A top Democratic lawmaker has suggested in a letter to her colleagues that only one Democrat be chosen for the select committee on Benghazi.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro thinks that by naming just a single Democrat to the committee, the party will have access to all documents and testimony available to Republicans while providing "a powerful voice to raise issues and make appropriate public comments."

Fox News:

Democratic lawmakers weighing whether to participate in a special investigative committee on the Benghazi attacks should name just one lawmaker to the panel, rather than boycott the investigation altogether, a top lawmaker said Thursday.  

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., sent a letter to Democrats meeting on Friday to discuss how to respond to the committee approved Thursday by the GOP-led House in a vote largely on party lines, The Washington Examiner reported.

DeLauro, co-chairs the Democratic Steering Policy Committee, which creates committee assignments, told her colleagues that boycotting the panel "would leave our caucus with no voice to engage in committee proceedings." 

Instead, appointing a single member would allow Democrats to participate in the "partisan committee" and access important material, she said.  

"Such a participant could maintain Democratic access to committee proceedings and material, question witnesses, monitor the House Majority's activities and provide a powerful voice to raise issues and make appropriate public comments," DeLauro wrote. 

Some rank-and-file members argue that by joining the select committee, they'd be improperly legitimizing what they view as a political effort. Others, though, argue that if they don't participate, they will not be able to shape the direction and narrative of the probe.

The real advantage naming a single Democrat to the committee would give is that Republicans would have to be very careful not to appear to be ganging up on the lone Democratic representative. No doubt, whichever Democratic member was chosen would be instructed to make a nuisance of themselves as much as possible; interjecting comments, taking more time in questioning than allotted, - daring Gowdy to shut him down - and perhaps trying every procedural trick in the book.

The problem for the Democrats is that this is a transparent ploy to politicize the hearing. As long as Gowdy and Boehner can make the case that the committee is engaged in a search for the truth, any efforts at disruption by the Democrats will be seen as counterproductive.

For this reason, it's doubtful they would employ such a strategy. But the gambit reveals the Democrat's strategy that they will not cooperate in getting to the bottom of the Benghazi scandal, and will seek to impede, disrupt, belittle, and smear the committee's efforts.