there’s no doubt about how mad Republicans are about Benghazi. 41% say they consider this to be the biggest political scandal in American history to only 43% who disagree with that sentiment. Only 10% of Democrats and 20% of independents share that feeling. Republicans think by a 74/19 margin than Benghazi is a worse political scandal than Watergate, by a 74/12 margin that it’s worse than Teapot Dome, and by a 70/20 margin that it’s worse than Iran Contra.
Ron Fournier disagrees but thinks that serious people can agree that credibility blah blah blah.
ranchandsyrup
Per PPP, 39% of the people who think Benghazi is the gatey-ist gate ever including Watergate, don’t know where Benghazi is, including 6% that think it is in Cuba.
MikeJ
Last poll I saw on the issue 75% of republicans still expressed doubts about Obama’s birthplace.
And over the weekend I was asked why I can’t simply respectfully disagree with republicans without calling them stupid or evil.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@MikeJ:
You can’t because they are. Facts is facts. Oh wait, facts and librul bias, I keep forgetting that.
Just Some Fuckhead
Please. How can this scandal be bigger than a Muslim born outside of America usurping the Presidency?
Maybe they should have used the word “gigantickest”.
Cris (without an H)
Well, since American History started on September 12, 2001, I can see that those other three wouldn’t even ring a bell.
Tim F.
This is bigger than the Maine coverup, more shocking than Andrew Jackson’s first marriage, worse than the Star Route affair, wider reaching than the time Aaron Burr shot Alexander Hamilton.
Teapot Dome? Really? I wonder what percentage of any group knows what the hell that was.
the Conster
Benghazi is just another word for Obama.
Litlebritdifrnt
Hey this morning Joe Scar was telling Carl Bernstein that he didn’t know anything about Watergate.
? Martin
And now we know why the House isn’t going to back down on this at all. Our next Whitewater everyone.
danimal
Somehow I feel better after reading those poll numbers. So, basically a bunch of blithering idiots believe stupid things? I think I can move along safely.
The American people are sometimes slow, but they are not idiots. Someday the GOP will learn, but that day isn’t today.
Villago Delenda Est
@ranchandsyrup:
Shows you how stupid they are. It’s obviously in Czechoslovakia or the German Democratic Republic.
Cris (without an H)
By the way:
The crosstabs didn’t indicate how many people had heard of Teapot Dome at all.
Villago Delenda Est
@Litlebritdifrnt:
JoeScar can’t have killed that assistant in his Florida office; with this he’s demonstrated he’s too stupid to pull off any crime, to include shoplifting.
cleek
but the birth certificate scandal was 10 times worse than WG !
ranchandsyrup
@Villago Delenda Est: Needs moar consonants for Czech.
Villago Delenda Est
@Tim F.:
I think we should ask them about the Defenestration of Prague. Then ask the gotcha followup…first or second?
Trollhattan
@Cris (without an H):
“PeePot Dome.”
Liquid
It’s just idiots all the way down.
scav
@Tim F.: Teapot Dome was clearly the evil evil plot to build a Cone of Silence! over the Tea Party Patriots! Didn’t even think to disguise it as a TeaCosy, but, well , , , thought the switch of a D from C was enough cover for their nefariousity. (That page of the thesarus had been shot out in a craven attack on the raw material for new sources of US sourced dino-juice.). Next week it’ll be the Teapot Drooooomes!
Higgs Boson's Mate
Those who do not know history’s mistakes are doomed to look hysterical and stupid. Teapot Dome, anyone? The bombing of the Marine Corps barracks at Beirut? How about “Bin Laden determined to strike in US? Anyone? Bueller?
Comrade Dread
In other news, 41% of Republicans have never picked up a history book that wasn’t written by Glenn Beck or David Barton.
Tumbrel For Hire
Warren G. Harding, vindicated at last!!
Suffern ACE
My book of faces seems to have moved on to rehashing a tale of Obama’s secret muslim gay lover/husband. So I don’t know why they don’t survey that.
Steve M.
Everybody blog about Pigford!
Roger Moore
This isn’t hard. All the scandals they’re comparing Benghazi to were in Republican administrations. They need a hard question, like whether Benghazi is worse than blowjob gate.
