Partly politics, partly other reasons. The problem is that the Benghazi attack happened during the final months of an election year. The Obama campaign had been spinning this narrative about how he had basically shut down Al-Qaeda, and it was paying off: it's one of the rare times when a Democrat has led in polling on foreign policy. That shit is supposed to be Republican territory. So then this attack happens, and while it isn't the end of the world, it runs counter to the stuff Obama had been boasting about. And that was kind of a big deal. The Romney campaign used it as a way to show the Obama administration's supposed failure on foreign policy, and it gave Ryan/Romney plenty of ammo during foreign policy debates. It was on the news all the time, and it's one of the times when any press is [i]not[/i] good press. Obama shuffled his feet on calling the attack an act of terror, and Susan Rice got thrown under the bus with bullshit talking points. From the info we have now, we know the Obama administration deliberately removed references to terrorism and Al-Qaeda in documents the CIA prepared. That also directly contradicts what White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told the media, that nothing significant or substantive was edited. That was a stupid thing to do, and Obama is paying for it now. He lost a good Secretary of State in Susan Rice, and this is an issue Republicans will be able to bring up over and over. To be fair, we learned things this time that we didn't learn in the last hearing. That hearing didn't even involve the top US official in Libya, and the committee formed to investigate didn't dig very deep into the State Dept. when asking questions. But another reason why it will be brought up over and over is Hillary Clinton. As the Sec. of State when the Benghazi attacks happened, she was in charge of the department that legitimately failed to take preventative measures. She took responsibility for that, and she testified. Cool. Problem is, she might be returning to politics in 2016, as a presidential candidate. And that's a problem for Republicans because a lot of people like Hillary Clinton. She's more right-leaning than Obama, and she's recognizable and well-respected. She has repeatedly denied that she has plans to run, but if she does, she will be a juggernaut. So you need a way to slow that train down before it builds up momentum, and Benghazi is a way to do it... pretty much the only way Republicans have. The link between the White House/State Dept's failures and Clinton herself is pretty much nonexistent, but if Republicans can make it [i]seem[/i] like it exists... well, it's worth a try. Finally, there are congressional elections coming up in 2014, and Benghazi will probably be more effective now than three years down the road.