In an all too familiar attempt to villify President Obama, not to mention Ambassador Rice as well as Secretary Clinton, whom they fear even more than recently, Speaker Pelosi and currently, SenatorWarren, they’ve once again made an issue of a nonissue.

The Benghazi tragedy can be laid at their own door. Who else but radical House Republicans cut the administration’s request for embassy protection funding by $128 million in fiscal 2011 followed by$331 million in fiscal 2012? Secretary Clinton’s warning that it would be “detrimental to America’s national security” was disregarded. What’s more, the assassinated ambassador himself had refused the addition of cumbersome military personnel.

The Benghazi witch hunt is part of an aggressive and growing list of Republican grievances and distractive ploys—a not unexpected backlash that began on Mr. Obama’s very first day as president.

Congress and the Benghazi Fabrication

Their ill-repute is at its height
Still what they’ve done is to invite
More censure but the vicious Right
Insistent in their mindless spite

And desperation to distract
Are saying fantasy is fact—
Unlike some other ones who know
This so-called scandal’s really faux.

Yet any turnabout is quite
Regrettably nowhere in sight.

Late in the campaign it was close—it seemed she was almost there, but despite the former South Carolina governor’s infidelity and multiple lies, he prevailed over Elizabeth Colbert Busch, the neophyte Democratic contender for the U S House seat in the May 7 special election, notwithstanding “family values,” rampant in the conservative South and a strong women’s movement across the country. Humbly conceding he’s an “imperfect man,” the slickly adroit politician says he owes his victory to “God’s grace.”

Pretending to hike the Appalachian Trail in 2009 when he was really in the Argentine with a beautiful mistress, leaving his gubernatorial post to do it, was irresponsible, a breach angering many. His wife Jenny, willing at first to forgive him, finally divorced him.

Now, though disgraced, like others before him, he’s staged a cool comeback.

On the national scene, Republican members would prefer to distance themselves from their new colleague, returning to his earlier three-term seat, while Democrats can benefit from another unsavory link to the U S House in the person of the mendacious and adulterous Representative Sanford.

Talk about a slippery pol!
Talk about being smooth as silk!
Slicker than those of your ilk—
Every other lying pol;

Master of the oily spin—
Man, do you know how to win!
In your renewed national role
Just for now you’re on a roll.. .

Again, as in March 2011, when former president, George H. W. Bush, was feted for his contribution to volunteerism, all five living presidents gathered in solidarity for one of their own, this time to celebrate the opening of the George W. Bush library (the costly upkeep of which, as with all presidential libraries, lo these last 58 years, defrayed by taxpayers).

As always, troubling reminders of the past were glossed over or omitted from the commemorative remarks–the Iraq war, ruinous deregulation and economic breakdown, for example—kind and generous commentary from Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter veering unrealistically from the negative.

Iraq, still a shambles, our war there is nonetheless stubbornly honored by some and this, among other fantasies, apparently justifies yet one more self-acclaiming, self-deceiving presidential sanctum.

What Else Is New?

For just one night we saw despite
Each reckless deed, each oversight
And baseless conflict by design
The honoree show no contrition

With minions graciously benign—
Of what they meant they showed no sign:
If only George had sought advice
From Poppy rather than from Vice. . .

All this combines thus to define
Per one half century of tradition

Another presidential shrine.

Of the three branches of government, which is potentially the most dangerous? If you say the legislative, you’re probably right and particularly what’s done and left undone by lawmakers on the Right.

The sequester—brought about by those very lawmakers, supported by funding from lobbyists who remain ever unscathed—notwithstanding successful gun reform obstruction, may be Congress’ jewel in the crown.

The president, who repeatedly warned of the consequences of their inaction, has reluctantly signed into law a “quick fix” bill to end airport delays, whining legislators, impatient to go home for yet another recess, the notable beneficiaries.

Meanwhile, the domino effect of the sequester continues to plague all other aspects of national operations.

The truth is it hurts everyone
Including those who make our laws
So inconveniently denied
Their scheduled flights and yet who are

(While outraged at this thing they’ve done)
Less inconvenienced by far
Than those to whom they could give pause—
Unwilling still to see their side

Or champion those who have no choice
Unlike themselves nor have a voice. . .

Hours after President Obama disclosed his $3.788 trillion budget plan, he hosted a second dinner for a new group of Republican senators, this time at the White House.

