By Patricia L Johnson and Richard E Walrath

Fox News, reporting with their usual fair and [un]balanced flair published a special report Monday titled “Pelosi Did Nothing With Knowledge About Enhanced Interrogation Techniques” [1]

The story indicates Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi “says she was made aware seven years ago that the CIA was contemplating using so-called enhanced interrogation techniques -- including waterboarding -- and that Justice Department lawyers had advised that such methods would be legal.” 

The article goes on to state that Speaker Pelosi did “nothing” with the information, but is now supporting an investigation into the legality of the advice the Justice Department provided.

This originally began with controversy over the date Speaker Pelosi was first notified by the CIA that the US was involved in torture, and has now turned into an accusation that even if she wasn’t told on the date the CIA stated, she was subsequently advised by the CIA [2]; therefore she should have done “something”.

The GOP has gone hog wild on the Pelosi subject.  John Boehner has demanded Pelosi provide evidence in support of her accusations, while Former Speaker Newt Gingrich is doing no less than calling for her resignation.

The GOP attack on Speaker Pelosi is absurd.  Republicans have a history of attacks anytime there is anything that could be remotely construed as controversial while keeping their closets filled to the brim with skeletons.   They appear to operate under two sets of rules.  Operating rules for them v. operating rules for the Democrats.  Two incidents immediately come to mind. 

· Former Speaker Gingrich was front and center leading the attack on President Clinton over his marital indiscretions;  all while Gingrich was having an affair of his own. [3]

· During the 911 Commission hearings most of us learned that, on an almost daily basis during the summer of 2001 Condoleezza Rice met with CIA Director, George Tenet, and on July 10, 2001 Director Tenet requested an emergency meeting to brief Rice and her staff on the possibility of a pending attack by Al Qaeda. At the time Condoleezza Rice was National Security Advisor, and claimed she did not recall the meeting.  White House records later confirmed the meeting was, in fact, held. [4]

GOP members are complaining that Speaker Pelosi did nothing after being advised of the [legality] of water boarding, yet did not find any fault with National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice doing nothing after being informed in an emergency CIA meeting  of the possibility of a potential attack on US soil by terrorists.  60-days later, on 9/11/2001 the US was attacked.

Republicans were in charge when the CIA was committing torture.  What’s the media running on at the mouth about?  Not that the Republicans were in charge and George Bush was president when the CIA was committing torture.  No, the big story is they told Nancy so she’s the one to blame.

The sad part of all this is it's not that they're interested in what's right and wrong for the county, it's that they want to make the Democrats look bad.   And anybody that is anybody in their party is chomping at the bit to have their 10 minutes of fame at the expense of Democrats.

The mindset of Republicans is anything goes with them, as long as they think they will benefit.  The country? They don’t care.  The people?  They don’t care.

The Republican Party has set this country back 50 years.  That is how long it will take to undo the damage incurred while President Bush was in office. 

They lost control of the White House, they lost control of the US House of Representatives and they lost control of the US Senate.

How long is it going to take them to figure out their childish allegations are hurting the Republican party more than the opposing party?

[1] http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,520586,00.html

[2] http://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/pressreleases?id=1168

[3] http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2007/03/09/sot.newt.gingrich.affair.fami

[4] http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/02/washington/03ricecnd.html?ex=1164430800&en=b2b94cdf2a4ebea0&ei=5070

© 2009

Richard E Walrath and Patricia L Johnson are co-owners of the Articles and Answers News and Information site Articles and Answers