YES, WE JUST GOT A TOP BENGHAZI SUSPECT, AND YES, REPUBLICANS ARE INSANE

In case you don't know:

U.S. Special Operations forces captured one of the suspected ringleaders of the terrorist attacks in Benghazi in a secret raid in Libya over the weekend, the first time one of the accused perpetrators of the 2012 assaults has been apprehended, according to U.S. officials.

The officials said Ahmed Abu Khattala was captured Sunday near Benghazi by American troops, working alongside the FBI, following months of planning, and was now in U.S. custody "in a secure location outside Libya." The officials said there were no casualties in the operation, and that all U.S. personnel involved have safely left Libya....

Former congressman and deadbeat dad Joe Walsh, now a radio talker, is suspicious:

Glad we nabbed a #Benghazi suspect, but the timing is questionable. Did they let him wander, waiting for the perfect political opportunity?

— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) June 17, 2014

Really? How is this "the perfect political opportunity"? The GOP and right-wing media have been pounding on Obama for nearly two years for what happened in Benghazi (and have pounded on him for six-plus years for everything else he's ever said, done, or thought); the mainstream media hasn't had a kind word to say about Obama since ... when? Election Day 2012? The bin Laden raid? So why is this the key moment? When wouldn't it have been "the perfect political opportunity"?

Oh, sorry: I guess it's "the perfect political opportunity" because of this:

A couple co-hosts from Fox's Outnumbered Tuesday reacted to the apprehension of Ahmed Abu Khattala, one of the prime suspects in the 2012 Benghazi attack, by wondering about the timing of the capture given former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's book tour and interview with Fox's Bret Baier later this evening.

"You have the former Secretary of State who is in the middle of a really high-profile book tour," Independents host Kennedy said. "I think this is convenient for her to shift the talking points from some of the things she’s been discussing."

Concerned Vets CEO and Fox contributor Pete Hegseth noted that Clinton was set to give an interview with Fox, that will almost certainly focus on her role in Benghazi, in just a few hours....

Hunh? First of all, I thought the wingers believed that there's a blood feud between the Clintons and Obama. Second, if Obama's going to time this for the Clinton book tour, why wait a week? The book came out last Tuesday. Beyond that is a sort of media version of right-wing epistemic closure: yes, these people seriously believe that Hillary's Fox interview is the make-or-break moment for her book tour and her presumed presidential candidacy. Why? Obama gave an interview to Bill O'Reilly during the last Super Bowl -- what the hell impact did that have on anything whatsoever?

Meanwhile, I see that Lindsey Graham's knee-jerk response is a now-boilerplate sort of GOP gracelessness:

Very pleased our Special Forces have detained Ahmed Abu Khattala. #Benghazi

— Lindsey Graham (@GrahamBlog) June 17, 2014

Translation: Thanks, Special Forces, and no thanks to you, Mr. Commander in Chief, or anyone else in your administration. If you were a Democrat and you tried to pull this back in the Bush days, they'd be accusing you of treason. Now it's de rigueur.

Having dispensed with that, Graham returns to pissing and moaning:

However, naval vessels were never meant to be detention and interrogation sites. #Benghazi

— Lindsey Graham (@GrahamBlog) June 17, 2014

Holding Khattala on a ship shows the haphazard approach which comes from not having rational detention & interrogation policies. #Benghazi

— Lindsey Graham (@GrahamBlog) June 17, 2014

They apparently keep a case of this particular white whine in Three Amigos headquarters. We were hearing the same thing last year from one of Graham's fellow Amigos:

Congressional Republicans criticized the Obama administration for detaining a man reputed to be a major al-Qaeda operative on a ship at sea rather than in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

While three U.S. senators and a representative congratulated the administration for pursuing a boots-on-the-ground strategy that resulted in the capture of Abu Anas Al-Libi in Libya Saturday, they said keeping him on a naval vessel in the Mediterranean Sea for a limited period will not yield much new intelligence on al-Qaeda's inner workings.

"A navy vessel is not a substitute for a detention facility," Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire said at a press conference at the Capitol Tuesday....

You know who else kept detainees on ships? George W. Bush. Ayotte wasn't a senator when Bush was president, but Joe Lieberman, the Amigo she replaced, certainly was, as were Amigos #1 and #2, Graham and John McCain. Never heard a peep out of them about ship detention, as I recall.

So what's Lindsey's alternative? The smarter ones among you have probably guessed already:

Ahmed Abu Khattala should be held at Guantanamo as a potential enemy combatant. #Benghazi

— Lindsey Graham (@GrahamBlog) June 17, 2014

You can't make this stuff up.

I'll leave the last word to Joe Walsh:

All it takes to arrest a #Benghazi suspect, who talks to the media frequently, is to have this admin broiled in scandal and controversy.

— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) June 17, 2014

Yeah, Joe, that's it -- the capture happened only because of all your "broiling."

*****

UPDATE: Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and John McCain also want Khattala to go to Gitmo. (ALSO: Ted Cruz's top speechwriter.) I assume every Republican in America will second this notion in the next news cycle or two, as will Democratic senators running for reelection this year0 in Romney states, because we're a nation of lunatics and idiots.