Simple. Blame it all on the evil Republicans and portray the House Speaker as the victim of political gamesmanship.
Such was the laughable premise of Carolyn Lochhead in her Chronicle article:
The furor over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's accusations against the Central Intelligence Agency serves a purpose beyond finding out how the United States came to embrace torture. The San Francisco Democrat, deeply partisan and often ridiculed, offers Republicans their best shot yet at blocking a popular president whose poll numbers have so far defied gravity.
See, Pelosi's ever changing positions on what she learned at the CIA briefings is just a political opportunity for those nasty Republicans to take shots at our beloved President. And of course, our ultra-pure Nancy Pelosi herself would never ever lie while the CIA is known to be damaged goods, at least according to Lochhead:
Ironically, the controversy has come down to a credibility test pitting Pelosi, whose modus operandi has never been known to include lying, against the Central Intelligence Agency, an institution deeply damaged by the use of flawed intelligence to invade Iraq and now on the defensive for its use of torture.
Of course, there is the problem of the Democrat CIA Director, Leon Panetta, backing up the agency's account of the Pelosi briefing:
Panetta is considered a wise man of California and national politics who worked for years with Pelosi as a congressman from Monterey. On Friday, he reiterated his statement that agency records show CIA officers briefed lawmakers truthfully in 2002 on the interrogation methods, but also said it is up to Congress to draw its own conclusions.
So how to explain this away? By coming up with a "party lines" memory lapse whopper:
The fact is, no one knows what happened in the Sept. 4, 2002, briefing at issue other than those who were in it. Their memories diverge along party lines.
And you know this as "fact," Ms Lochhead? This sets the stage for Lochhead to make her "party lines" sales pitch for Pelosi.
Pelosi radically notched up the stakes Thursday when she accused the CIA of lying after several Republicans, including former Bush White House political czar Karl Rove, accused her of the same. The fight comes on the heels of internal GOP polling warning Republicans against simply opposing Obama.
So poor Pelosi is the victim of "internal GOP polling." At least that is the premise of Carolyn Lochhead.
This article generated over 800 comments and, despite the liberal Chronicle readership, even many of them weren't buying into the Lochhead spin machine:
{GOP SEES GAINS OVER PELOSI TORTURE WOES}/// What a headline, as if to imply that Pelosi is a victim of politics. THIS STUPID, FANATICAL WOMAN BROUGHT IT UPON HERSELF with her lies and vengeful partisanship. Even Obama's gotta be thinking "clamp it, hag"! Unfortunately, she'll come through unscathed, save a little embarrassment at being publicly proven a liar, because her constituents are A-OK with this kind of asinine behavior and will continue to support her.
Nice spin Chron. Nancy got caught lying.
The problem with Pelosi isn't what she knew and when. there is little doubt there. Her problem is being hypocritical. You don't look good when you go bashing someone for doing something that you condone.
Of course, being San Francisco, there were also the Pelosi defenders in the comments section. Many of those comments sound as if they were posted from a psycho ward so here are a couple of nuggets for your comedic entertainment:
This is crazy. Bush Cheney Rove lied us in to a war that cost 4000 plus lives. They lied about 9-11 and covered up the truth. Its not a controlled demolition because we removed the evidence and stonewalled the investigation. And just because Bushs grandfather made money from the Nazis in WW2 and Karl Roves grandfather [Karl Roverer]built the ovens in the Nazi concentration camps we are to believe their grandkids are any different . How much money did Bushs corporate friends make from the war. The CIA has been dirty for decades. Take Iran for an example in the fifties the CIA took out a democratically elected Mossaddeq and put the Shaw in his place that led us to the current government. The Iraq war is a scam and we Americans are paying the price for it .
"RIGHT WING WATERBOARDS HOUSE SPEAKER" may be a more fitting title to the current controversey. "...liar, liar, liar, liar, liar...", they cry as the accusations pour forth. Hang in there Nancy. They run out of vitriol eventually. Time for those of us tired of decades of REPUBLICAN IRRESPONABILITY AND CORRUPTION to speak up. Support building a better future for all people, not just big business and the white establishment. Thier numbers are dwindling each passing year. Stand up against exploitation, against greed, against those that would steal our government from us for thier own gain. Let them hole themselves up in thier useless fortresses of money and power. In the end those defenses behind which they hide will crumble. There have always been more of us than them. Unite, stay focused, don't stop until thier like is driven from this land. It's an old story, same as before, the rich get rich and the poor get poorer. At some point we'll be "MAD AS HELL, AND WON'T TAKE IT ANYMORE".
And with "friends" like that, Nancy Pelosi doesn't need enemies. (And who knew there was a "Shaw" of Iran?)
