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Here's something you don't see every day -- someone in our corporate media actually calling out Republicans for feeding them lies. Good for CBS and Major Garrett.

Via TPM: Wow, This is Pretty Epic:

Generally, once partisan, tendentious sources leak information that turns out to be wrong, nothing’s ever done about it. That’s for many reasons, some good or somewhat understandable, mostly bad. But on CBS Evening News tonight, Major Garrett did something I don’t feel like I’ve seen in a really long time or maybe ever on a network news cast. He basically said straight out: Republicans told us these were the quotes, that wasn’t true. Quick transcript after the jump …

SCOTT PELLEY: Also at his news conference today the president called for tighter security for U.S. diplomatic facilities to prevent an attack like the one in Benghazi, Libya, last year that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

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As our friends over at Media Matters took note of this Thursday, the Republican propaganda channel has decided to yet again make another political attack ad for the Republicans. The Five's Eric Bolling offered up the clip shown above for Republicans (or Joe Biden) should they wish to use it against a Hillary Clinton presidential bid for 2016.

As one of the commenters pointed out in their post, this ad offered up by Bolling looks almost identical to one that the RNC had planned to run during the last presidential campaign and decided not to due to a request by Mitt Romney: Exclusive: The RNC Benghazi Attack Ad that Never Ran:

It was the Benghazi attack ad the Republican National Committee created but never aired.

ABC News has obtained an ad the RNC made last fall and approved to air in the final weeks of the presidential campaign. The ad begins with a replay of Hillary Clinton’s famous “3 a.m. phone call” commercial from the 2008 campaign and then cuts to video of the burning U.S. consulate in Benghazi Libya. [...]

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Jon Stewart ripped into Fox "News" and their continued hyping of the trumped up Benghazi "scandal" which they've been promising over and over is about to "have the lid blown off a giant coverup" at any moment now since the attacks first happened.

Stewart took his viewers back through some of Fox's coverage for the last few months now, whether it was the Greta hyping the Petraeus testimony, or Hannity ranting about the Clinton testimony, to Lindsey Graham promising that the hearing this week was "going to make you mad" and if not, well, they'll just keep having more of them until you are.

Stewart reminded his viewers that this Congress has had nine full hearings on Benghazi, but during the Bush administration there were fifty four attacks on diplomatic targets that killed thirteen Americans, but Congress only held three hearings total on embassy security back then with zero of the outrage we're seeing from Republicans now.

After asking what made things different this time around, Stewart went through the recent list of items that the wingnuts on the right believe are "worse than Watergate" and crazy GOP Rep. Steve King's remarks that Benghazi is "Watergate and Iran Contra together" and "multiplied by ten." Stewart put into perspective just what King was comparing the so-called Benghazi "coverup" to and asked, just what did President Obama do that Republicans believe is worse than some of Nixon and Reagan's worst scandals combined.

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Of all the recent stupidity surrounding this drummed up conspiracy theory by the right wing that there's some massive coverup in regard to the attack on our embassy in Libya back in September, this has to be one of the more ridiculous ones I've heard. President Obama didn't want Amb. Susan Rice to admit the attacks were terrorism, because he doesn't want anyone to believe that radical Islamic terrorism exists.

I don't know what it's going to take to get the right wing politicians and the yappers over at Fox to back off of this story, but it's making my head hurt. Obviously facts don't seem to matter much to them, but then, when have they at Fox? These people just keep building up their own alternate reality apart from the rest of us and they've just gotten worse with looking like they've lost their damned minds since Romney lost the election.

Here was Rep. Dana Rohrabacher touting his conspiracy theories on Van Susteren's show on Fox this Thursday -- 'Breathtaking' lies and dishonesty by Obama and White House spark anger at Benghazi hearing:

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As Karoli already informed us here, Grampy McCain was so busy grandstanding today in front of the media that he couldn't be bothered to go to the hearing on Benghazi and lashed out at CNN reporter Ted Barrett when asked why he missed that meeting. What killed me about the segment is the deference both Dana Bash and Wolf Blitzer gave to the hot-headed Senator while discussing his tantrum on The Situation Room.

I've got to wonder what it's going to take before they quit treating him as some senior statesman worthy of our respect, instead of the angry, petulant old man who still hasn't gotten over losing the election to Barack Obama? McCain's behavior over the last week has not just been hostile, it's been downright embarrassing.

But here's the nice friendly gloss-over he received from CNN this Thursday:

WOLF BLITZER: Tempers flaring on Capitol Hill. Senator John McCain lashing out at one of our CNN producers who questioned why he was missing a key hearing on the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. McCain has been a sharp critic of the president and his administration, complaining lawmakers are not getting enough information.

And when asked why he missed that meeting today, he lashed out.

Our senior congressional correspondent, Dana Bash, is up on Capitol Hill. She's got more on this sensitive story.

Dana, what happened?

