Most members of Congress’ Benghazi Committee were an embarrassment.

Congress has a number of disappointing members who grab the spotlight so frequently that it is easy to imagine they define the institution. But they are not always definitional. That is because the House also has a few exceptional members who step into the spotlight only when it is necessary – and who, when they take that step, bring a measure of honor to otherwise desultory affairs.

That is what Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, did Oct. 22, when he condemned the abuses of the Republican majority on the House Select Committee on Benghazi. Hour after hour, at each and every necessary point, Cummings intervened – with appropriate and righteous indignation – to challenge the excesses of his conservative colleagues.

The Republicans kept him busy. No one doubted that a session focusing on former secretary of state Hillary Clinton would see the most disappointing members of the committee embarrass themselves and the Congress. And so they did.

The questions from committee chairman Trey Gowdy, R-South Carolina, and his minions were for the most part repeats of discredited campaign claims. Never mind that the basic premises advanced by the Republicans last Thursday were rejected by the American people in 2012. After hearing a steady stream of Republican criticism of the administration’s response to the tragic events that led to the death of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, voters re-elected President Obama and by a landslide.

Obama is not running in 2016. But Clinton is.

Gowdy’s hearing developed such a sharp partisan edge that Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Carl Bernstein compared the “reckless” and “abusive” questioning with the approach seen during the “red-scare” circuses organized by Senator Joe McCarthy in the 1950s.

Things got so bad that, toward the end of the almost 11-hour hearing, Congresswoman Linda Sánchez, D-California, apologized to Clinton “for my Republican colleagues who apparently want to write your answers for you, or testify for you because it fits into their outlandish narrative of what happened.”

Clinton responded with compelling recollections of her State Department service in general and of her response to the Benghazi attacks in particular. So masterful was her testimony that, while it surely was not their intent, Gowdy and his minions ended up creating a day of theater that did more than any debate or campaign speech could to confirm Hillary Clinton’s readiness for the presidency.

It is understandable that reviews of the session will focus primarily on Clinton’s ownership of the day, and on the inability of Republican committee members to grab anything more than a few minutes of camera time. But some of the most striking presentations Thursday came from Democratic House members, such as Sánchez and Illinois Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth, and especially from Cummings.

As the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Cummings gets his share of attention and respect. As a veteran legislator committed to keeping the institutions of Congress functional and functioning, he has looked for ways to work even with the most difficult partisans and share the spotlight with members of his own caucus.

Cummings has always been recognized for his legal and legislative skills. He displayed them – and he displayed a passion that defined the day. Cummings defended Clinton. He also indicted the Republican majority on the committee for engaging in excessive and irresponsible partisanship.

Cummings spoke with lawyerly precision and moral fury, earning a rare burst of applause when he said to Clinton: “Do we want to badger you over and over again until you get tired, until we get the gotcha moment he’s talking about? We’re better than that. We are so much better. We’re a better country. We’re better than using taxpayer dollars to try to destroy a campaign. That’s not what America is all about!”

Hillary Clinton could not say that to the committee. But a distinguished and determined congressman could. And did.

JOHN NICHOLS writes for The Nation.