Republicans need to give Benghazi a rest. The terrorist attack on the U.S. consular compound in Benghazi, Libya, has been investigated, re-investigated, poked and prodded for nearly four years, yet a GOP-led House select committee on Tuesday found no wrongdoing by the woman running the State Department at the time, Hillary Clinton.

The State Department's handling of the Sept. 11, 2012, crisis was not flawless. People died, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Top officials made bad decisions, issued false statements and were less than forthcoming with investigators. The Pentagon, not Clinton, bears the brunt of criticism in Tuesday's committee report for failing to deploy a rapid-response military team to the scene.

But there's no excusing congressional Republicans who, for nakedly partisan reasons, have hyped this issue for years, knowing that Clinton would likely be the Democratic front-runner in November's presidential elections.

The goal was not the truth, but whipping up public anger and inflicting maximum damage on Clinton's presidential bid. All's fair in love and war, but in politics, truth needs to matter.

Is the nation's best interest served by conducting multiple inquiries, costing at least $14 million, and countless hours of microscopic hearings on this subject? The Benghazi investigation dragged on longer than probes into the 9/11 attacks, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and the botched response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, as The New York Times noted Wednesday.

Benghazi wasn't more important than the murder of a U.S. president or two historic attacks on American soil that led to wars on multiple continents. Benghazi endured because of political opportunism.

Republicans could never have known when they launched separate Senate and House probes that their own party's presumptive nominee would be so highly flawed and inexperienced that Clinton's errors would pale by comparison.

Unlike Donald Trump, Clinton has been tested in multiple international crises. She failed some and passed others. Donald Trump's toughest leadership challenges were grappling with the timing of his withdrawal from a bankrupt Atlantic City casino and, perhaps, how to televise the 2015 Miss Universe pageant after NBC canceled the broadcast.

Clinton might be able to blame Republicans for the Benghazi aftermath, but the pervasive scandal surrounding the private email server she used to conduct classified State Department business is all of her own making. She deserves whatever comes out of that. Benghazi was a failure primarily involving the Pentagon and CIA, not Clinton.

If Clinton bore any fault for Benghazi, Republicans would have found it. But Trump no doubt will continue trying to milk the tragedy for all he can. Whatever flaws he finds in Clinton's public service, he's only been a spectator. When it comes to grappling with real-life challenges of serving the country, Trump can't compete.

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Photo credit: Quinn Dombrowski