Nancy Pelosi just gave the worst press conference I have ever scene. She was unprepared and made the outrageous statement that the CIA lied to the House of Representatives about waterboarding.
Here she sits at the height of her power the first woman speaker of the US House of Representatives. Or more commonly known as the den of thieves. Pelosi has been fearless and defied the political odds during her entire political career. She cut her teeth in the rough and tumble world of San Francisco politics and then rose to the speakers job in the U.S. House of Representatives.
But I have always felt that she has always had a bit of an edge to her persona that at times borders on caustic. Now she picked a fight with the wrong pit bull. Just ask the Bush administration about fighting with the CIA. They will bury you leak by leak; death by a thousand cuts, as it were.
Pelosi’s fate may be like that of Jim Wright, Newt Gingrich, and Trent Lott, each one a House Speaker or Senate Leader who lost control of events when they got into hot water.
It will be interesting to see how long the White House and her friends and enemies in Congress are going to let this string play out. The conventional wisdom is that the hypocrisy surrounding what she knew about water-boarding will bring her down. If she were a Republican she would be toast.
My guess is she will survive even if she loses the Speaker position Washington politicians have too much vanity to call it quits. But if she becomes to much of a distraction this could be the end.
Democrats are at the height of their political power, but just like the Republicans whom they have vanquished this could all collapse out of plain arrogance. Remember Tom Delay and the Terri Schiavo controversy?
The American people will not stand for hypocrisy in politicians. And politicians will throw there friends, family or colleagues under the bus to stay in power because that is ultimately what politics is a about: gaining power, exercising it, and above all, keeping it.
The reason the American people threw the Republicans out is because they wanted to move on from the Bush years, period. The mainstream of American thought, including President Obama, wants to move on. I believe Pelosi is a survivor but if she cannot get out of the way she will be crushed.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
STOP! The Attacks On Speaker Pelosi
Last time they tried to attack Speaker Pelosi ( second in line to the President of the United States) it was about her alleged abuse of military transportation. This attack as expected turned out to be bogus. It turned out that the previous Speaker (Hastert – a Republican) made far more use of military transportation. It turned out that Speaker Pelosi was possibly overly prudent and too self-restrained in her use of military transportation.
Now Republicans are trying to attack her about allegedly having been told by the Bush administration about things she was not told about, like water boarding. Republicans are attacking her because she is being so effective at getting the peoples work done in congress, like healthcare. And Republicans want to stop her. Don’t put up with that. Every time they attack Speaker Pelosi they are attacking you and the rest of the American people. If they go after her, go after them even harder.
They are trying to con Speaker Pelosi and the American people. And here is how it works. Approximately 6 years ago CIA had a briefing with Pelosi and congress, but DID NOT tell congress and Pelosi that the Bush administration was using torture ( water boarding ) on detainees. Then the Bush administration sent in Porter Goss to head the CIA and to destroy, and doctor records in part to make it look like Pelosi, and the Democrats in congress were onboard with the illegal torture of detainees by the Bush administration.
See, apparently at these intelligence briefings members of congress are not allowed to take notes. And if they do, they are not allowed to keep them. Apparently the CIA makes notes, but the members of congress are not allowed to see those notes either. And they can’t tell anybody about what was said at the briefings. But the CIA can come back six years later and claim they told members of congress something six years ago that they did not tell them at that time. And they can use falsified notes to substantiate their claim. Planting disinformation was the type of thing the CIA became very good at during the time Porter Goss was a young CIA agent. Just gotta love it.
If you will remember, their was a mass exodus of senior CIA officials after Porter Goss took over. And the complaint at the time was that longtime, highly experienced agents were being replaced by other people based mostly on their political loyalties to the Bush administration and their extreme right-wing ideologies. Which is just exactly what you need if you want people who will be willing to break the law under orders. Sound familiar? I don’t think you can trust any CIA records after Goss took over.
I have nothing but the utmost respect, and admiration for the dedicated and patriotic members of OUR! Central Intelligence Agency. When the Bush administration betrayed one of OUR! agents (Mrs. Wilson) it made me boiling MAD! I think our new Director Pennetta has got some internal investigation and agency house cleaning to do. If you backtrack on the individuals that have been making the false attacks on Speaker Pelosi, and trace who they have had contact and conversations with, you should be able to connect the dots and catch your conspirators.
The key that the CIA records are falsified is Sen. Bob Graham and his journal, and common sense.
By the way, I think Mr. Pennetta is an excellent choice to head the CIA and fix it.
They are trying to kill healthcare reform. And continue our healthcare crisis. Don’t put up with that.
PASS THE WORD.
To The Congress Of The United States:
If it is true that you are not allowed to have or make any permanent records of your intelligence briefings for later clarifications, and protection, that is ridiculous. That leaves all of you vulnerable to just this type of scam that is being perpetrated on Speaker Pelosi. So here is what you can do about it to protect your-selves in the future.
Members should be able to make notes and other recordings of these briefings. Then these briefings and recordings can be reduced to a computer file that can then be encrypted and digitally signed with a detached digital signature using key encryption. Then each of you can encrypt, and sign each others copy of the record that can only be unlocked with the other parties key. And both parties copies can be verified with each others copy of the files detached digital signature.
Very easy. Very secure. No more exposure to falsified records down the road.
You see, it almost doesn’t really matter what CIA allegedly did or didn’t tell Speaker Pelosi, and congress. Because the briefing format is so deficient of any checks, balances, or verification that all we know is that all external briefing accounts support Speaker Pelosi’s version of events. Pelosi and congress should have been given every benefit of the doubt. And that should have been it.
There are many other booby traps out there set for you congress. Be careful.
God Bless You
jacksmith — WORKING CLASS
p.s. I still think the timing of Sen. Bob Graham’s ruptured cerebral aneurism was suspicious. More so now, than before.
I’d have thought that Pelosi would at least have talked to Panetta before trying that one. Even the Democrats invited to defend her on Fox News are having a hard time.
And of course, the Obama administration is now realizing that there is really no way of closing down Guantanamo *and* processing everyone through the criminal justice system without freeing a huge number of detainees.
BTW, in Washington State where I work, re-cycling has now come to retread politiicans! Problem is, there’s no “return fee”.
Our former police chief (Gill “who me?” Kerlikowski) is now the “drug czar”. Just hope that in his new position, he doesn’t achieve the “success” he achieved in downtown Seattle (which is now in the midst of a violent turf war between rival gangs).
Gary Locke, our former governor, is now Secretary of Commerce.
Ron Sims, former King County Executive, is now assistant secretary of HUD.
They’ve left the state at the right time, too — the state legislature is having a tough time figuring out how to close the huge budget deficit that they left behind.
Pelosi is too loose a cannon for the Obama Administration. She is bad congresswomen and a bad leader.
I am reminded of the relationship of Tip O’Neill and Ronald Reagan. Friends who disagreed politically but never got personally vindictive with one another. Despite their influences of power, they worked well together when it counted, and O’Neill was respected by both sides of the aisle. Pelosi is respected on neither side.
Nancy Pelosi is one of the worst politicians I have ever seen (or “scene,” according to you?). She is a hypocrite, and panders to the media.
I had low expectations of her when she became Speaker, and she has not even lived up to those.
So, she finally got caught in one of her many lies. I have no sympathy for her.
Vote the bums out.