Villago Delenda Est
@Steve M.:
The stupid does not only burn, it’s like an oil well fire. It’s going to take extraordinary measures to fight it with any hope of success.
Bort
This is his Watergate, Katrina, Iran Contra and all those other Republican screwups/felonies times infinity! Republicans: The Gold Standard on Scandals.
Cris (without an H)
I’ll certainly fess up to not remembering much about it from eighth grade history. But from what little I know about it, it wouldn’t even register as a scandal today. At least, not if it was a Republican politician handing out no-contract bids to his corporate cronies (hypothetically).
jl
And U.S. Grant and credit mobilier is not even worth a m mention! What is this country coming to?
Of course, there have been enormities in the meatime. The Vice Foster ‘suicide’, The Clinton era white trash Christmas card scandal. Whatever international drug running an murder ring the Clinton housecat was running… So many Democrat crimes in the meantime.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Roger Moore:
The only appropriate use of the Presidential Dick is to wave it metaphorically at the mud people.
SatanicPanic
At least they haven’t, to my knowledge, started referring to it as Benghazi-gate.
PaulW
@Tim F.:
Actually Tim the scandal was Mrs. Jackson’s first marriage, not Mr. Which still p-ssed off Mr. Andrew Jackson to no end. And a p-ssed-off Andrew Jackson is one of the Top 3 Scariest Presidents to ever confront.
Brandon
This just in! Something-something percent of something-something shows something-something. Let’s either laugh or drop our jaws in horror.
Now can we get back to some entertainment? Kittens would be great. Or embarassing tattoos. Or dumb things said/done by VSP’s that Holden Caulfield would call them a ‘phony’ over. Or… You get the drift.
I honestly have not paid any attention to this BENGHAZI! side show except to note that no one can articluate what the scandal is exactly aside from Susan Rice getting bad talking points. Which I guess better positions her than Condi “smoking gun in the form of a mushroom cloud” Rice. But I digress.
The is supposed to be fun, but this is tedious. I’d much rather have some fun comparing Google Glass to Opti-Grab, particularly as users are reporting dizziness. Or consider the Apple watch compared to the MSFT SPOT watch failure and of course with requisite references to Get Smart/Dick Tracy/Etc.
If there was even the hint of a legitimate scandal here I could even get engaged. But this stuff is just boring and ridiculous. Makes you wonder though if they timed these hearings to coincide with Jon Stewart’s hiatus. Lest they risk getting resoundingly mocked and ridiculed.
Roy G.
What about the Hoot-Smalley tariff scandal and FDR’s coverup? You didn’t hear about that? Blame the Lamestream Media!
cleek
@SatanicPanic:
au contraire!
Villago Delenda Est
@jl:
You left out the dildos on the White House Christmas tree scandal. That one was huge! Also, the Sam Donaldson didn’t have mints on his pillow scandal that took place because the Clintons messed with the White House travel office.
Citizen_X
AH HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAA!
And these are the same people who think they’re going to wage a new civil war against us? Easiest war ever. I’ll just sneak up to the Teatard front lines, armed only with a bullhorn, and shout “BLACK PANTHERS! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!” Instant rout.
Roger Moore
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
I think it would also be OK to use it for potentially procreative sex with the First Lady, though that seems unlikely given the typical age of American presidents. Maybe if it were a Republican president who had traded up for a young, nubile trophy wife shortly before running…
jl
@Cris (without an H): The Teapot Dome scandal will be immortal because of the hilarity of the testimony. IIRC, some crook testified that when a witness said he heard one of the conspirators say a payment was to be ‘six to eight thous’, what he really said was ‘six to eight cows’ and he was merely talking about his dairy farm.
So, there are things like that which will keep Teapot Dome up there with the horrific ultra hyper scandals of human history, like the Cinton WH Christmas Card List-Gate.
Villago Delenda Est
@Brandon:
Bing search vs. Google search. The greatest contest in history! Brought to you by the brain of Mark Penn.
MikeJ
How does it compare to the rectification of the Vuldrini or the third reconciliation of the last of the McKetrick supplicants?
