DOWNLOADS: (107)

PLAYS: (616)

Embed

Last night, Sen. James Inhofe did Fox News the favor of telling host Jeanine Pirro that Benghazi is “probably the greatest cover-up in my memory.” The predictable result was that the comment was re-played on Fox & Friends this morning (as it probably will be elsewhere on Fox) thus giving a boost to himself, Pirro’s not-very-prominent Saturday night show and, most of all, the Benghazi conspiracy theory that Fox clings to despite any and all facts disproving it.

The discussion started with a clip of Inhofe saying:

I have made a study of different cover-ups – the Pentagon Papers, Watergate and Iran-Contra. I’ve never seen anything like it. I think this is probably the greatest cover-up in my memory, anyway.

Of course, that’s ridiculous. Not even the Foxy Friends argued that was likely - though they studiously avoided saying one way or the other. As Karoli posted a few weeks ago, Rachel Maddow has demolished the whole cover-up conspiracy theory. So has The New York Times. And Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tom Ricks tried to tell Fox News but their widdle feewings were so hurt by his accusation that they were politicizing the tragedy that they booted him off the set before they could debunk it. But even if you believe that there are still some unanswered questions out there, the entire “conspiracy” boils down to Who Changed The Talking Points About Benghazi and was the danger of Al Qaeda downplayed to help President Obama win re-election?

Well, now that President Obama has been re-elected – despite Fox News’ best efforts – the “fair and balanced” network is turning its sights on Hillary Clinton, a likely nominee in 2016. I guess you need to allege a giant cover-up if you’re going to allege Clinton faked her concussion to avoid testifying about Benghazi. Even though there’s no question that she will testify later, as even host Clayton Morris acknowledged.

Morris pretended that questions about Benghazi are questions about the death of Americans: “At the heart of all of this, of course, is the four individuals who died during that tragedy. And the answers are still not being found, as our own Catherine Herridge reporting yesterday on our show.”

But rather than focus on what happened to those Americans, Morris immediately turned his attention to Clinton and kept it there. He said:

(M)ore questions emerging about who knew what when at the State Department and when these cables, these sort of desperate cables for security and security issues – a series of them – how far up the chain of command did they go? Did they go to Hillary Clinton’s office on the 7th floor? …At least one cable, according to Catherine Herridge’s reporting may have made its way to (Clinton’s) office. Did she look at it? Was there any actionable information on that? Why didn’t they ask for more security at the time? And Hillary Clinton, of course, still suffering from a concussion, or recovering from a concussion, so hasn’t been able to answer that but she will at testimony coming up.

Yet somehow with all those questions, nobody thought to point out, as Karoli did, that it was Secretary Clinton who ordered the review and the review was done. Furthermore, as the New York Times reported, “Mrs. Clinton accepted all of the panel’s 29 recommendations and has already begun to make changes.”

As the nuns used to say, lie down with dogs, rise up with fleas. But in this case, all three of them are crazy wingnut dogs -- with bloodthirsty fleas:

Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), the lead Republican on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, held a climate-denial press conference at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change on Thursday. Accompanying Inhofe were two rather questionable characters: an activist who believes the UN is starting the apocalypse and a British Lord who was banned from all UN climate conferences for impersonating the representative from Myanmar.

Inhofe’s first guest, Cathie Adams, is the President of the Texas Eagle Forum and former Texas GOP chair. She must have felt quite uncomfortable speaking at a United Nations function, as she has maintained for over a decade that the UN was the anti-Christ’s vehicle for stealthily taking over the world. From a 1999 newsletter:

"The Bible tells us that in the end times there will be a world government headed by a world leader, called the anti-Christ, who will profess a world religion, but did you ever think you would live in the day when these things would come into being? That is exactly what the United Nations is doing behind the backs of most Americans."

Adams has singled out environmentalism as part of the UN’s sinister agenda, suggesting a fictional UN Pledge of Allegiance would require “worshipping the Earth.” She also believes, among other things, that the CO2 emissions do not cause climate change and that vaccination is a plot to steal American freedom.

A friend who's an aviation buff sent me this. Now, just imagine the response if this was a Democrat instead of global warming denier James Inhofe. First, it would go up on Drudge. Then Limpy and the Beckster would each devote a half-hour to the "arrogance of Democrats who think the rules don't apply to them," every right-wing blogger in the country would run it with screaming headlines, teabaggers would send out furious emails, and then cable news would feature it, asking guests, "Do the Democrats have a problem with thinking they're above the law?"

How could I have forgotten the main lesson of the past decade? It's Okay If You're A Republican!

The FAA is reviewing an Oct. 21 incident in which U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) allegedly landed on a closed runway at Port Isabel-Cameron County Airport in Port Isabel, Texas, the Tulsa World reported late last week.

Inhofe, 75, of Tulsa, has served in the U.S. Senate since 1994. He holds a commercial pilot certificate and has been flying more than 50 years.

According to news reports, Inhofe had flown to Port Isabel in his twin-engine Cessna 340—he has a beach house on nearby South Padre Island—and landed on a runway that was marked as out of service.

Accounts did not say what runway was involved. Of the airport’s four runways, only 8,001-foot-long Runway 13/31 is listed as being in fair condition; Port Isabel’s three other runways are reported to be in poor condition.

Inhofe told the Tulsa World that he saw the X’s on the runway and took care to land on a part of the runway away from where the work was taking place. An FAA spokesman who told the newspaper that the agency was reviewing the incident said he could not comment further.