Move over, Senators John McCain and Susan Collins. You’re no longer the only Republican lawmakers to squirm just a little bit at the suggestion that the Benghazi investigation–now reduced to a mind-numbing examination of old emails–will lead to the impeachment of President Obama.
In an interview Tuesday with Martin Bashir, Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma responded to one of the more hyperbolic claims regarding the inevitable demise of the Obama administration:
I don’t think this is the equivalent of Watergate or Iran-Contra. There’s a big difference when literally somebody in the White House was ordering these things. This is not something anyone ordered. This is not an outcome anybody intended.
Still, Rep. Cole on Monday joined the list of nearly 150 members of the House of Representatives who are sponsoring a bill called Resolution 36, which calls for the creation of a select Congressional committee to investigate Benghazi. Echoing the bill’s lead sponsor, Rep. Frank Wolf, Rep. Cole explained that having five different Congressional committees conducting five different investigations has created a “Babel of voices” on Benghazi. “One single committee, I think, would probably help clarify the issue,” he said.
Select committees, of course, are usually reserved for scandals such as–yes, you guessed it–Watergate and Iran-Contra.
You can watch Rep. Cole’s interview here:
Noel Hartman