And they'll probably all insist on 'dignity,' too.

Damn, how did it take almost a full week for a Republican to invoke Benghazi in the debate over whether the United States should grant refugee status to victims of terrorism? These guys are losing their reflexes. But at least they finally got there. In a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee Thursday, Colorado Rep. Ken Buck linked fears over Syrian refugees to the completely unrelated 2012 attack on a diplomatic compound in a wholly different country, completing the GOP's Circle Of Life.

While questioning Leon Rodriguez, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and asking him if he could get it through his thick bureaucratic head that Fox News-watching Americans are afraid of their own shadows, Buck explained the obvious connection:

Let me tell you one of the reasons why Americans are distrustful at this point. We have a president who after the murder of an ambassador in Benghazi and the murder of three heroes in Benghazi -- four people total -- told the American people that the attack was the result of a video. You have a secretary of state who immediately identified that it was not the result of a video that it was the result of a well-planned attack, and then the administration paraded out one official after another to lie to the American public.

[contextly_sidebar id="qbVNFb8vyLYDybbRXTV8KAvuMXhWjHUf"]Why, yes, we're very aware that most Americans are still seething with rage about that dirty underhanded Obama and his crew of lying liars, who did nothing but yell for three years about that darn video. Or was it Fox News and WND who were doing that? We should probably launch another investigation. God knows Hillary Clinton would jump at the chance.

As Rep. Buck explained, now Americans cannot ever believe a word coming from Barack Obama's lying whore mouth:

The American public has very little faith in this administration when they assure the American public that somehow they are able to determine that Syrians that come to this country are going to be trustworthy and that we will be safe. It's a result of this administration’s lack of credibility that has caused the fear and panic among many of the Americans in this country.

[contextly_sidebar id="qw6vH5AnFvDYHIGofcruj6eDvdKbtMTM"]Got it: Because Fox News and Republicans screamed for three years that some initial confusion in 2012 about what exactly preceded Benghazi constitutes the Greatest Lie Ever, Americans are now scared to death of Syrian refugees, who, Fox News and Republicans are now screaming, are walking right into the country with no screening at all. Americans are seething about Benghazi, and why not mention it in relation to Syria, since Americans have no bloody idea where either place is anyway?

[contextly_sidebar id="lMPV2Af9AYZu8Y5g7Lpkdo41cYHSHpbS"]Also, as we may have mentioned in every single piece Wonkette writes on Syrian refugees, terrorists would have to be insane to try to sneak through the refugee screening process, which takes 18 to 24 months, instead of simply flying in on a tourist visa. Clearly, we need to cut off all flights from Europe.

[contextly_sidebar id="Rh9F1PuRmIWccBKpqxC7hYO2geUnLJT6"]

Rep. David Trott of Michigan continued Buck's line of questioning, suggesting that problems with the Veterans Administration and Obamacare have added to Americans' distrust of the government. We're terrified, and instead of explaining, as Rodriguez did, that the State Department and USCIS have instituted "the most rigorous process in the history of refugee screening," or pointing out that the process actually has rejected refugee applicants whose stories don't add up, the government should stop trying to be reassuring and give in to panic, as the American People demand. Isn't that what democracy is all about?

Now, are we really sure that the government is telling us the truth about Ebola?

[TPM / Al-Monitor]