DANA BASH: Well, it turns out, Wolf, that CNN learned that most of the Republicans on this key committee that had a briefing on what happened in Benghazi did not go. In fact, it was three out of the eight Republicans on that committee.

One of those Republicans who did not go to that briefing, it was a classified briefing, was John McCain. Now, McCain at the time was having a press conference yesterday lashing out at the administration for not getting enough information and calling for a select committee to investigate it all. Well, our Ted Barrett caught up with the senator earlier today and wanted to know why he didn't go to that briefing. And to say the least, it did not go well. Listen to what happened.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

TED BARRETT: Why can't you comment about that?

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Because I have the right as a senator to have no comment. And who the hell are you to tell me I can or not?

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BASH: So John McCain would not comment, would not give an answer to Ted who was trying to do his job, trying to find out just why Senator McCain didn't go to that briefing.

And Senator McCain went onto say he thought Ted was badgering him and not being respectful, which you know Ted Barrett, he is respectful. I will tell you though that later in the day Senator McCain's spokesman contacted us saying that the reason he didn't attend that classified briefing was because of a scheduling error.

I should also tell you that Senator McCain has been inside the briefing that's going on right now. You probably see this podium behind me. That's because we're waiting for the Senate Intelligence chairwoman and ranking to come out of a classified briefing. And again Senator McCain is at this briefing at this hour.

BLITZER: Why couldn't he have just said that to begin with, told Ted Barrett, I had a scheduling problem, a scheduling error, if you will, and I screwed up? That would have ended the controversy.

BASH: That's a great question, Wolf. It's what Ted and I were talking about the minute he told me about this exchange. Why didn't he just say that? He certainly has answers for many of us in the hallways a lot. In fact, he just walked out temporarily of this meeting that's going on right now.

And other reporters were asking why he wasn't at that classified briefing yesterday. And that's what he said. I had a scheduling error. So tempers are flaring here. I think that exchange with Ted Barrett is probably a good example of how heated this issue has gotten, a lot of people, particularly, as we have seen over the past couple days, Senator McCain.

BLITZER: Yes. We all screw up from time to time. People make mistakes and then we move on.

Oh yes, let's just move on shall we? Anyone think they would be "moving on" if a Democrat were acting this unhinged?

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It seems David Gregory didn't think the media has spent quite enough time beating the dead horse on the embassy attack in Benghazi. I'm not sure what else he thought Obama advisor David Plouffe was going to tell him that he hasn't already read about elsewhere in the media, but he decided to give Fox a hand and ask him about it anyway.

Plouffe to his credit, pushed back and pointed out the fact that the incident has been nothing more than a political punching bag used by Republicans:

GREGORY: Before you go, I want to ask you about what is still a-- both a highly politicized but very important question about this raid in Libya on our consulate in Benghazi that killed our ambassador Chris Stevens. A lot of misinformation about this and a politicization of this in the final days but still important questions that seem to boil down to this, why was security at our consulate so inadequate, particularly when there had been warnings in advance about an attack on the consulate? Why was there such little force nearby to respond to the kind of attack that ultimately took place?

PLOUFFE: Well, David, that’s exactly why the State Department has an accountability review board that’s going to-- right now is undertaking a very thorough investigation. Obviously, as facts come out, those have been released. But, you know, Admiral Mullen and Mr. Pickering, these are-- are respected leaders who are going to see what happened, what lessons can we learn from this?

GREGORY: Why not put out the facts before the election? Are you deliberately waiting until after Election Day before you respond to these questions in a detailed fashion?

PLOUFFE: Absolutely not. You know, all the information, obviously that-- that has been commented on has been, you know, because we’ve released it. The-- an investigation like this is very important. We have to get it right so we can learn lessons here. And-- and I think the president has been very clear. He wants to understand-- make sure the country understands fully what happened, what lessons do we learn from that and hold folks accountable. I will speak for one minute, David, on the politics. It is remarkable. You look back at the 2000 in October. The USS Cole bombing took place in the weeks before that presidential election. Seventeen of our sailors were died or killed tragically. And what president, then Governor Bush said was, we need to speak as one voice. And-- and really for that entire campaign, President Bush then-- then Dick Cheney said we need to speak with one voice. We need to find out what happened here. And I do think the politicization of this has been unprecedented. But the important thing here is we have to fully understand what happened here and take those lessons forward so that we can protect these diplomats who are doing such heroic work.

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Who needs Fox when you've got CBS doing double duty for them with interviews like this one with Sen. John McCain on Face the Nation? The Republicans have been foaming at the mouth since the embassy attack over a month and a half ago in Libya and now we can add McCain's name to the long list of Republicans who have compared "Benghazi-Gate" to Watergate or called for impeaching President Obama for how the matter has been handled.

