Bringing Down the (Speaker of the) House

The battle has been joined.

Speaker of the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, in an afternoon press conference today accused the CIA of intentional misleading Congress about the true nature of the "enhanced interrogation" techniques.

In previous statements, the Speaker claimed to have NOT received classified briefings by the CIA during 2002 and 2003 on the methods CIA operatives were using to gather intelligence from Al Qaeda operatives and Taliban militants. During this period, Nancy Pelosi was the minority chair of the House Intelligence Committee.

A few weeks ago, J. Porter Goss, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee during Nancy Pelosi's tenure on the same committee publicly commented on Rep. Pelosi's attendence at these same classified briefing. Mr. Goss clearly remembered Nancy's presence and her strong support for the CIA's activities.

Woops, I guess Mr. Goss filled in her "memory gaps."

So now the CIA has been unjustly accused of a dastardly deed, intentionally misleading members on Congress with untruthful briefings. By some accounts, Rep. Pelosi attended nearly 40 briefings by the CIA on the topic of interrogation techniques. (if her memory is so bad, maybe its time for her to step down and live in a retirement village???) I don't really understand how you forget about 40 or so briefings.

Today, Director Panetta released a soft statement in rebuttal to the Speaker's unfounded accusation. One way to interpret this soft statement is to leave her an out, a way for her to back away from her accusations and let the issue drop.

I don't think this is the last we'll hear of this issue. Everytime the Democrats leading Congress push to investigate Bush administration officials on the interrogation issue, the subject of these briefings is going to rise again.

I wonder who its easier to fire in Washington, the Speaker of the House (an elected official) or long-term CIA bureaucrats who successfully survive several generations of appointed officials at the CIA? My money is on the bureaucrats sticking around. Good luck, Madame Speaker.