Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared this week before the Foreign Relations Committee in separate meetings of the Senate and House. The purpose was to determine what happened at Benghazi.

People who don’t think politics and grandstanding play a part with our elected Washington representatives have another thought coming.

When a Democrat was asking, they were strong questions but were respectful. When a Republican was asking, they were also strong but in some cases a little on the edge.

We all know Clinton is rumored to be a possible candidate for president in 2016, ergo Republicans wanted to catch her in a questionable statement. Like the George Romney, “I was brained washed.”

No doubt most of the questions were prepared by staff and some of the members had a look of “I don’t know what this question is about nor do I know the answer.”

Clinton answered them all and was respectful although was very sharp at times. As secretary of state, she has accepted the responsibility of the incident.

The statement that was out of the park was Sen. Rand Paul’s, “This is the worst since 9/11.” What does that say about all the men and women who have been killed in the 10-year war fighting for his right to say stupid things.

If they really want to investigate things, how about finding out why more veterans of this stupid war committed suicide in 2012 than were killed in action. That needs to be done.

Tom Brazier, Waterville