Irrelevant!

It was Hillary's defense during her January testimony and it appears to be the new defense of the day.



Listen to this clip closely.  Notice not what Pfeiffer says, but what he doesn't:

Wallace--  "Was he in the Situation Room"?

Pfeiffer-- "He was kept up to date throughout the day". 

Since the event occurred partially at night that's either a verbal faux pas or a deliberate dodge.  Pfeiffer tries every trick in his bag, stock talking points about the 'independent ARB', 'looking forward to how we better protect diplomats', ie, Congress's fault, and even tries to turn around the discussion by attacking anyone who would dare question Commander-in-Chief Gutsy's whereabouts (ie, Wallace). 

Wallace is having none of it and simply reminds him that Obama claims he told his subordinates to do everything possible to help when last seen around 5 pm, yet help was not sent.  It's an excellent line of questioning because a truthful answer means either 1) the CinC was disobeyed, or 2) the CinC was not around to give specific orders to either deploy forces or not.  That's why his whereabouts are seminal.      

And by the way, twice Pfeiffer calls Benghazi a 'tragedy'.  Dammit, it was an attack, just like 9/11.  If our own political leaders can't even acknowledge simple facts there's little hope of ever effectively dealing with the threat.  Killing UBL didn't win the war.  They know it, but continue to think a drift backward to the 90s approach will allow them to get back to their grandiose domestic agenda, despite history's judgment.

MORE  5/19/13

While some of the media are busy circling their wagons so they can soon head back to the reservation, Bob Schieffer is old enough and has seen enough to say "not so fast".   His question as to why Pfeiffer was sent out was couched around the fact that Rice--another lower level person who didn't possess all the facts--was also sent out to shape the narrative about Benghazi five days after the fact but was low level enough not to know anything that might cause trouble.   This is actually brilliant journalism, the kind of stuff usually reserved for Republican guests.

Another old Bob-- Woodward-- also sees a little resemblance to the Watergate shuffle put on by Nixon. 

It will take old heads like these to keep the stories alive amidst the rabid 24/7 cycle.   Maybe that's why Obama went out today and tried to gin up the race and class divide again.