Villago Delenda Est
@jl:
You dropped an “n” there.
BTW, did you know that Vince Foster was secretly Hillary’s lesbian lover?
ranchandsyrup
@Citizen_X: Yelling BLACK PANTHERS reminds me of the scene in Fletch Lives when Chevy Chase, pretending he is Henry Himmler, picks up the megaphone to help scare away KKK members.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3lhqWKNUAg
Fletch Lives is no Fletch, but it has some good moments.
Roger Moore
BTW, can we start calling them Public Policy Trolling when they ask questions like:
That’s what they’re really doing. This isn’t quite as funny a troll job as when they asked people to rate whether they had a higher opinion of Congress or the Ebola virus, but it’s the same general vein.
PaulW
And this is why we need an Official Sliding Scale of What Is A Scandal And What Isn’t. And to have that sliding scale apply at all times in an even non-partisan manner.
If Benghazi – with all the “lying” and “mis-statements” is a scandal then what Cheney did outright lying to get us to invade Iraq is a scandal times 1000. With better and verified documentation. But no, we can’t ever even discuss that can we?
Part of me wants the GOP to keep screaming about Benghazi because it will eff up their midterms more than the Dems (SEE: 1998 Uber-outrage over the Clenis). The more voters see the Republicans drum up faux outrage for the sake of outrage – even in the face of economic woes that aren’t being addressed by the House – the less they’ll vote for such frauds.
Just got to keep the pressure on registered Democrats to turn out in droves for 2014.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@SatanicPanic: I believe Fox did that last week on their morning show.
SatanicPanic
@cleek: I don’t think I’ll ever be happy again.
beltane
Is this the same 41% or so of Republicans who couldn’t find Benghazi on a map? To be fair, Fox News has had problems with their maps of the Middle East before so it’s no wonder their viewers are a bit challenged in this area.
Suffern ACE
How about HUD? ABSCAM?
Roger Moore
@MikeJ:
Many Shuvs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Slor that day, I can tell you!
joes527
Only 10%/20%??
C’mon asteroid. We’re calling you!
DFH no.6
The cloud of wingnuts with which I am surrounded at work (boss, his boss, co-workers, subordinates, subcontractors) are fairly hopped-up about Benghazi.
Many of them seem very excited that they’ve got Obama this time. About exactly what they can’t articulate, but they’re sure it’s huge and damning somehow.
I’ve mentioned to a couple of them about all the Congressional hearings back in the 80s over Reagan getting 200+ Marines killed in Beirut, and how this destroyed St. Ronnie’s presidency, and they looked at me like I’m from a different galaxy than them.
Which I’m pretty sure I am, in fact.
Gravenstone
@Litlebritdifrnt: Well, self awareness has never seemed to be one of Scarborough’s stronger points. A firm grasp of reality often eludes him as well.
Maude
The scandal comparisons in the poll are all Republican.
Brandon
@Villago Delenda Est: Making fun of Mark Penn, now there’s a pasttime I can get behind. Asking idiots to rank historic scandals that even a vast majority of college educated folks cannot explain is just dumb. Wasting the electrons of energy on this most scared internet to continue to even try to discuss/understand/refute/mock anything about BENGHAZI! is just boring.
beltane
@Suffern ACE: To say nothing of Bill Clinton’s pen1s. They are so fickle these wingnuts. A mere 15 years ago they were obsessed with the danger posed to this country by Bill Clinton’s male member, and now it is not even worthy of a brief mention.
Gravenstone
@Villago Delenda Est: I dunno, dynamite usually works a treat on fires like that.
Villago Delenda Est
@beltane:
“The Clenis”. The most powerful phallus in the history of mankind, responsible for every major historical hiccup in the last two millennia.
pokeyblow
George W. Bush suggested we address our nation’s nutrition crisis by putting food on our families.
He also said he didn’t give a shit about Osama bin Laden.
Since word choice is so important and all.
Brandon
@jl: at least they had enough respect for their audience to shoot a watermelon during the Foster hearings. Modern republicans have lost all sense of their duty to entertain. Its positively vulgar what they’ve done to the entertainment value of our most hallowed legislative branch. Long live Ted Cruz!
