Via Twitter:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler ‏@RepHartzler

Benghazigate exposed. Today State Dept. contradicts administration account of Libya attack. Who’s in charge of our foreign policy? 6:02 AM – 10 Oct 12

Fancy that, Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) mindlessly parroting republican talking points for political purposes. And there was a really big oopsie at the “hearing” that anyone without a partisan political agenda could have easily foreseen.

On the same day, from the Washington Post:

Letting us in on a secret

By Dana Milbank, Published: October 10

When House Republicans called a hearing in the middle of their long recess, you knew it would be something big, and indeed it was: They accidentally blew the CIA’s cover.

The purpose of Wednesday’s hearing of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee was to examine security lapses that led to the killing in Benghazi last month of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three others. But in doing so, the lawmakers reminded us why “congressional intelligence” is an oxymoron….

….The Republican lawmakers, in their outbursts, alternated between scolding the State Department officials for hiding behind classified material and blaming them for disclosing information that should have been classified. But the lawmakers created the situation by ordering a public hearing on a matter that belonged behind closed doors.

Republicans were aiming to embarrass the Obama administration over State Department security lapses. But they inadvertently caused a different picture to emerge than the one that has been publicly known: that the victims may have been let down not by the State Department but by the CIA. If the CIA was playing such a major role in these events, which was the unmistakable impression left by Wednesday’s hearing, having a televised probe of the matter was absurd.

The chairman, attempting to close his can of worms, finally suggested that “the entire committee have a classified briefing as to any and all other assets that were not drawn upon but could have been drawn upon” in Benghazi.

Good idea. Too bad he didn’t think of that before putting the CIA on C-SPAN.

[emphasis added]

Accidentally? That’s charitable. A republican clown show, indeed.

The Turner Report today offers a treasure trove, so to speak, of Missouri Republican response to the President’s State of the Union Address. You can find the National Republican Party Response, which laid down the official talking points that were then taken up and regurgitated by the Missouri Republican Party.  Such Missouri Republican luminaries as Jack Goldman (R-Mount Veron); Vicky Hartzler, the Republican challenger for Ike Skelton’s seat; and Billy Long, one of the stampede of candidates for Roy Blunt’s seat in the 7th district, also join the chorus.  

In case you are not inclined to spend your precious time parsing the same old Republican tropes, I offer a summary of the salient points made collectively and singly by these members of the GOP:

— The President needs to prematurely reject his policies as failures and return to the Republican-endorsed policies of the past eight years that have already been proven to be failures.

— The President has not been listening to the American people — by which Republicans mean themselves, the lobbyists and business pals they serve, along with the small tea party mobs corporate lackeys have stirred up with distortions and empty populist rhetoric.  

— 2009 marked the “people’s revolt” against tax increases – in spite of the fact that there have been no real tax increases to date, we currently enjoy the lowest tax rates of almost any developed nation, and any tax increases that have been or are being proposed are limited to the wealthiest segments of our population.

— We are endangered by the President’s determination to trust our justice system to affirm our fundamental values by insuring that Islamic terrorists are given the same fair treatment that we hand out to domestic terrorists, such as the anti-abortion activist who murdered Dr. Tiller, and the anti-abortion, anti-gay bomber who tried to blow up American citizens at the Atlanta Olympic games.

Then, as long as we are considering Republican talking points, there is Ike Skelton who, in response to the SOTU, noted that:

Instead of focusing on solutions to help America’s families wade through the wreckage of the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, Washington has wasted valuable time wrestling with partisan politics in an effort to rush through drastic reforms that do not directly address our most immediate needs.

The ostensibly Democratic Rep. Skelton also added that since the President has adopted some aspects of Republican rhetoric, all might not be lost:

The president’s address has lent us all hope – hope that the administration is finally heeding our concerns. It’s about time

Is Skelton really that frightened of Vicky Harzler, or has he always been a closet Republican?