Karl Rove Groups Releases Benghazi Cover-Up Ad American Crossroads, the Karl Rove-led super PAC, has released the first attack ad of the 2016 campaign, accusing Hillary Clinton of mishandling the Benghazi killings. It's a pretty shameless spot, filled with innuendo and as many unflattering pictures of the former secretary of state as possible. Let's just focus on two words in this ad: "cover up" and "terror." Republican politicians and pundits repeat them endlessly when they talk about Benghazi, where four Americans were murdered on Sept. These words frame a rather pointless argument over whether the administration labeled the attacks "terrorism" early enough and often enough. The administration's initial public statements on Benghazi were fumbling - especially those from U.N. ambassador Susan Rice. She read talking points based on information from intelligence agencies, but put too much emphasis on the idea that an anti-Islam Internet video spurred the attack. It turned out that the killers used protests over the video to launch a pre-planned attack. The Rove ad shows an exhausted-looking Mrs. Clinton angrily telling a Congressional committee: "Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided to go kill Americans. What difference does it make? The difference, says the ad, is a heinous "cover-up" - as if sloppy communication with the public amounted to a full-blown government conspiracy. What's really going on is that Republicans have been salivating for decades for a chance to get revenge for Watergate and Iran-contra. They yell "cover-up" at the drop of a hat. My Facebook post on the Rove video drew a comment on "Mena." That's a reference to the nutty idea that the Clintons (and both Presidents Bush) covered up cocaine trafficking and murder in a sleepy Arkansas town of that name. Get ready to hear about how Mrs. Clinton had Vince Foster, a deputy White House counsel for her husband, murdered. As far as the word "terror" goes, Republicans seem to think that standing in front of a camera and saying it makes them look macho, or amounts to a real response to attacks on Americans. Likewise, they think that sending terrorist suspects to military tribunals is "tougher" than trying them in federal courts. Mr. Rove built his reputation on smear tactics and the politics of fear. If he's willing to go this far in an attack ad on Mrs. Clinton before she even says she's running for president, can you imagine what an actual campaign will be like? Today ABC got hold of another Benghazi ad, which the Republican National Committee put together during the campaign and which Mitt Romney spiked, because it was so inflammatory. Will the next G.O.P. candidate show that much restraint?