Calming Influence
Republicans think by a 51/49 margin than Benghazi is worse than the final episode of Seinfeld.
Roger Moore
@Maude:
If you pick the biggest government scandals in American history, you’re going to wind up with a bunch of Republican scandals. It’s not PPP’s fault that the Democrats haven’t been as scandalous as the Republicans.
Brandon
Yawn. I am about to fall asleep here, but please dear lord someone wake me up when John injures himself. I’ve got an over-under of 5 hours, possibly involving alcohol, animals, those awful flip flops and socks and some type of blade (lawnmower, trimmer, knife). That still leaves lots of scenarios.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@MikeJ: @Roger Moore:
FTW! The
internets areTobin’s Spirit Guide is yours for the rest of the day!Calming Influence
Deadly car bombing hits Libya’s Benghazi
President Obama insists it was done to protest a Justin Bieber video. Secretary of State John Kerry says it “wasn’t terrific” that this happened. The House has launched an investigation into Kerry obvious love of terrorists.
Bill E Pilgrim
Of Republicans asked which was worse, Teapot Dome, Whitewater, or Benghazi, 29% replied “Yes”.
catclub
@DFH no.6: You could also tell them about Fitzmas here. Jubilation over the coming indictment of Dick Cheney.
Culture of Truth
Bush called 9/11 an ;act of terror; which is the biggest scandal of all.
patrick II
I am not sure that the Benghazi attack should even be categorized as terror — which is roughly meant to terrorize a population by an attack on civilians. 9/11 was a terror attack. The ambassador was in Benghazi to oversee a CIA operation, and the majority of the U.S. citizens involved were CIA not State department. The CIA is being used for military operations and sometimes in military operations the other side wins a battle.
There are a lot of reasons the republicans want to call this a terror attack — to obscure their own poor record in defending against terror attacks, to make us think terror is everywhere and that Bush and Cheney’s immorality was justified, and finally for the obvious partisan reasons. But the Terror! Terror! Terror! sham is exactly the frame of mind Bin Laden was going for and republicans who play this game seem more like co-conspirators than adversaries of militant Islam.
scav
Seem to have a blowup at a specialty (?) gas plant in Poca WV, no other info yet.
Chris
@Comrade Dread:
Must be exhausting to constantly have to rewrite those books. The “worst, most totally unprecedented scandal in American history” will have gone from Whitewatergate to Blowjobgate to Kenyagate to Benghazigate to IRSgate. Winston Smith is in no danger of being out of a job.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Brandon:
Reading that was like playing a trailer park edition of “Clue”.
Chris
@Bort:
That’s part of what feeds the outrage. By constantly comparing our “scandals” to Republican ones, they not only get to dilute the shock value of their scandals, they also get to scream “liberal bias” because we (and the world at large) aren’t reacting to Benghazigate like we did to Watergate.
In fact, the fact that all these big scandals are Republicans is central to their point. It proves that The System is biased against conservatives, since only conservatives get in trouble for their scandals.
Bokonon
They seem to believe everything they are told to believe, don’t they? Even if they can’t articulate why it is a scandal in the first place, they know it is bigger than Watergate.
The moment that the right wing media machine tells them to focus on something else as the BIGGEST SCANDAL EVER, they will go off racing in that direction.
In fact, the GOP depends on that dynamic. And the short attention span of the outrage junkies that make up their base.
Patrick
@Villago Delenda Est:
Czeckoslovakia or Chechnya??
BGinCHI
Mrs. BG informs me that “Fournier” means “he fucks himself” in French.
Little-known colloquialism.
IowaOldLady
I find my well of outrage has run dry. These people are inexhaustible and I’m not. I have to go look at dog and cat you tubes for a while.
mdblanche
@joes527: Only 10% of Democrats are trolls. Based on this site, I would have thought the percentage to be much higher.
Hal
In other words; we’re tired of all the major political scandals being Republican in origin and we’d like to replace them with a scandal involving a Democrat. Preferably one who’s black. And a Muslim. Oh and a socialist. And a gay commie.
