“Ignore The Noise”
Are you kidding? Enjoy the show. Panetta re Pelosi, via The Hill:
CIA Director Leon Panetta challenged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s accusations that the agency lied to her, writing a memo to his agents saying she received nothing but the truth.
Panetta said that “ultimately, it is up to Congress to evaluate all the evidence and reach its own conclusions about what happened.”
Pelosi (D-Calif.) infuriated Republicans this week when she said in a news conference that she was “misled” by CIA officials during a briefing in 2002 about whether the U.S. was waterboarding alleged terrorist detainees.
…
Panetta, President Obama’s pick to run the clandestine agency and President Clinton’s former chief of staff, wrote in a memo to CIA employees Friday that “CIA officers briefed truthfully on the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, describing ‘the enhanced techniques that had been employed,’” according to CIA records.
“We are an agency of high integrity, professionalism and dedication,” Panetta said in the memo. “Our task is to tell it like it is — even if that’s not what people always want to hear. Keep it up. Our national security depends on it.”
Surber: Dead Speaker Walking.
Josh Marshall at lefty TalkingPointsMemo calls the Panetta statement “hedged.” So who is telling the truth? That really hasn’t been definiteively established. What we do know is that trying to burying the departed Bush admin by digging up the sins of the past hasn’t worked out to well so far for … the condemned.
Ha. Stop the ACLU notes that most news outlets are going with “Pelosi received the truth” rather than “Nancy lied.” I can see the argument for doing that. It’s basically Panetta’s message. Too bad they never gave Bush the benefit of the same accurate nuance.
Obama, via his flack, via Powerline, nothing to see here, move on: “I think you’ve heard the president say this a number of times. The best things that we can do is to look forward.” That’s White House for, “Told you to look forward, you dumb skank.” It’s also the sound you hear when a Speaker goes under the bus.
Hurtful cruelty via Hyscience: “Pelosi sounds like some sort of robot that’s blown a circuit.”
Balloon Juice, which yesterday afternoon was squawking about Republican attack politics, is suddenly only interested in the politics of Dijon mustard, Peet’s coffee and cake. Hey Balloon Juice, what about the Democratic attack politics?
FireDogLake … what the heck is a FireDogLake, anyway? Sounds kind of musty, slobbery … tackles it sligtly less indirectly. What a liar! That Gingrich!
via HotAir, Nancy’s response. It’s standard Dem flip flop, from “lies to Congress all the time” to “greatest respect for the men and women … “ Or as Gateway puts it, “Pelosi lies about calling CIA liars.” HotAir sums up Panetta’s position pretty well and the politics of the matter, by the way:
He’s the new chief, he’s inexperienced, he needs the respect of his agents to be effective, so he has to stick up for them regardless of the partisan considerations. And yet the fact remains that he’s The One’s appointee, which means this is no longer a partisan issue. The GOP says she’s a liar and now, implicitly, so does the White House. Devastating.
All it takes now is a little push from Steny Hoyer. Steny?
Uh, looks like he’s eyeballing the curve and trying find the sweet spot on it. Politico has Steny pulling a Panetta for Pelosi … needs to show the troops he’s loyal, I guess. Or is it still another Dem flip flop, from “I don’t draw that conclusion” to “I believe her,” maybe because he just got, you know, bitchslapped?
Yeah, well, while we’re waiting, here’s Treacher’s latest groundbreaking cultural innovation. Pelosiku. Damn, it’s like Treacher runs Twitter or something.
Protein Wisdom serves up what may be the catch of the day. Slate: Cheney’s Torture Trap for Pelosi.
Our Dark Lord Cheney, so diabolically evil … how can we miss him when he won’t stop wreaking havoc in his enemy’s camp?
Topics: impending doom!, pols
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:14 am Comments (6) on Saturday, May 16, 2009
6 Responses to ““Ignore The Noise””
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May 16th, 2009 at 10:07 am
[...] Jules has a reax round-up. [...]
May 16th, 2009 at 10:25 am
Gee…I feel like I’m following Pakistan politics.
When will Obama apply for an IMF loan?
May 16th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
There was a reason J. Edgar Hoover stayed as long as he did at the FBI — he had a lot of dirt on any politician who might have thought about coming after him…and they all knew it.
Pelosi has to be a mental retard of the first order to try and screw over the people who keep the secrets. I’m sure her file of embarrassing stuff at the CIA is quite packed and Panetta is simply firing a warning shot across her bow. If she persists in this willful stupidity, there will broadsides fired that will compel her removal as speaker, and possibly have her brought up on criminal charges. The circumstances of how the Pelosi fortune was acquired and how she has corruptly wielded influence are not squeaky clean. The skeletons are ready to burst out of her closet.
May 16th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
[...] Cheney had to know that Al Gore would open his big mouth without giving the matter any thought, just like Pelosi did. He had to! (Yuk, yuk). Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Do As I Say Not As I [...]
May 16th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
[...] Jules Crittenden – Dead Speaker Walking. [...]
May 16th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Not that I don’t want to see that horrible witch go, but if she’s drummed out before the 2010 elections, what horror awaits in the wings?