[RitaOK]

If the Dems don’t participate in this “bipartisan” Select Committee, the media sits pretty, better positioned to blow this off as a Republican witch hunt, timed soley for the mid-terms election cycle. Boehner stalled so long, that good Republicans look calculating rather than sincere.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

a Republican witch hunt

Well...there is a witch involved.

[Verginius Rufus]

I think you're right. The Democrats are afraid of what might come out if there is a serious investigation (damaging both to Obama and to the Crown Princess Hillary), so they figure if they refuse to cooperate the media will paint it as a purely partisan Republican effort which can be ignored completely or treated as a minor story while they direct the public's attention elsewhere.

The Obama administration should have turned over the "smoking gun" e-mail a long time ago, and now that it is public, they are getting minimal criticism for failing to produce it earlier. So they are likely to continue to refuse to produce evidence.