Charles Woods is the invisible man.
Indeed, the father of former Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods — slain this past Sept. 11 while trying to defend Ambassador Chris Stevens and others under terrorist attack at the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya — was nowhere to be seen on the many Sunday morning TV talk shows.
As a matter of fact, you’d have been hard put to even hear the word “Benghazi” mentioned at all on those same programs. And when it was, it was invariably raised by Republicans — and just as quickly shot down by most of the allegedly unbiased moderators. “Charlie Woods? Who’s he?”
But he’s the fellow who’s been asking some pretty pointed questions of this administration about the circumstances surrounding his son’s murder. He doesn’t accept the excuses being offered by everyone from the president on down.
Woods’ misfortune is that his son was killed under a Democratic administration. And it’s considered neither polite nor acceptable to question the competence of Democrats — especially this Democrat.
Nor their moral superiority, either.
Now, if Woods had been Cindy Sheehan, whose soldier son was killed in Iraq, his publicly confronting the president would be considered a patriotic act.
As it was when she became the media’s — and Democratic Party’s — darling for her public rants against then-President George W. Bush.
“Cindy Sheehan is single-handedly bringing the Iraq debate to Mr. Bush’s doorstep,” hailed NBC back in 2005.
She was a sad, unstable, clearly tortured woman, but she was a handy cudgel and the media exploited her shamelessly.
Charles Woods, on the other hand, has been all but ignored. Consider:
On “Meet the Press,” GOP panelist Carly Fiorina brought up Benghazi, only to be cut off by moderator David Gregory, who promised to “get to that a little later.” He never did.
Newt Gingrich raised Benghazi on “This Week.” Moderator George Stephanopoulos changed the subject.
On CNN’s “State of the Union” (with presidential debate “moderator” Candy Crowley), two GOP officials tried to raise Benghazi — but Crowley sloughed the issue off.
Obama & Co. claim they’re intent on getting to the bottom of what happened in Benghazi. But until the election is over, that means not a word’s to be heard from them or their enablers.
And to hell with Charlie Woods.