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Des Moines, Iowa (CNN) -- Hillary Clinton opened the door to a presidential bid a little wider over the weekend at the Harkin Steak Fry in Iowa.

And now veterans from her 2008 campaign and Iowans urging her to run in 2016 are calling for her to use the state's first-in-the-nation caucus to slam the door shut on the Democratic nomination.

Their message is simple: If you win in Iowa, you will be the nominee. If you let someone hang around -- or win -- you could cost yourself the nomination.

Hillary Clinton returns to Iowa: A fresh start or deja vu?

"I think that Secretary Clinton can close the door in Iowa. It is going to take a lot of work, but it is out there to be done," said Jerry Crawford, Midwest co-chairman for Clinton's 2008 campaign. "I think if she wins ... it would be very difficult, very unlikely that anybody could mount a challenge after Iowa."

Crawford, who also ran Bill Clinton's 1992 and 1996 presidential campaigns in Iowa, said he has expressed this sentiment to Hillary Clinton's closest advisers and aides.

There is a level of bluntness in those who advocate for Clinton to run hard in Iowa, and it stems largely from her history in the state.

Some of it is self-serving. The more active Clinton is in Iowa, the more other candidates will be forced to campaign in the state. That means money for Iowa's economy -- some economists estimate that more than $51 million was spent in Iowa in 2008 around the caucuses. And it raises Iowa politicos' profiles.

The other reason has more to do with Clinton's record in Iowa. Most Clinton supporters in the state feel that the nomination was hers to lose in 2008 and don't want the same thing to happen in 2016.

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Iowa Democrats to Clinton: Slam the door shut in Iowa

WASHINGTON Hillary Clintons name barely came up Wednesday at a closely watched House hearing on Benghazi where Clinton allies were anticipating fireworks.

It turned out that all the hype over an overtly political committee out to harm Clintons 2016 presidential hopes were premature.

The inaugural hearing for the new committee dedicated solely to the deadly Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Libya focused on bipartisan concern about improvements to diplomatic security.

Clintons name was barely mentioned in the Republican-controlled panel.

The topic for the hearing came from, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, a Democrat who once suggested Democrats not even take part in what was expected to be a Clinton-bashing.

She served as secretary of state during the bloody attack that took the lives of four US personnel, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

The tone was set by chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), who paid homage to the four Americans.

I pledge a process that is worthy of their memory and one that our fellow citizens can respect, regardless of their political ideations, said Gowdy.

He found agreement with his Democrat counterpart, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, who suggested a 45-day deadline to get a progress report from the State Department on implementing the security changes recommended by independent review panels.

Rep. Darrell IssaPhoto: AFP/Getty Images

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Hillary Clinton barely mentioned in Benghazi hearing

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- Hillary Clinton supporters launched a counteroffensive this week against claims that documents related to the Benghazi attack investigation were sanitized and ahead of another congressional hearing.

A Clinton spokesman responded quickly to the story released Monday, calling it "patently false," and a group helping with the former secretary of state's communications and rapid response mobilized an entire communications strategy, website and talking points around the issue.

The strategy has a directness that has not always been seen from Clinton aides and affiliated groups, which have generally waited for a story to fully emerge before taking it on.

A GOP-led House Select Committee on the Benghazi attack holds its first public meeting Wednesday, with seven Republicans and five Democrats looking into the September 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. compound in Libya that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.

The issue has been white hot politically since then. It loomed as an issue that Republicans used against President Barack Obama in the closing months of the 2012 election, and with the prospect of Clinton running for president in 2016, the issue has continued to burn.

Rand Paul: If Hillary Clinton worked for Bill Clinton, she'd be fired

Sharyl Attkisson, who resigned from her job as a CBS News correspondent in 2014 for what she said was liberal bias, published a report Monday alleging that a State Department official close to Clinton had withheld and sanitized documents during the department investigation.

The story, which many conservative outlets branded as a "bombshell," was hung on Deputy Assistant Secretary Raymond Maxwell, one of the men reprimanded over the attack.

The State Department flatly denied the story.

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Clinton supporters launch counterattack on Benghazi claims

Edinburgh, Scotland Among the most high-profile opponents of Scottish independence are a number of non-Scots. British Prime Minister David Cameron has toured Scotland this week, urging a "no" vote on Thursday's referendum on whether to separate from the United Kingdom. That's to be expected. What was less expected was the intervention of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the presumed front-runner in the 2016 race for the presidency of the United States.

When Clinton traveled to Scotland earlier this year to accept an honorary degree from the University of St. Andrews, she was explicit in her opposition to the proposal.

"I would hope it doesn't happen," she declared.

"I would think it would be a loss for both sides," added Clinton, who told BBC interviewer Jeremy Paxman that "I would hate to have you lose Scotland."

That brought a reminder from Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond that "Scotland is not a property to be lost but a nation about to take a precious and consensual and democratic decision."

Clinton is not the only American who has weighed in on the Scottish vote. President Obama said in June, "There is a referendum process in place and it is up to the people of Scotland." That was a reasonably balanced statement. But then he added what sounded to many like a slightly subtler appeal for a "no" vote, suggesting that "we obviously have a deep interest in making sure that one of the closest allies we will ever have remains a strong, robust, united and effective partner."

On Monday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest reiterated the president's earlier remarks, while acknowledging in response to a question about how the United States would respond to a "yes" vote by saying, "I suspect that there's somebody at the administration who's been thinking about that at some level."

The notion of a "special relationship" between the United States and the United Kingdom is not new. And Obama and his aides have every right to mention it, just as Clinton has every right to urge Scots to vote "no" on Sept. 18.

But the notion that voting "yes" would represent "a loss for both sides," as Clinton suggests, is every bit as debatable as the notion that the separation in 1776 of the United States from the Great Britain represented "a loss for both sides." Britain obviously did not approve, as the long war that followed the American Declaration of Independence confirmed. But the idea that prominent Americans would go around discouraging others from declaring independence especially via an orderly and nonviolent electoral process does seem rather, well, hypocritical.

"It was very interesting hearing Obama in his own equivocal way telling the Scots don't do it,' and Hillary Clinton in a much more vicious argument Scotland shouldn't do it,' et cetera, et cetera," observed the author and activist Tariq Ali, who noted that the United States supported the breakup of the Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia.

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John Nichols: Hillary Clinton's other campaign: against Scottish independence

Sen. Tom Harkin: If Hillary Clinton runs, hard for anyone else, but not impossible - LoneWolf Sager
Sen. Tom Harkin says that if Hillary Clinton decides to run it will be tough for anyone else, but not impossible. - LoneWolf The Three Muskadoggies "Please.... Remember Our Homeless, Hospitalize...

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Sen. Tom Harkin: If Hillary Clinton runs, hard for anyone else, but not impossible - LoneWolf Sager - Video