It's been over a year since the murder of four Americans in Libya and we're no closer to knowing the truth about the attacks than last October, when President Obama vowed that his biggest priority "is bringing those folks to justice."

The president was engaged in a tight re-election campaign at the time so the tough talk made a great sound byte for the evening news. We now have that comment placed in the bulging Obama file of promises not kept. Instead providing answers on Benghazi, the administration has waged a campaign of deception and coverup since the beginning. If, as many critics believe, that this president and the Democratic party dismissed Benghazi because of its negative and harmful threat to Obama's re-election, then it must rank as one of the lowest and most disgusting political acts in history, Watergate included.As if this story couldn't get more dirtier for Democrats, some brought new shame at last Thursday's House Oversight and Government Reform hearing on Capitol Hill. The committee was hearing testimony on Benghazi from Adm. Mike Mullen and others and was about to hear from family members of the victims, including Patricia Smith, the mother of Sean Smith, an information management officer who was killed early in the attack, and from Charles Woods, the father of former Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods, who was killed defending the compound from the roof of the security annex along with fellow former SEAL Glen Doherty.Just before their testimony, 15 Democratic members excused themselves without offering a reason and left the hearing. The cowardly Democrats included Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY); Danny Davis (D-IL); Gerald Connolly (D-VA); Jim Cooper (D-TN); John Tierney (D-MA); Mark Pocan (D-WI); Matt Cartwright (D-PA); Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM); Peter Welch (D-VT); Stephen Lynch (D-MA); Steven Horsford (D-NV); Tammy Duckworth (D-IL); Tony Cardenas (D-CA); William Lacy Clay (D-MO); and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC).What they missed hearing was the anguish and raw emotions of parents talking about their sons' lives and deaths. Pat Smith provided some of the most powerful testimony of the day, stating that "Obama, and Hillary (Clinton) and (Leon) Panetta, and (Joseph) Biden, and Susan (Rice)" all lied to her while her son's casket sat in front of them on September 14, 2012. She said all of them told her that her son was killed because of a video.She also expressed her frustration in trying to get answers about the attack."I don't exactly know what to say," Smith said. "I have been ignored by the State Department. I've been told I was unimportant ... and I had to find everything I know by going on the Internet and asking questions. Because nobody from the government has gotten back to me to tell me anything ... and I meant that by saying anything. I hate to put it in the record but it's been pure hell living through all this and not getting any answers."She is not alone in trying to get to the truth. Americans want to know who in the government gave the order to stand down and deny reinforcements and help those under attack. Did the secretary of defense have the authority to make such a decision on his own or was it a presidential decision? And whose decision was it to push that lame YouTube video as the reason for the attack that night?Democrats have repeatedly called the attack a 'phony scandal' and a political witch hunt.The more we hear this administration and loyal Obama Democrats try to dodge, deflect and dismiss questions about Benghazi, the more we realize that there is much more to learn about what exactly happened and who was actually calling the shots on that horrible night.By Jim Zbickeditor@tnonline.com