Mike in NC
The only scandal is that a scumbag like Darrell Issa hasn’t been fitted for an orange jumpsuit.
scav
@Patrick:
Is that Cheechnya next to Outer Chongnabong?
aimai
@patrick II: The really wanted the President to call it a “scary attack.” Because that’s what they think: it was scary.
Spaghetti Lee
Yada yada. “The scandal that will bring down the Obama administration” has been about 5 different things at this point. Outside the GOP nuthouse no one really cares.
Amir Khalid
@BGinCHI:
Really? My Langenscheidt Standard French-English dictionary, which lists vulgarities, doesn’t give that meaning.
I really should get a copy of the dictionary your wife uses. ;)
JeffH
A little back of the envelope calculations got me wondering, so I went hunting for the overall results. It turns out that in total 23% think it’s the worst scandal ever. In other words, they can’t even get the full 27% crazification factor.
Patrick
As opposed to the Iraq war, which apparently was just fine in spite of the lies that took us there, in spite of the thousands killed and in spite of the $trillion that will be spent in spite of our terrible deficit.
I think I just want to scream…
dance around in your bones
Here’s another SCANDAL that Obama was involved in!
It kills me that the woman used the term shock and awe to describe SEAL Team 6.
eta: yes, I know she’s promoting a book. Still an awesome story.
Bill E Pilgrim
@BGinCHI:
Only when not conjugated.
beltane
@dance around in your bones: Obama could at least have the decency to bungle these things the way Bush did.
gogol's wife
@IowaOldLady:
One of my students told me today that they have now bred cats that are like corgis, with little short legs. In the middle of trying to read this thread, I remembered that, and tried to find evidence of it on YouTube, but all I could find was corgis ‘n’ cats, not corgilike cats. But that’s how bored I am.
DFH no.6
@catclub:
Well, Scooter Libby took a (bit of a) fall, anyway.
Yes, excitement in some left/liberal quarters ran somewhat high over Fitzmas, but no one believed the Valerie Plame affair to be “a greater scandal than Watergate, etc.”.
These things are orders of magnitude different, in fact.
That’s what I mean about being from different galaxies. The color of the sky in wingnut-world is unlikely to be blue. And their Spock has a goatee or some damn thing.
MikeJ
@gogol’s wife: Google munhkin cats.
beltane
Well, hurricane season is starting soon which means the potential for several months of “Obama’s Katrina” stories. Because if it’s not a “gate” scandal it has to be a Katrina-type scandal. Right?
dance around in your bones
@beltane: Obama BUNGLER FAIL!
Higgs Boson's Mate
Republicans are so stupid that they don’t know that Ben Ghazi is what you rub on sore muscles.
gogol's wife
@MikeJ:
Got it, thanks!
http://animal.discovery.com/tv-shows/too-cute/videos/munchkin-land.htm
MomSense
Brace yourselves, we now have a new scandal–the DOJ obtained AP phone records re: the AP report on 5/7/12 about a thwarted act of terror/terror attack (which is the Issa approved one again?)that relied on classified information.
MikeJ
@gogol’s wife: I’m happy my lack of typing skill didn’t stand in your way,
Kay
I’m a little curious where they go next with it.
I think we’ve beaten terrorism versus act of terrorism to death, so that leaves “why didn’t he call out the war planes to scare off the bad guys?”
But Gates says that is “cartoonish” and anyway, isn’t it forbidden to second-guess the Prez on calling out the war planes?
That has to be a judgment call not a crime, right, NOT releasing the plane-fury?
Suffern ACE
@Kay:
Only the decision not to in this day and age. The War Powers Act and the AUMF gives the executive the power to use the air force, not to not use the air force.
SatanicPanic
@MomSense: AP phone-gate. Just getting that out there before the -gate adders depress me anymore.
Shortstop
@Bill E Pilgrim: conjugal verbs, heh heh heh.
Jay in Oregon
@Tim F.:
How many GOP Congresspeople would even consider that a scandal any more. It’s government’s job to get out of the way of business doin’ business!
EDIT: And yes, I had to look it up.
Roger Moore
@gogol’s wife:
The term you’re looking for is Munchkin.
