Republicans need deliverance from Trey Gowdy’s Benghazi committee

Fans of the 1972 film “Deliverance” will be happy to know the weird-looking, banjo-playing, hillbilly kid from the movie has grown up and found work as chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi.

Actually, that’s a fib and a bit of an insult to the kid. No one with any sense would want to be compared with the committee’s distinctive-looking real chairman, South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy — at least not after the national embarrassment he oversaw on Thursday. For an excruciating 11 hours, Gowdy and the other Republicans on the panel took a trek into the wild as they tried to trip up former-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on issues, real and imagined, connected to the deaths of four Americans during the 2012 terror attack on American outposts in Benghazi, Libya.

Gowdy and his crew went into the showdown with Clinton fully aware that their “investigation” is now widely perceived as a partisan witch hunt, thanks to slips of the tongue among their fellow caucus members, including Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield. Their credibility has taken a hit, as well, because the GOP committee members have shown a suspicious lack of interest in any aspect of the incident that is unrelated to the Democratic presidential front-runner. Gowdy has vehemently denied any intent to savage Clinton and insisted she would be treated just like any other witness. Nevertheless, Republicans on the committee simply could not resist making their true motivations quite clear.

Start with the fact that no other witnesses have been expected to sit for 11 hours of barbed questions. Perhaps the length of the interrogation was driven by the desire to keep the circus going into TV prime time. When the clock indicated their audience might be at maximum, the Republicans suddenly launched a volley of queries about Clinton’s email.

Hour after hour, GOP committee members grandstanded, bullied and repeated questions that Clinton has answered repeatedly in other forums. Committee Democrats jumped to her defense and pointed out instances in which Gowdy and company had mangled facts or distorted information to suit their story line. At several points, verbal fisticuffs broke out between the two sides while the witness sat quietly.

It was an impressive display of patience and self-control on Clinton’s part. She maintained her cool demeanor through the entire marathon. Only at one point did she briefly betray what she really thought of her amateurish interrogators. That was in the ninth hour when Republican Rep. Martha Roby of Alabama asked Clinton if she were alone after going home on the night of the Benghazi attack.

“I was alone,” Clinton said.

“The whole night?” Roby asked.

“Well, yes, the whole night,” Clinton responded. Then she burst out laughing, clearly finding the question a bit goofy.

“I don’t know why that’s funny,” Roby lectured. “Did you have any in-person briefings? I don’t find it funny at all.”

“I’m sorry,” Clinton replied. “A little note of levity at 7:15. Note it for the record.”

Actually, the entire hearing was laughable, though no Republicans seemed to be amused when it was all over. Gowdy admitted to reporters that nothing new was learned by the inquest. A number of House Republicans not on the committee were openly displeased. Operatives for the campaigns of GOP presidential aspirants talked about how they wanted the committee to just go away.

The only person smiling at the end of the day was Hillary Clinton, who had shown her mettle and likely endeared herself even more to Democratic primary voters. Trey Gowdy, meanwhile, gave no indication that he is ready to give up, even though his party may now be looking for deliverance from his wild goose chase.