America: I, Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro PelosiPelosi: I, Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi
America: Do solemnly swear
Pelosi: Do solemnly swear
America: To tell the whole truth
Pelosi: To tell the who- whole trrrr. . .
(Awkward silence)
America: Madam Speaker. . .
Pelosi: Wait a minute! Truth about what?
(. . . and CUT!)
If this was a Hollywood sitcom, this is exactly where we pause for commercial break, and give the rest of us time to catch up with what just happened. I particularly don’t care who knew what and who told who what. All politicians lie, and occasionally get busted in the process. There is absolutely nothing novel about this recent denial (allegedly) or allegation that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi knew all the fine prints of the water boarding fiasco and didn’t do anything about it. Even worse, when she was asked what she did know, she went ‘amnesia’ on the rest of us.
The whole drama is circling around what Pelosi learned in classified intelligence briefings she received on ‘harsh interrogations’. The argument about the effectiveness and legality of the methods used to extract information from alleged al-Qaeda operatives seeks to suggest that whoever was involved was both incompetent and shortsighted. Those are the two attributes that Nancy Pelosi will do just about anything to avoid been slapped with.
I know that the Republican Party is in desperate mode to find anything they can hang their hats on and so far nothing has worked. The attention to the Obama’s stimulus plan among others faded away and that probably has something to do with the fact that the plan may have worked (or at least showing signs thereof).
The next line of reasonable allegations then is the woman in charge of the decision making process for the whole country and that is a big part of why the ’truth’ has been a big deal in Washington in the past few days. Any other day, no one cares about anything that resembles the truth.
Pelosi has insisted that she was not “directly” briefed by Bush administration officials that the practice was being actively employed. Keyword here is directly, and that is the only reason why I don’t buy it. Normally, water boarding an Abu Zubaida is a no-issue, except that in the days of the Obama ‘clean up campaign’, most politicians (except Dick Cheney) are doing everything possible to be on the righteous side.
My best guess is that Nancy Pelosi would love to spell out the truth about what she knew, and end this entire he said-she said circus, but it’s a little too late now to apologize without political backlash.
How will this fiasco end? Your guess as good as mine, but honestly I don’t care.
