I think Darrell Issa must be Plastic Man, because they both know how to stretch. Talk about reaching!

A still-classified State Department e-mail says that one of the first responses from the White House to the Benghazi attack was to contact YouTube to warn of the "ramifications" of allowing the posting of an anti-Islamic video, according to Rep. Darrell Issa, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

The memo suggests that even as the attack was still underway - and before the CIA began the process of compiling talking points on its analysis of what happened - the White House believed it was in retaliation for a controversial video.

Oh, for crying out loud. The deliberately provocative "Innocence of Muslims" video inspired riots and violence in Egypt and other locales throughout the Islamic world. Of course the White House wanted the video taken down.

And yes, the video contributed to the hysteria at Benghazi. The locals later made clear that they were genuinely upset by what they had heard concerning that video. The jihadist group Ansar Al Shariah seems to have opportunistically made use of the protest. Like piranhas swimming in the midst of trout, they launched an armed attack against the embassy.

(Incidentally, Ansar Al Shariah is not Al Qaeda, although Lara Logan falsely claimed otherwise on 60 Minutes.)

Given the undisputed fact that the video had prompted outbreaks of civil unrest in more than one location in the Middle East, the administration acted quite responsibly when it made that request to YouTube. Why should the White House have waited? If the administration had waited, the Republicans would probably be damning Obama for his slow response.

I think that every reasonable person understands the point I'm making here. So who is Issa trying to impress? Does he really believe the nonsense he is spewing? If so, he's crazy.

Issa could find evidence of a Benghazi conspiracy in a recipe for apple cobbler.