Today’s Benghazi hearings, as expected, provided no clear path to the top echelons of the Administration. As predicted some career employee will clearly take the fall here, if anyone takes the fall. If you were hoping for more, I’m here to tell you that the Unicorns, well, they’re just not real; no more real than these hearings. However, you may take heart in consistency.

As Senators and Representatives cannot belay the need to speechify many questions and answers never quite got there. Add in the affixing of great big sloppy kisses to the butts of departing members and you could confidently flip channels for the first three of each member’s five minutes and miss nothing.

There were revealing moments, disturbing symptoms. Similar hearings occurred after our Embassy bombings in Africa; President Clinton was in office, Madeline Albright our Secretary of State. Representative Christopher Smith (R, NJ) sat on the committee that reviewed security for the African Embassies in the wake of those bombings. He points out that if you compare that report with the current report you will find that the report phrasing from the African bombings is in many cases word for word consistent with the current report. He also point out ‘emotional’ requests for additional security at those Embassies prior to the car bombings by the Ambassador. Word for word! Like I said; consistency!

But wait, wait, it gets even better; there was another such Congressional hearing thirteen years before the African Embassy bombing hearings. In that report, dating back to 1986, the recommendations are essentially the same if not, again, word for word.

The report admits failings and State will of course apply maximum effort to fix things up. Absent research it is fair to assume that in the wake of the prior two reviews the same thing were said. Congress in the wake of the African Embassy bombings even passed legislation funding, specifically, security upgrades to diplomatic facilities. But, well, you know; inflation changed the plan from ten embassy upgrades a year to two. It never occurred to the State Department to ask that a Billion dollars a year funneled through their coffers for global warming initiatives might be redirected to other uses. Or that unused capital funding might be redirected. You may judge an organization by its priorities and its reaction to red flags and crisis, its ability to learn from the past; State failed on all accounts. In this case the Left is correct, global warming really did kill folks, our folks including Ambassador Stephens.

We have the same old tedious cover ups, the same organizational firewalls keeping the excrement from hitting the fan too high up the org chart, the same reports, the same recommendations, the same plan and the same failure to execute in the interests of people who willingly put themselves in harm’s way.