I'm sure there are others I missed, but here's at least a partial list of those who have been making the same hyperbolic attacks:

Rush Limbaugh: RUSH: Benghazi cover-up "This dwarfs Watergate'

Ron Christie: Worse than Watergate??!! WTF

Sean Hannity and Donald Rumsfeld: Hannity Trots Out Donald Rumsfeld To Help Turn Benghazi Into Watergate

Newt Gingrich: Gingrich: Libya Cover-up Worse Than Watergate

Mike Huckabee: Huckabee Suggests Impeaching Obama Over Libya Embassy Attack

Col. David Hunt: Col. David Hunt Tells Jerry Doyle: Benghazi Coverup Worse Than Watergate

And Rep. Marsha Blackburn: Marsha Blackburn Calls 'Benghazi-Gate' 'Worse Than Watergate'

They've all got their talking points aligned perfectly, don't they? And last but not least, here's Grampy McCain from this Sunday: McCain: Libya either a "cover up" or "incompetence":

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As Fox has continued to politicize the Benghazi embassy attack in Libya on September 11th, day, after day, after day, naturally we got more of the same from Chris Wallace and the Republican guests on this week's Fox News Sunday. Sen. Mark Udall was there for a little push back this time around on the fact that Republicans have turned this into a witch hunt.

He brought up the way the country acted after the attacks on 9/11/01 and the difference in the way those events were treated. After watching the Republicans today and them shamelessly being willing to politicize this attack in Libya, I'm sure if 9/11/01 had been on a Democrat's watch, they'd have been calling for them to be impeached. It's just shameless, but that's the way they roll. They have no shame and there is nothing too low that they won't stoop to if they think it will benefit them politically.

Now the new line of attack is they should have brought drones in to strike those who attacked the embassy. What could have possibly gone wrong with that scenario?

Sen. Udall: Libya a ‘legitimate issue,’ but GOP politicized probe:

Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) said that last month’s attack in Libya had been politicized, and said officials and candidates should come together like they did after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Udall, appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” said that “any impartial observer” would say that the response to the assault that left four Americans dead at the consulate in Benghazi had been politicized.

“It is a legitimate issue,” Udall said. “But every story leads to political commentary and trying to point fingers. After 9/11, we came together. There were a lot of questions that had to be answered. Let’s operate in that same spirit.”

The Colorado Democrat also said he thought Mitt Romney, the GOP nominee, would agree with his assessment.

Romney and congressional Republicans have criticized the administration’s handling of the attacks, arguing that officials waited too long to characterize them as a terrorist attack and questioning if security at the compound had been downgraded prior to the assault.

Romney, though, also faced controversy for his initial criticism of the administration response, when he suggested that the White House’s first reaction was to “sympathize with those who waged the attacks.”

Romney’s statement was based on a message from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo not approved by Washington and made before he learned that four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, had died.

“Gov. Romney himself realizes that his actions and his reaction was unbecoming for a potential commander-in-chief,” Udall said on Sunday.

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Stephen Colbert took Fox News and one of their hosts, Bret Baier to task for their endless coverage of Benghazi-Gate in a manner which only he can. As Colbert noted in his segment this Wednesday and as Media Matters wrote in their recent post on the subject, Fox has managed to create their own alternative reality on the the attacks.

Who wants to take dibs that once the election is over, Fox and the rest of their allies in the corporate media never mention the word Benghazi again?

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As Mugsy rightfully noted, it looked like someone spiked Matt Dowd's oatmeal during this Sunday's This Week panel segment. Of course he couldn't do this without the typical Villager qualifications about "both sides" being equally horrible false equivalence for openers, but it was nice to see someone call out the Republicans' utter hypocrisy when carping about the speed of the investigations over the embassy bombing in Libya.

DOWD: George, here this is what I think is what's wrong I think in this system that we have today in which there is no pause button. And there's no time for thoughtfulness on both sides of it. Somebody says something, and we automatically throw everything at them and say, oh, I can't believe they said this. They're horrible. They have bad intentions, they're evil, or what they did. Why don't we have answers and all, that there's no point in time where we can sit back and say calmly, on both sides of the aisle, it happens on both sides.

But I think, let me just say one thing to put this Benghazi thing in context of like, why don't we have answers and where are they -- I worked for President Bush. We had a president and an administration for years made an argument about weapons of mass destruction for years, and now we've lost thousands of lives over an Iraq based on a false assumption and all of that.

This is not - there wasn't two weeks, this was months and months and months of a conversation where we never got the right answer to this. And still today, nobody in the administration at a high enough level...

SUSTEREN; And the point is that our intelligence gathering is bad.

Of course he was interrupted before he could even finish his point by Fox's Greta Van Susteren and that crook Ralph Reed, who ought to be sitting in a jail cell instead of appearing on my television screen, both carrying water for Mittens and basically ignoring what Dowd said. If 9-11 had happened on a Democrat's watch, after seeing these Republicans in action on the Libya debacle, I'm fairly sure they'd have been impeached over it.