Mike Allen's morning newsletter on Republican strategy.
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HOW THE GOP COULD BLOW IT - "Behind the Curtain" column by Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei : "Top GOP leaders are privately warning members to put a sock in it when it comes to silly calls for impeachment or over-the-top comparisons to Watergate. ... 'We have to be persistent but patient,' Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus told us. 'I think where there's smoke, there's fire. If we present ourselves to the American people as intelligent, we're going to be in a great place as far as showing that this administration is not transparent, is obsessed with power, and hates dissent. But you don't call for impeachment until you have evidence.' ... 'We have stuff here that's real, so you don't need the distraction of politics to give people an excuse to say we're being silly,' said a House Republican leadership aide involved in the investigations. 'Everyone is keenly aware of the overreach risk.' The aide said that issues cut across so many committees that most members will be involved, and the chairs plan to send the message to stick to substance. ...
"That's part of the reason House leadership does not plan to create a separate committee to investigate Benghazi, even though 154 Republican members - two-thirds of the conference - have co-sponsored Rep. Frank Wolf's proposal for a select committee. 'With a select committee, you're basically benching all the guys who aren't on the committee,' the aide said. A separate committee would also cost $2 million to $3 million, aides said. In an effort to avoid embarrassment or an appearance of naked partisanship, [House Oversight Chairman Darrell] Issa is holding back for now on the likely climax of the Benghazi investigation: an effort to call Hillary Clinton back to Capitol Hill for more testimony, after she largely skated through her January appearances. ,,, A Democratic strategist, knowledgeable about administration thinking, maintains that calling Clinton back would be seen as an 'extreme and unprecedented stunt' and 'quite a risky proposition' for House Republicans.
"'Congress had her an entire day in January , and she kicked their ass,' the strategist said. 'If she performed that well a second time, they could lose the issue permanently. They are better off waiting until her numbers soften with time and as she comes back down to earth - in the meantime, beating the drum as a midterm issue that she is ducking and hiding.' ... One top Democratic aide, getting ready for combat, emailed that Republicans are likely to come off as 'a bunch of white guys hammering away.' 'Wonder how they will be if Hillary or Susan Rice testifies?' the aide asked. 'Republicans are fully capable of taking an issue that should have valid questions asked, and turning it into another Whitewater investigation that goes way off the cliff. They could wind up making Hillary a sympathetic figure.'" politi.co |
