On October 22, Hillary Clinton will testify before the House Benghazi Select Committee. While the Benghazi "scandal" petered out except in the fevered imaginations of FOX News viewers back in 2012, the discovery of Clinton's use of a private email server during her time of Secretary of State has dogged her campaign over the summer, causing Vice President Joe Biden to consider entering the race, and bringing her numbers down in some places enough to give Bernie Sanders a shot at winning a few contests.
Most have naturally assumed that this event will be bad for Clinton, politically. Whether it ended up being a bump in the road or a major obstacle for Clinton remained to be seen, but it was difficult to imagine a scenario under which it could be anything but bad news.
Speaker in Waiting Kevein McCarthy's recent uncharacteristically honest admission that the panel was set up with the express purpose of hurting Clinton as a Presidential candidate may have changed that calculus. It is now possible that Clinton can take this chance to testify as a political opportunity that can help her in her quest for the nomination and the White House. We can talk about why below the fold.