Pelosi certainly could have protected herself by speaking on the floor…but the aide? Hung out to dry. She couldn’t reveal the source of her knowledge without revealing that source. And any and all information was in the hands of the Bush-Cheney WH.

Pelosi and the Democrats would have been crucified for a) lying, b) endangering National Security during a WAR, and c) attempting to taint the names of those “heroic American interrogators” that obtained “intelligence that thwarted imminent attacks” and saved tens of thousands of lives. All in special technicolor redacted memos. The torture would have been presented, using documents, as less than what SERE trainees experience.

Remember too that water boarding came out in 2005…and likely in greater detail than Pelosi knew. And it’s still not clear when Harman thought the water boarding had taken place. Did she, and the aide, know that it occurred before Pelosi’s briefing? Or were they just aware it was “currently occurring”.

And IF some of them were indicted, the process would certainly drag on and on, and sooner or later I think they would begin to take on a veneer of sympathy, as the difficulty of obtaining convictions became more and more apparent. This would happen just as push is coming to shove, in Iraq, and it would be going on in the run-up to the mid-terms. And Obama is going to have so much shit on his plate along about then, that he doesn’t need this useless dollop there, too.

And defending them now, as part of the effort to force Obama to try to piss away political manna to get indictments of Bush’s top-enders, has no ethical basis at all.

And trying to use that as an excuse for Pelosi’s sitting on the information for years, instead of pursuing it, is worse than ludicrous. It’s flat-out dishonest.

I don’t care WHAT side of the aisle comes up with the truth. I don’t think it’s to Obama’s and our benefit to put this thing into the courts, where it will wallow and languish for years, distracting him from the huge problems he’s facing, and taking valuable political capital to try to obtain convictions. I think that if it gets into the courts, it will fail, and that failure will make it that much more difficult for him to take the painful steps necessary to keep his campaign promise and extract us from the misery of Iraq. And that is going to decide what chance he has for a second term; not whether or not he attempted and succeeded at having Dick Cheyney & Co. eating off a metal tray.

A large majority of americans (as demonstrated in the last election) knows that the Bush administration were a bunch of bloody-handed fuckups, but that same majority is not howling for them to be put in the dock, and clearly, neither is Barak Obama.
Now that trying to use Pelosi to further the process, is slowly evaporating under the effect of her Bush-like mincing of words, I subscribe to Norman Mailer’s old campaign slogan when he ran for mayor of New York, decades ago. He lost, but he gave us a political yardstick:

“No more bullshit.”

And one more time, let’s cut to the chase. This is about people trying to force Obama to go after the Bushmasters, when he clearly does not want to do that. And using Pelosi to try to do it, has, to some extent, backfired on the effort to do it, and now she’s parsing like Donald Rumsfelt, in trying to explain why she discovered her distaste for water-boarding years after she learned about it.

I don’t even know how one can seriously assert that Harman did what was necessary, given the circumstances. Her letter of “protest” was about the weakest possible tea. There was absolutely nothing in it to say that she thought the practice should be stopped. She hears of a war crime, and this is all she can muster up? Some business about, can you please double check that the President has approved of this?

Why do you give these two Democrats — and most especially the non-existent Pelosi — a pass on their cowardly behavior here? Why are you leaping to their defense?

“Does Congressional oversight entail zero responsibility to speak up against criminal acts?”

I think we can both agree that Congressional Oversight does entail a responsibility to speak up against criminal acts.

Where we are disjointed is over the issue of What constitutes ‘knowing about’ a Criminal Act and ’speaking up.’

So, first – the Criminal Act: Bush Waterboarded Zubaydah in August ‘02 – Statutorily, that’s Torture and a War Crime – without Properly Informing Congress (as per the National Security Act.)

In Sept. ‘02, Bush didn’t say he had Waterboarded Zubaydah to Goss and Pelosi – only that he had DoJ Opinions that said he could Waterboard in the future. That was the One and Only Briefing Pelosi had.

So, as EW points out, Bush didn’t tell Congress about the Waterboarding until Feb. ‘03 – when he may have told Harman that he Waterboarded Zubaydah, that it was Effective, and that he had OLC Opinions that said it was Legal.

Harman lodged a protest, as best she could, under the Rules of Secrecy – which Pelosi – who found out about the Waterboarding second hand from a staffer – agreed with.

When Rockefeller found out about the Waterboarding, he asked to review the Legal Support for what was done, and was turned down.

So, the Dems appear to have Done the Right Thing – as best they could – right when they found out about Bush’s Waterboarding.

Your Reps, otoh, from the info on the Member Briefing Report appear to have been Explicitly told about Bush’s War Crimes, told it was Legal and Effective – despite destroying Zelikow’s dissenting opinion and possibly others – and then Enthusiastically Supported it.

So, to recap: Pelosi wasn’t ever told by Bush that he Waterboarded Zubaydah – she got it 5 months later from a staffer secondhand, and then she agreed with Harman’s Protest. Similarly, Rockefeller protested.

Your guys, however, show every sign of having gone along with Bush’s War Crimes and Torture – even though Bush Waterboarded Zubaydah *on his own* without informing Congress – from the time they found out about it all the way to today.

So, rather than Attacking Pelosi – why not Join US in Bringing Bush and Cheney to Justice for Committing the War Crime of Waterboarding Zubaydah – without properly telling Congress about it?

Could it be because the Republicans are Complicit with Bush and Cheney in their Torture and War Crimes?