While many of us hit by Superstorm Sandy were still struggling to recover, Saturday Night Live opened with a dueling press conference by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, each accompanied by his personal ASL translator. You can also check out translator in Brisbane for more info. At one point, Fred Armesen, broke into some very Bloombergesque español and asked New York’s Hispanic population to please be patient with white people who, with no electricity, internet, or cable have been missing Homeland, and missing Homeland is the worst thing that ever happened to them.
Some people are simply so impatient for the new season of Homeland that they have launched a spin-off. A huge hit during season one beginning last fall, Benghazi returned to the Fox News Channel in prime time last week, and its fans cannot get enough.
During season one, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as the Carrie Mathison figure, returning from an extensive trip to the South Pacific and Asia immediately had to respond to an attack on a US installation in northern Libya.
Her State Department had lost four good men. Hillary took full responsibility for everything and assigned two top people, Ambassador Thomas Pickering and Admiral Mike Mullen to assemble an Accountability Review Board to investigate what had happened and what had gone wrong.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee clamored for her to appear before them. She assured them that she would cooperate after the ARB had completed its investigation and submitted its report, but meanwhile assured them that she would gladly send State Department personnel to testify as requested and well as provide documents as requested, which she did. In the course of the live telecast of the testimony, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, ever petulant and dramatic, exposed the Benghazi installation not really to be a State Department operation at all but rather a CIA site under DOS cover, but never mind!
Meanwhile, Hillary attended to her myriad other duties as Secretary of State as well as President Obama’s duties at the U.N. General Assembly through the end of September.
She traveled extensively in October and November Peru, Algeria, the Balkans, Australia, and one last swing through Asia with a sudden assignment to the Middle East. In December, finishing her last trip to the Czech Republic, NATO in Belgium, Ireland, and Northern Ireland she fell ill with a serious virus, fainted, and sustained a concussion. Later a blood clot was found.
All of this time the HFAC clamored for her appearance, however, the ARB report had not as yet been completed, and Hillary was not going to testify until she had that report to read and submit. Hillary as villainess in the Fox News series Benghazi was now being accused of faking her illness and injuries to avoid testifying.
Recovering at home, she received the completed report and sent it to Congress with a cover letter (see the sidebar for the links), but she was still under doctors’ orders to remain at home, rest, and heal. December and Christmas passed, the New Year came in, and Hillary’s people were all very worried about her condition while the Benghazi show on Fox insisted she was faking.
Season one of Behghazi ended when Hillary spent January 23 on Capitol Hill and testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee (videos of full testimony have been added to these links). Like her confirmation hearing, these testimonies together amounted to the equivalent of multiple dissertation defenses.
In the interim, the Republican Conference launched an investigation of the ARB investigation and issued a report in late April. Missing from the committee assigned to the investigation was the House Appropriations Committee which, for the two years in a row since the election of Tea Party candidates to the Republican majority Congress, had cut Hillary’s budget for Embassy security by hundreds of millions of dollars. But never mind!
We have a basis for a new season of … Benghazi! Let’s do it!
Season two opened last week to much fanfare regarding State Department “whistleblowers” testifying – now to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Covered exclusively by Fox, since they own Benghazi, the season debut featured questions from Republican members, often delivered with great melodramatic flair (Jason Chaffetz, Trey Gowdy). In this episode a great fuss was made regarding the ARB, the depth, breadth, and nature of the investigation as well as personnel interviewed.
In a review of season two/episode one last week, ARB co-chair Ambassador Thomas Pickering told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell that both he and his co-chair Admiral Mullen had offered their testimony to HOGR chair, Darryl Issa, prior to last week’s hearing but they were declined.
Drama built as Pickering sat beside Issa on Meet the Press on Sunday. I will let you read the deliciousness here.
Darrell Issa (R-CA) made a fool of himself on “Meet the Press” Sunday as he tried to defend his Benghazi conspiracy. David Gregory (R-TV) pushed back hard, even bringing up the GOP’s defunding of security.
Issa even accused General David Petraeus of lying for the administration. As soon as Gregory would call Issa on one thing, he’d say he was investigating something else. Issa accused Tom Pickering of refusing to testify when in fact, Issa had not invited him to speak and Pickering was told that the Republican majority did not want him there. Issa ended up backtracking on that one, too, and it was super awkward when it came out that Issa never asked for him to appear.
It was even better than any of the Fox coverage. So in this week’s episode, the previews show this coming.
Benghazi Depositions To Examine Hillary Clinton’s Role In Response To Attacks
WASHINGTON — House Republicans pushed ahead Monday with their investigation of the deadly assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, last year as President Barack Obama asserted that GOP charges of a cover-up are baseless.
The latest Republican focus is the independent review that slammed the State Department for inadequate security at the installation before the twin nighttime attacks that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans on Sept. 11, 2012.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, asked the two authors of the investigation – veteran diplomat Thomas Pickering and retired Adm. Mike Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff – to meet privately with committee staff to answer questions about their review. Democrats countered that if Congress wants to talk to them, Issa should hold a full open hearing.
I have a feeling this season will not go well for Benghazi, Issa or for Fox.
I can understand being frustrated between seasons of Homeland. I am a fan myself. Going to this extent seems an exaggeration, however. There are alternatives. While it is entirely based in fantasy, Game of Thrones, for example, could be very instructive viewing for Issa and his army.
They should become acquainted with Daenerys Targaryen . I believe her character is based on Hillary Clinton. Like Hillary, she is blonde, beautiful, smart, kind, and a gifted leader. Princess of the Targaryen dynasty and widow of Dothraki warlord, Khal Drogo, she is the Khaleesi of the Dothraki people. When faced with enemies, she buys their slaves to be her army and buys their female slaves, befriends them and makes them her close staff and guards. She is very powerful. Everyone adores her, and she has dragons. Fierce dragons. Protective ones.
Speaking of dragons, Hillary also has fierce dragons. We are legion. We are everywhere, and even if they try to keep this Benghazi series going, our Khaleesi will win in the end.
Still4Hill 
By DONNA CASSATA 05/13/13 05:02 PM ET EDT