Congress Won't Save Romney on Libya

According to Politico — so, consider the source — the Romney campaign is engaged in an internal debate over what to do with the Obama administration’s Libya cover-up. One side wants to use the cover-up to make the broader case that Obama is a failure and can’t be trusted. Tatler readers may find something familiar in that argument. The other side, burned over the mainstream media’s reaction to Romney’s initial comments the day of the attacks, argues that the investigation should be left to Congress. That side appears to be winning the debate.

Romney and Ryan will answer questions about Libya when asked in interviews, but plan to say very little for now about the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in what the administration is now calling a “terrorist” attack on the consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Instead, the Republican ticket will leave calls for an investigation to Capitol Hill, where both Republicans and Democrats have complained about the briefings they have received. “Let Congress do it: It’s a bipartisan thing, and that’s a better place for us to be,” a Romney adviser said.

That’s a great tactic if you’re satisfied that you’ll get answers by late 2014. Counting on Congress to do its job in an election year is a bit like counting on the referees to win the game for you. Mitt Romney won’t be as lucky as the Seattle Seahawks.

Congress may move on Libya, but it won’t move quickly and it won’t move in unison.

Congress has been investigating Fast and Furious for how long now? More than a year. And as of Sunday, we’re still finding out relevant new facts not from Congress or the MSM, but from Univision. The terrorist assault in Benghazi and the cover-up that followed happened less then two months before the election.

On Libya, Congress already signaled that it will not make that cover-up a campaign issue. Last week, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee circulated a bipartisan letter demanding answers. Sen. John Kerry, widely seen as the next secretary of state if Obama wins re-election, even put his name on the demand. The deadline on that letter: November 13, 2012.

Obviously, that’s a week after the election. By then, not only will Libya be a moot point with regard to the presidential election, the composition of the Senate itself could be very different, and along with that, the composition of that committee will change.

The Obama administration from the president on down has engaged in a cover-up right before our eyes. The mainstream media has been incredibly slow to recognize and pursue that cover-up. The divided Congress will not act before the election.

It’s up to Team Romney to push the issue, though the candidates and through the campaign’s surrogates. They can’t count on anyone else to help them out.