More Benghazi Fallout

The State Department is now the target of a new report filed by a panel that includes former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Michael Mullen and retired ambassador Thomas Pickering.  The panel determined that the security precautions the U.S. consulate in Benghazi prior to the September attack on it were "grossly inadequate" and that the personnel on the ground, despite their professionalism under fire, could not withstand the attack from the heavily armed militants.  Security wasn't good enough, with the State Department ill-prepared for such an attack, with budget constraints causing some State Department officials to have a greater concern with saving scarce money than providing proper security.  Both parties have been critical of the State Department, and some Democrats have chastised Republicans in the House for not adequately providing adequate funds in State appropriations.  But the bulk of the blame went to the State Department.  Several State Department officials were removed from their posts as a result, including Eric Boswell, the assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security; Charlene Lamb, the deputy assistant secretary responsible for embassy security; and Raymond Maxwell, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Libya, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco.

Note that one Susan Elizabeth Rice isn't mentioned anywhere in this report.  The only connection to the United Nations ambassador's office this report had was that Pickering had served in the same post under Bush the Elder.  Don't expect John McCain to apologize to Dr. Rice for making her give up the offer to serve as Secretary of State; the stir McCain started was never about her and completely about politicizing foreign affairs to settle old scores with President Obama.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton, the current Secretary of State, was unable to testify today before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about these findings due to having sustained a concussion: she's had to reschedule her planned testimony.  Having torpedoed President Obama's plans to name Dr. Rice to head the State Department, the Republicans are now likely to go after Hillary Clinton as she possibly considers a run for the White House in 2016.  None of this should stop Mrs. Clinton from providing some answers, though, and while Washington waits for her to do that, she has already endorsed the panel's proposal to spend an extra $2.3 billion annually to protect American diplomatic facilities around the world.

All this chaos, though, gives Obama another political problem to deal with even as Mrs. Clinton plans to leave her post.