Oversight

WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton's testimony before a special House Benghazi committee offered fodder for partisans in both parties but lacked the one thing those hoping to damage her White House prospects are looking for: a smoking gun.

Democrats and Republicans jousted from the start over whether the probe is an independent fact-finding mission or an effort to smear Clinton as she campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination. Clinton largely left to her Democratic allies on the panel the work of trying to discredit the committee's work as political.

HOOVER—The United States budget and lowering the national debt were the two main issues U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Alabama, touched on during an Oct. 15 talk at the Hoover Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

"We've got some good folks in Washington, we're working on some key things," Palmer said. "We passed the first House budget that we've passed in six to eight years."