GOP-led Benghazi select committee's probe could last until 2016 and haunt Hillary in White House race

• House Rules Committee spent Wednesday debating how to constitute the new Benghazi committee, with Republicans holding out for a 7-5 advantage
• Chairman Trey Gowdy told MSNBC viewers that he won't cut the investigation short if the Obama administration 'slow-walks' cooperation
• He also upbraided his own national party for launching a fundraising campaign based on conservative outrage
• A long-ranging committee mandate could hobble Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state when the attack occurred, if she makes a presidential run
  
• Many Democrats coalesced around a strategy to refuse participation if the committee doesn't include an equal number of members from both parties
• Republicans in the Senate are also chomping at the bit, asking for a joint committee that would span both houses of Congress
  

By David Martosko, U.S. Political Editor

Published: 18:50 EDT, 7 May 2014 | Updated: 11:43 EDT, 8 May 2014

Republicans' plan for a special 'select committee' charged with investigating the 2012 Benghazi terror attack reached new levels of controversy on Wednesday when the congressman who will chair the new panel said he can foresee its work stretching well into the 2016 election season.

Rep. Trey Gowdy, a former South Carolina prosecutor, acknowledged on MSNBC that the timetable would largely be dictated by how much – or how little – the Obama administration cooperates with subpoenas.

'It would be shame on us if we intentionally dragged this out for political expediency,' said Gowdy, 'On the other hand, if an administration is slow-walking document production, I can’t end a trial simply because the defense won’t cooperate.'

Continuing the high-powered spectacle of a no-holds-barred congressional probe into the presidential race could bring new levels of public scrutiny to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democrats' current front-runner in the White House contest.

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Man of the hour: Rep. Trey Gowdy (C), flanked by Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (L) and Bob Latta (R), is gearing up to gavel in a select committee on Benghazi as the terror attack and its still-unanswered questions become a deafening rally cry on the right

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's expected Democratic presidential campaign could suffer if the GOP-led Benghazi select committee drags its work into 2016

Clinton has not yet committed to running.

It was on her watch that the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other U.S. personnel died on September 11, 2012 when heavily armed members of an Islamist group linked with al-Qaeda launched an all-out assault on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, an eastern port city in Libya.

Republicans began pushing last week for a more powerful House committee that would take over from the four standing committees that have investigated the terror attack with limited results.

The new body will have subpoena power and promises to consolidate congressional investigations so that the same group of lawmakers can interrogate witnesses who would normally be under the jurisdiction of different committees.

Unlike with the Oversight and Ways & Means committees, which have done the lion's share of the heavy lifting so far, select committee members can question witnesses as long as they like – ditching the customary five-minute timer and removing the incentive for stalling.

With the threat of a 7-5 disadvantage in committee membership hanging over their heads, some Democrats are urging a boycott.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chief Rep. Steve Israel reportedly told a closed-door Democratic Caucus meeting Wednesday morning that his party's members should sit out the committee completely, turning it into a partisan exercise.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer wrote to Speaker John Boehner Tuesday night urging him to split the committee down the middle.

'If you truly want this new select committee to be bipartisan and fair – and to be taken seriously by the American people – we call on you to reconsider this approach before bringing this measure to the House floor for a vote,' they wrote.

Boehner responded Wednesday by insisting that he wouldn't let the process devolve into a 'sideshow' or a 'circus.'

'This is all about getting to the truth,' he told reporters. 'This is a serious investigation. Our system of government depends on transparency and accountability.'

The 2012 Benghazi terror attack cost the lives of four Americans including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and latter-day White House disclosures are only now beginning to provide investigators with a full picture of what happened and how the Obama administration reacted

No circus, no sideshow: House Speaker John Boehner green-lighted a special 'select' committee with sweeping powers and is insisting on a 7-5 GOP majority among its members

As the marathon House Rules Committee hearing dragged on into the dinner hour Wednesday, Republicans insisted their majority status in the House would be mirrored in the new Benghazi committee's roster.

Georgia GOP Rep. Rob Woodall noted that Congress had launched seven select committees during his lifetime, and 'all have had a slant toward the majority.'

Rep. Daniel Webster, another Republican, fought back Democrats' arguments by saying, 'I became speaker of the Florida House by one vote, but that's the majority that puts you there.'

Boehner green-lighted the select committee following the emergence of documents – 20 months after Congress began demanding them – showing that the White House knew almost instantly who was attacking American diplomats and why.

President Barack Obama, then-Secretary Clinton, then-UN Ambassador Susan Rice and other administration officials initially argued that the devastation and casualties resulted from a spontaneous protest sparked by a crude anti-Islam video produced in California.

The latest email, sent to West Wing staffers by Deputy National Security Adviser Benjamin Rhodes, suggests an organized strategy to deflect criticism in the months preceding Election Day by intentionally clinging to the false story about the video.

'The memo, I think, is evidence of a cover-up,' Gowdy said Wednesday morning.

Michael Morell, a former CIA official, has testified that he personally edited a set of talking points provided to Rice and members of Congress in the days after the Benghazi attack, removing references to terrorist groups because he believed that information was considered classified.

Gowdy also raised the hackles of some Republicans by upbraiding his own party for turning Benghazi into a fundraising issue.

As part of National Masturbation Month, Republicans like screaming the name of their fluffer, Ben Ghazi, when they orgasm. #TrueStory

— Trish4Congress (@Trish4Congress) May 4, 2014

The Republican National Congressional Committee launched a fundraising campaign Tuesday night asking for money to 'fight liberals' on Benghazi, and bringing a stern rebuke from select committee chair Rep. Trey Gowdy

The National Republican Congressional Committee launched a website Tuesday night designed to collect funds from outraged conservative 'Benghazi watchdogs' who have lost patience with what they see as blatant obstructionism and are prepared to donate money.

'House Republicans will make sure that no one will get away from Gowdy and the Select Committee,' the online pitch reads. 'This is going to be a national effort for a national investigation. ... Help fight liberals by donating today.'

Asked Wednesday morning if the GOP should avoid bulking up its campaign purse from Benghazi-related appeals, he said, "Yes, and I will cite myself as an example.'

'I have never sought to raise a single penny on the backs of four murdered Americans,' Gowdy insisted.

Democrats, too, have begun to politicize Benghazi in the context of electoral politics.

Trish Causey, a Democrat running for Congress in Mississippi, tweeted Wednesday that '[t]he only reason the GOP is still harping [about] Benghazi is because they fear Hillary actually has a chance at becoming POTUS.'

'As part of National Masturbation Month,' she tweeted on Sunday, 'Republicans like screaming the name of their fluffer, Ben Ghazi, when they orgasm.'