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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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House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) on Thursday refused to consider removing Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) from the House Intelligence Committee even though he said it was "pretty dangerous" for her to accuse Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, Huma Abedin, of infiltrating the U.S. government on behalf of radical Islamists in the Muslim Brotherhood.

Last week, the St. Cloud Times reported the Bachmann and four other Republicans sent a letter to inspectors general in the State, Homeland Security, Defense and Justice departments calling on them to investigate “potential Muslim Brotherhood infiltration” of the Obama administration by Abedin, an aide to Secretary Clinton and wife of former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY). Their accusations were based on a report by Frank Gaffney’s neoconservative Center for Security Policy.

During a press conference on Thursday, a reporter asked Boehner if it was appropriate for a member of the House Intelligence Committee to make these types of unfounded accusations.

"I haven’t seen the letter, but — I don’t know Huma, but from everything I do know of her, she has a sterling character," Boehner pointed out. "And I think accusations like this being thrown around are pretty dangerous."

"Would you consider taking her off the Intelligence Committee? Congresswoman Bachmann?" the reporter pressed.

"I don’t know that that’s related at all," the Speaker replied.

On Wednesday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) also blasted Bachmann and the four other Republican lawmakers for their “specious and degrading attacks” on Abedin.

“The allegations about Huma Abedin and the report from which they are drawn are nothing less than an unwarranted and unfounded attack on an honorable citizen, a dedicated American and a loyal public servant,” the Arizona senator said. “These attacks have no logic, no basis and no merit. And they need to stop. They need to stop now.”

“When anyone — not least, a member of Congress — launches specious and degrading attacks against fellow Americans on the basis of nothing more than fear of who they are and ignorance of what they stand for, it defames the spirit of our nation and we all grow poorer because of it,” he added.

The Minnesota congresswoman found herself fleeing from CNN cameras later that day as Senior Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash tried to get her respond to McCain's comments.

“The good news is I can walk pretty fast in heels,” Bash told CNN host Anderson Cooper. “The bad news is Michele Bachmann can walk just as fast. And she proved to be pretty adept at not only avoiding my questions, but talking enough that I could barely get any questions out.”

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(h/t: Think Progress)

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Rachel runs down the list of intelligence leaks by Rep. Pete Hoekstra, the man who the Republicans feel is the best choice to be the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee. This was a follow up from last night where Maddow focused on the leaking of Maj. Nidal M. Hasan's email conversations with cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi.

As Think Progress noted, Marcy Wheeler also reminded us today of some of Hoekstra's finer moments.

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Andrea Mitchell reports on the latest dust up between the CIA and House Democrats. Spencer Ackerman has more:

On June 26, six seven Democrats on the committee — Anna Eshoo (Calif.), John Tierney (Mass.), Rush Holt (N.J.), Mike Thompson (Calif.), Alcee Hastings (Fla.) and Jan Schakowsky (Ill.) [Update: I received an early version of the letter. Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.) also signed it) — wrote to Panetta, “Recently you testified that you have determined that top CIA officials have concealed significant actions from all Members of Congress, and misled Members for a number of years from 2001 to this week.” The letter — which doesn’t explain what those “significant actions” concerned — asks that Panetta “publicly correct” his May 15 statement that it isn’t CIA “policy or practice to mislead Congress.” TWI acquired a copy of the letter, which comes after CQ reported that committee chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) also nebulously stated that CIA “affirmatively lied” to the committee.

But CIA spokesman George Little says it’s “completely wrong” to say Panetta determined CIA misled Congress, as the six legislators charge. “Director Panetta stands by his May 15 statement,” Little said. “It is not the policy or practice of the CIA to mislead Congress.