Groundswell: A Secret Tape Reveals How It Lobbied Boehner and Issa on Benghazi
Source: Mother Jones
As Mother Jones revealed last week, Groundswell, the hush-hush right-wing strategy group partly led by Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, wanted to hype the Benghazi tragedy into a full-fledged scandal for the Obama administration, as part of its "30 front war" on the president and progressives. A secret audio tape of one of Groundswell's weekly meetings shows that prominent members of the group pressed House Speaker John Boehner and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the chair of the House oversight committee, to expand the Benghazi investigation and make this supposed scandal a top-priority for congressional Republicans. This recording indicates Groundswell's mission extends beyond message coordination to scandal-stoking.
The tape has been posted at Crooks and Liars, a progressive web site, and it captured the first 20 minutes of Groundswell's May 8 meeting. (The site does not say how the recording was obtained.) The meeting opened with a prayer ("Father, we thank you for the opportunity to gather here as free Americans" , and a roll call was taken. Among those present were former GOP Rep. Allen West, Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy, Jerry Boykin of the Family Research Council, Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch, Stephen Bannon of Breitbart News, and Ginni Thomas. Catherine Engelbrecht, a founder of True the Vote, led the meeting, and the first order of business was a report on the Benghazi controversy from Boykin and Gaffney.
The pair reported on meetings they had held the previous night with Boehner and Issa. The two Groundswellers had encouraged the lawmakers to set up a special committee to investigate the attacks on the US facilities in Benghazi. Boykin, according to the recording, noted that Boehner had said he wanted the process "to play out" first, apparently meaning that he wasn't yet ready to step up the GOP Benghazi campaign. Boehner, Boykin recounted, had expressed the concern that were he to create such a committee, the media would cover it as a political stunt designed to bring down Obama.
Boykin, a retired general and Christian fundamentalist who caused a dust-up in 2003 when he gave a speech (while still on active duty) saying that his god was "a real god" and Allah was an "idol," told the Groundswellers that he expected the Benghazi matter to blossom into a full-blown scandal: "We've got an ugly baby here and it's going to get uglier." He maintained that "we're going to find...a huge deception."
Read more: http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/07/groundswell-secret-tape-boehner-issa-benghazi
SunSeeker
(51,560 posts)matthews
(497 posts)GroundSquirrel. Except I like squirrels.
Cha
(297,275 posts)apt, too.
sheshe2
(83,785 posts)from your link.
The top leaders of the GOP. Bought and paid for!
Thanks Galraedia!
wordpix
(18,652 posts)He forgot the reasons NOT to create a political stunt
Rosa Luxemburg
(28,627 posts)midnight
(26,624 posts)Rosa Luxemburg
(28,627 posts)midnight
(26,624 posts)titaniumsalute
(4,742 posts)He's just Allen West - Douchebag.
midnight
(26,624 posts)"And Common Cause has maintained that Justice Thomas had a conflict of interest when he participated in the Citizens United case because his wife at the time was running a conservative nonprofit fighting the "tyranny" of President Barack Obama that would benefit from removing limits on such groups' spending and fundraising. With her involvement in Groundswellwhich zeroes in on contentious issues that come before the high court, including voting rights, abortion, and gay marriageGinni Thomas continues to be intricately associated with matters on which her husband may have to render a decision. Ginni Thomas did not respond to requests for comment."
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)Lots of emails about the Benghazi and IRS scandal but guess what, they just died a slow death. I knew Issa was full of crap but his crap did not hold for him. New name for Issa, Issa stupid stupid a$$hole.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)The video of the attack was available if not the next day, very soon after. The whole "scandal" was a ridiculous made-up story.
hue
(4,949 posts)Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)They pictured this as they said that...
dtom67
(634 posts)When the whistle is blown in their favor.
Sorry, couldn't help myself.....
Berlum
(7,044 posts)...when they SLASHED the budget for State Dept. security. What they hell did they think would happen? Well it did happen, and they are culpable all the way.
This Groundsmell thingy reeks of the same rotten reality.
egold2604
(369 posts)The Christian right wants to establish a Dominionist Theocracy where our "Christian" soldiers will attack and rule the rest of the world and bring them under their version of Christ the Avenger's rule
Boykin, a retired general and Christian fundamentalist who caused a dust-up in 2003 when he gave a speech (while still on active duty) saying that his god was "a real god" and Allah was an "idol,"
hue
(4,949 posts)heaven05
(18,124 posts)these people have been at this for years so it's good that at least we have one tape of their nefarious activity.
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)censure these two and start the impeachment procedings.
toby jo
(1,269 posts)ut oh
(895 posts)nothing will be done about this and it'll be swept under the rug...
Of course all of this scheming is Obama's fault anyway. It was all his plan to fake a scandal dontchaknow?