Mr Stagger Lee
I was reading a story, about the Republicans thought they finally got FDR in 1944, saying that the president ordered the Navy to send a destroyer, to pick up his dog Fala,supposedly left back on a island. FDR shot back with a master stroke of a speech, that totally boned the GOP. Boy the Democrats could use an FDR to horsewhip these idiots.
Suffern ACE
@gogol’s wife: Those sound like munchkin cats. I remember reading about them when they first came out a couple of years ago.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munchkin_(cat)
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Kay:
Considering that from the start the bad guys and the good guys were all within the kill radius of air-deliverable ordnance an air strike may not have been the best idea.
“President Kills Popular Ambassador with US Aircraft!!!!!!!!!”
beltane
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
Now THAT would have been a scandal.
Kay
@Suffern ACE:
Right, that seems like a problem, that it’s all things he didn’t say or do.
I think that makes it a little harder. We already know John McCain would have taken decisive action. Obviously.
mclaren
I still have no goddamn idea what the Benghazi thing is supposed to be about. Moreover, I don’t care.
More marble countertops.
Kay
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
I just don’t see that as House-trial material. You either do or don’t bug the Watergate hotel. The only right answer is “don’t”.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Kay:
John McCain would have immediately scrambled Air Force One, personally taken over the controls, and demolished the aircraft while taxiing to the runway.
pokeyblow
@Mr Stagger Lee: Obama can’t be mean to republicans. If he is, they’ll stop working with him.
Chris
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
“Breaking News: John McCain crashes another plane.”
MattR
@MomSense: If I understand it all correctly, the “scandal” is that the DOJ obtained information about the phone numbers that called to/from the AP and the length of each call. It did all of this without a warrant because SCOTUS has ruled that one is not required for that type of information. Granted it is probably farther than I would like the gov’t to go when investigating the press, but I have a hard time ginning up to much outrage when the press was perfectly fine with the government using that power on the common citizens.
Trollhattan
@dance around in your bones:
“JUST like Carter rescuing the Iranian hostages!” Except for everything. If Obama would only lead, then this woman might be back home with her family.
Am sure Fox will be featuring her story prominently. Funny that I’ve not heard of it before now–shouldn’t he have taken a flightdeck lap or something?
dance around in your bones
@gogol’s wife: Whatever you do, don’t ever google twisty cats. It will break your heart.
I rescued a little kitty with one deformed front leg and she was a sweetheart (also ran around and climbed trees and caught mice and in every way acted like a kitty with 4 good legs). But she was born that way, not bred that way.
I’m sorry I even mentioned the pinche twisty cats.
Anya
Why did Obama wanted the U.S. ambassador to be killed? Did he have the real birth certificate?
MomSense
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
“President Kills Popular Ambassador with US Aircraft!!!!!!!!!”
Would that be a “fire of friendly”?
gnomedad
@patrick II:
New rule: if black presidents don’t ring in within 10 seconds of an attack and say “Alex, what is terrorism?”, they are lying traitors who played golf while patriots died. Also if they do.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Shortstop: I was thinking more of this meaning of “conjugated”, not the word “conjugal”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacterial_conjugation
Oh well.
Keith G
Benghazi may take a back seat for a bit.
Kathleen
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: Also, too, how about Republicans undermining the Paris Peace talks? How about Republicans making deals with Iran so undermine Carter’s efforts to release the hostages? How about Republicans actively supporting regimes in Central America that tortured and murdered its citizens, including women and children? Thanks to the MediaWhoregasms over Republicans and all their works, the national conversation will never include details of Rethugs’ perfidy so our so called discourse has no space for contrasting and comparing real policies and their real consequences.
'Niques
I’m thinking most of the respondents heard “do you *want* Benghazi to be regarded as the biggest, baddest, most awful scandal in all of history blah blah blah?”
Patricia Kayden
10% of Democrats think Benghazi-gate is the WORST scandal in American history?
Wow. Just wow.
I’d like someone to actually explain what the scandal is. Interesting how the media is feeding this frenzy.
mellowjohn
@Tim F.: but how about the XYZ affair? or the Mason-Slidell incendent? huh? huh?
Patricia Kayden
@Keith G: To find out how AP leaked classified info about Al Queda. Another non-scandal.
liberal
High. On. Crack.