Issa releases Kerry from Benghazi testimony
Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of the House Oversight committee says Secretary of State John Kerry doesn’t need to testify before his panel on the Benghazi attack.
But Congressman Darrell Issa (EYE’-suh) is still accusing Kerry of obstructing the committee’s investigation. Issa says he is releasing Kerry from his obligation to testify because the secretary was using that appearance as a shield against testifying before a newly formed select committee.
The GOP chairman has twice subpoenaed Kerry to testify, and the secretary was scheduled to appear June 12. Issa is continuing his probe while the select committee moves ahead with its investigation.
The September 2012 attack killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.
Read more: http://www.salon.com/2014/05/30/issa_releases_kerry_from_benghazi_testimony/
= new reply since forum marked as read
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023003533
Assclowns of the Week #95: Monumental Stupidity double-sized edition
http://www.welcomebacktopottersville.blogspot.com/2013/10/assclowns-of-week-95-monumental.html
I would assume it is because other than assigning someone to coordinate the effort, he likely had no or very little involvement. That actually is as it should be. Having someone in charge so everything goes through him or her, having the CAREER State Department people and the lawyers find the documents and redact anything that should be redacted is the best way to insure that the effort is non-political. Not to mention, it protects the Secretary and does not waste his time.
Note that in Issa's House speech, last week complaining about Kerry - the complaint was that he got some documents that were classified -- rather than carefully redacted so Issa could release him. Imagine the clever State Department hiding things from Issa by giving him complete, unredacted documents! That is pretty clever stonewalling --- 
He then proceded to put part of a classified document which he thought damning in the House record. Except -- it supported the WH. (Floor speeches are privileged so he can not be charged with leaking from a classified document.) link to speech - http://beta.congress.gov/crec/2014/05/21/CREC-2014-05-21-pt1-PgE797.pdf
His complaint is interesting. In the past he whined that too many things were redacted - so the truth was hidden. Here, he is asking that the State Department spend the time to turn every classified document into a document that Issa can put out in public.
It is likely that the tea party head of the new committee - who was a prosecutor! - will likely call Kerry. (He might want to consider various investigations Kerry ran - and understand why he was generally credited with doing an excellent job.) However, given the charter of the committee, I suspect that they might concentrate on the actual attack - at least as much as the talking points. Given Issa's idiotic floor speech, I would imagine that Kerry will be on the list - but I don't see much coming out of it. He was a Senator at the time and it sure doesn't look like they "hid" things by giving Issa classified documents - which is not a super good way to hide anything.
