Pelosi Calls For Equal Ratio Of Dem, GOP Members On Benghazi Panel

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif. meets with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2014, the day after President Barack Obama's State of the Union address. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
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House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Tuesday called for an equal ratio of Democrats and Republicans on the GOP’s upcoming select committee to investigate the Benghazi attacks of 2012.

“If this review is to be fair, it must be truly bipartisan. The panel should be equally divided between Democrats and Republicans as is done on the House Ethics Committee,” she said in a statement. “It should require that witnesses are called and interviewed, subpoenas are issued, and information is shared on a bipartisan basis. Only then could it be fair.”

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) hasn’t announced the partisan ratio of the committee. But his spokesman, Brendan Buck, pointed out that in 2007, then-Speaker Pelosi established a select committee on energy and global warming that included 9 Democrats and 6 Republicans.

A House Democratic leadership aide said that in determining their level of participation, Democrats will consider the partisan ratio as well as the scope of the panel and what it takes to issue a subpoena.

Boehner announced Monday the panel will be lead by Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC).

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Notable Replies

  1. I believe we should have equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans on the panel- ZERO!

    As Jon Stewart pointed out last night, it really isn’t that people don’t know about Benghazi- it’s just we really don’t care for this dog and pony show.

  2. As long as this committee is investigating Benghazi (or rather talking points surrounding events in Benghazi), I’d love to see them investigate Senators that leaked faulty intelligence and talking points to reporters. Let’s investigate what sort of collusion happened (and is currently happening) between the Romney campaign, the RNC and Republican legislatures to turn a tragedy into a Fox News ratings stunt.

  3. There should be no committee at all.

    And if Boehner insists on having the Tea Party jackass Trey Gowdy as its chair, then Democrats should boycott the committee altogether.

    It would be foolish to lend credence to this Star Chamber charade by participating in it.

  4. Democrats should just stay away from this waste of taxpayer money.

  5. Avatar for mymy mymy says:

    With Fox demanding even their meteorologists blab about Benghazi constantly, the right wing is trying to do the Goebbels thing. I don’t think the public will respond the way his audiences did, however.

    Because the GOP has absolutely no credibility in any arena these days, one wonders why they added in yet another dead horse to beat.

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