From the very first question to the very end, this was never intended to be a serious discussion of a serious subject.

If this Benghazi Select Committee were serious, it would have an even number of participants on both sides of the question. But it's not, and Debbie Wasserman-Shultz pointed that out, -- tried to -- over the shrill objections of Michele Bachmann, of all people.

Mediaite:

“The bottom line here is that the Republicans have clearly lost the ability,” Wasserman Schultz began, “because we’ve had such a precipitous drop, among Republicans even, in their fervor for repealing the Affordable Care Act, that they are clearly doing this to drive their turnout—”

Then came the first of many interruptions. “That is not true at all,” Bachmann said.

“The Republicans are in the majority of the House of Representatives,” Wasserman Schultz continued. “So they can essentially do whatever they want. In creating this select committee, they have to, in order to make sure that the process is credible — which, the way they’ve set it up, it’s clearly not going to be and has an outcome that’s been predetermined — they have to treat the minority fairly.”

“That’s absolutely not true,” Bachmann interrupted. “I think it’s important that this is a dialogue and not a monologue…It’s really clear that the Democrats have tried to sabotage this process from the very beginning. We shouldn’t do that when we have questions about four people who’ve died. We’ve got to get to the bottom of this, and not politicize it. And unfortunately that’s what’s been happening with the Democrats.”

Which of course answers Crowley's stupid first question: Yes, the select committee is political, and yes, it's meant to gin up the Republican base.

Should Democrats boycott? On one hand, it would marginalize the outcome. On the other, if they participate they'd be able to tarnish Saint Ronnie and use their questions to frame a contrast between a question of talking point modifications and hundreds dead in embassy bombings that went unanswered because there were other agenda items in the way.

I'm leaning toward the latter, if they'd actually do it. What do you think?