Secretary Clinton maintains diplomatic composure in face of posturing by McCain, Johnson and Paul

If Republican senators on the Foreign Relations Committee thought they were going to cow Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at Wednesday morning's Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, they got a surprise.

After 20 minutes of obligatory introductory remarks and Clinton's reading of her prepared remarks, the committee got down to er ... uh ... ahem ... business. Most of the questions were tepid or, like Sen. Marco Rubio's, indicative of someone having no grasp on the issue at hand. However, three senators who were determined to lower whatever respect anyone had left for them were successful in that endeavor.

Sen. John McCain didn't really have any questions for Clinton. Just a ranting mini-speech. It's almost too bad Clinton takes being the nation's chief diplomat so seriously. It would have made for a wonderful moment to watch her turn Mr. Bitter into sputtering rage by ripping him a new excretory orifice. But that certainly wouldn't have been very diplomatic.

The safety of U.S. representatives overseas should, indeed, be of paramount concern.  From that perspective, investigating what happened in Benghazi deserves attention. But it's being investigated, one report has already come out, and there have been 30 public and closed-door sessions on the subject in the past four months. The partisan antics of McCain, Lindsay Graham and others, who acted Wednesday like barkers at some carnival sideshow, have done nothing to make America's representatives abroad safer.

Instead of raising blisters inside McCain's ears, however, Clinton quietly pointed out, among other things, that she and the senator have a difference of opinion about what happened and when in Benghazi as well as the nature of the subsequent U.S. response, including her own role in the matter. As for his complaints about the administration's supposed failure to train Libyans and provide them adequate assistance to deal with the many militias that sprang up in the chaotic aftermath of the overthrow of the Qadafi dictatorship, Clinton reminded McCain that it was not foot-dragging by the administration but rather by Congress that has delayed sending aid for those purposes to the North African nation.

More below the fold, including Clinton's response to Republican Sen. Ron Johnson.