Digging The Advice From Mom

With Mother's Day coming up this weekend, there's a few things on our mind - not the least of which is that we need to make sure the gifts and flowers for our mothers get to their proper places.

Of course, we also want to wish all mothers everywhere a happy Mothers Day. Even if you aren't a mother, you had a mom or a mother figure growing up - so we hope you honor and thank that individual. If she's like most moms, she probably put up with far more shenanigans from you than you remember.

If your mom was anything like our mothers, she also likely gave you some good advice. One note of council that "strangely" every member of our staff received from their mom was the old saw about holes. "If you find yourself in a hole," they'd tell us, "quit digging."

We're not sure what happened with the mothers of many of the current Republican members of Congress, but apparently, they either didn't share the same wisdom our mothers all imparted, or their children never listened to them. Frankly, we're inclined to think it's the latter - especially as it pertains to this ridiculous Benghazi baloney.

There shouldn't be any question why we haven't devoted serious column inches to that foolish hearing on Capitol Hill this week, especially if you've looked at the aggregated links on this topic in our expanded daily editions.

As we've written more than once this week, there are no new stunning, game-changing facts to have come out of this week's pointless digging exercise by Republicans. That hasn't kept Republicans in Congress from digging though - hence our concern for their mothers' advice.

The fact is, all this empty digging by Republicans about Benghazi is, as Eugene Robinson so adroitly puts it, "…to sully [Hillary] Clinton’s record as secretary of state in case she runs for president in 2016."

Of course, as Eugene's co-worker at The Washington Post, Stephen Stromberg also points out, that well of alleged undiscovered facts about the Benghazi attack is pretty dry. The former Secretary of State, former U.S. Senator, and former First Lady is one of the most investigated people alive, yet she continues to enjoy the popular approval of roughly two-thirds of the nation. This is after almost twenty years of hate and attacks by those on the far right.

The fact is, Republicans in Congress need to take the motherly advice now - about both Ms. Clinton and Benghazi - that they've been ignoring for years: When you're in a hole, stop digging.

Sure, there are other gems of motherly advice we wish those same obtuse Republican members of Congress (and a few Democrats too) would have picked up over the years: Learn to share. Learn to compromise. Watch what you say. Treat others as you wish to be treated. Don't put your thing there, you don't know where that's been. Put that other thing back, it doesn't belong to you.

Even if they didn't pay attention to any of that advice, if they'd at least learn to stop digging when there isn't any point, that would be nice.

Or, if they're going to dig, the least they could do is dig with a real purpose. For example, maybe they could plant some flowers for their mothers instead.