The budget was hotly rejected by Republicans and certain Democrats, including his usual champion, Senator Elizabeth Warren, because of proposed cuts to entitlements, beloved by many, to woo Republicans into compromise.

How different this dinner from the more elegant event in March, paid for by the president himself, at the historic Jefferson Hotel for 12 other Republican senators; but the goal for both was the same.

Held in the Old Family Dining Room, chosen to generate a sense of friendliness and intimacy, Senators Alexander, Boozman, Collins, Crapo, Enzi, Fischer, Hatch, Isakson, Roberts, Rubio, Thune and Wicker discussed issues over steak, sauteed vegetables and green salad. Some reports mentioned a coconut sorbet.

As on the earlier occasion, guests came away with glowing comments on the graciousness of their host and the progress made in discussions.

The president plans more such affairs, hoping to foster trust between his political opponents and himself.

After the Party’s Over. . .

Will such events the following day
Have shown that common ground’s in play
But will the president pay a price—
The Big Three as a sacrifice?

Worthwhile the time he had to spend
In giving them sufficient rope
So stubborn ideologues will bend?
With skepticism, that ‘s the hope. . .

I think there must be two McCains—a benevolent elder statesman and a cantankerous old man.

Is there a third John McCain, a family man, one of a more harmonious disposition?

I think there must be two McCains
And they seem not at all the same—
One nice, one not, how to explain
The puzzle of the pol McCain—

A man of undisputed fame.
The ancient moon waxes and wanes—
Sometimes it shines, sometimes it rains—
Much like those opposite McCains. . .

Without assurance of punishment for launching baseless armed aggression, another unconscionable war could be waged by future political hawks.

President Obama has shown no interest in bringing Iraq war criminals to justice.

Why?

The president can take much pride
In all he’s done and all he’s tried
But tell me why he’s brushed aside
The culpable who schemed and lied

And beat the drums so they could wage
The worst war of our militant age.
The hawkish need but to look back
At those who took us to Iraq—

The players in a brand new game
Will know that they can do the same…

The gun culture we live in that America as a whole rejects, perpetuated by Wall Street investment and by craven, greedy legislators, is a world apart, of gun-obsessed devotees, a fantasy majority, a ruling minority abetted by their accomplices, senators and representatives from both parties, mainly Republican.

How do such lawmakers justify their inaction paid for with gun lobby blood money? Are they deliberately insulated against the daily disasters they allow? Do they think dilution of responsibility exonerates them?

That American minority in their hysteria blindly equate guns with God and freedom and regrettably, until they and their confederates in Congress personally experience the consequences of their destructive stance, Congressional gridlock may persist.

However, strong gun laws are now in place in the states of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York and Rhode Island. Will others follow?

Guns Don’t Kill, People Do

It hardly is a piece of news
When legislators don’t refuse—
The errant ones who make our laws—
To vote against what’s right because

The truth, despite what they might say
Is that it’s still the easiest way
Those discontented millionaires
Can be turned into billionaires

Or scarcely is a big surprise
As victims breathe their last goodbyes
They don’t even apologize. . .

George W. Bush has been busy painting portraits, including some of himself. Also among his creations is a very appealing oil of his dog Barney.

The former president claims to harbor no regret for his disastrous Iraq war adventure. Had he resisted his seduction by those self-promoting ideologues who lured him into politics in the first place, in favor of, say painting, he’d now have little reason for the compunction he maintains he doesn’t feel. . .

Supposing Poppy’s boy had been
A painter, not a politician,
Without the usual worry to win,
Then followed, when called for, by contrition. . .

I wonder, has George once looked back?
Well, now he’s on a different tack—
Like others who have failed to rue
With just deserts long overdue?

Remorseless pols are nothing new
And those who pay are precious few. . .

THE PRESIDENT OF WAR by Elizabeth Gerteiny can be ordered from www.Amazon.com/Books

Those two tarnished stars, the unconscionable Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann, continue pushing their twisted, fact-challenged rhetoric—two styles, one negative message.

A Quasi-Sarah Clone

Like Sarah, being on the scene,
Her life’s blood’s to be heard and seen
And neither of them cares to learn
From history’s timeworn precedent.

Their styles, though, are different—
Michele’s all serious concern,
No comedy in her routine,
But they seem always to agree.
.

So in the end they’re just the same—
To disinform their only aim.
In short, they’re of the selfsame stuff
And two like them are quite enough—

But for The Donald—he makes three. . .