Does anyone believe Nancy Pelosi? And does it matter?
My answer to the first question is: nobody, not even Pelosi. Maybe especially not Pelosi.
Her story on the waterboarding briefings has changed so many times, and is stated with such verbal hesitancy and telegraphing of prevarication, that even the commenters on the liberal blogs I’ve visited don’t seem to think she’s telling the truth.
Pelosi appears to be intent on kicking up enough dust, making so many accusations of “liar” towards those in the CIA who allegedly informed her, that people will be too distracted to care when and how and why and exactly what she was told about the practice of waterboarding, and what she then did or didn’t do about it.
The gist of the most common liberal reaction I’ve seen so far is: she’s probably a liar. But she’s not as bad a liar as Bush and Cheney and the CIA and every Republican on earth, so who cares? That cynicism has reached this pretty pass is a sad thing, but that’s the way it appears to be.
Not only does no one seem to believe Pelosi, no one really seems to like her, even in her own party. There’s something about the woman that positively shrieks “naked and self-serving political animal,” something so coldly calculating and strategic and amoral that it stands out even among her fellow politicians.
But power is power, and Pelosi’s got it, because the Democrats have it. The real question is: will this incident end up leading to her undoing? Is a “truth commission” (Orwell, anyone?) going to be launched? And does any of it matter?
I had a little fantasy while watching her video over at Hot Air: I was a reporter at the presser and started my question with, “With all due disrespect, Madame Speaker….? And then I would point out that she says the CIA misled Congress. Next point: “However, since others who were briefed haven’t made this claim, you seem to be saying that the CIA misled you. Madame Speaker, I would like to know what steps the CIA should take in the future to avoid misleading you. Would it help if they used Barney in videos to present the briefings? Or would you prefer coloring books so you could see when they went outside the lines? Why did you not ask some questions? Madame Speaker, aren’t you taking that old maxim “curiosity killed the cat” to extremes?”
I’m in a very snarky mood, but that happens when a Murtha supporter tries to play goody two shoes.
Would we be better off or worse off with Madame Speaker reduced to Madame Representative?
Pelosi is a polarizing figure, in addition to being the poster grandmother for rich, dumb, and vain. It would be difficult for Republicans to vote alongside her. A more “reasonable” speaker would probably result more Republicans voting with the majority. Would the bills be more “reasonable,” more palatable than what Madame Speaker would bring to the table?
Way back in the 1960s there was a new term coined in politics – the “credibility gap”. It appears that Speaker Pelosi is now the new poster girl for disbelief.
Who knows, maybe she can follow in the footsteps of the original guy who had the gap problem (LBJ), and choose not to run for reelection. Naahh, that would be too honorable.
In 1989 Speaker Jim Wright (D) was undone by an inquiry of the House Ethics Committee for some financial irregularities.
In 1998 Speaker Newt Gingrich (R) resigned after numerous accusations of ethics violations, but more importantly because of his unpopularity with the American public and the poor Republican showing in the 1998 midterm elections.
Ordinarily Pelosi would be toast, but we don’t live in ordinary times. The worst of the Democratic party — Pelosi, Reid, Murtha, and Obama — have risen to the top leadership positions of their party and the country and American voters are in various states of shock after the economic meltdown and BDS, so not much is going to change easily.
Nonetheless, Pelosi is such a combination of shrill, vain, and stupid, that I don’t see her maintaining her position. Something worse will happen and she will be stepping down well before 2012.
Pelosi needs to go go go-go-go …yesterday.
Judging by the damage control and spin being employed by the MSN, I fully expect that Speaker Pelosi will survive her faux pas. Obonga won’t throw her under the bus unless she has a negative effect on him, which right now is not the case at all. Yes, she is polarizing, but right now, unfortunately, the president remains popular and it looks like she is in step with the goals Soros has set for the party and the country.
She, like Obonga, is a puppet. She may be cunning and ruthless, but she’s nothing close to anything cerebral or thoughtful. Her world is small and her ambitions larger than her brain. She eats out of the puppet master’s hand, as long as the hand has food in it.
Republicans are going to have to work hard at closing the “stupidity gap” that Pelosi & Co. have opened up, but I’m confident they will do so.
The great hero of liberalism. The slayer of torture and the evils of Bush Co. when confronted with the awful, terrible truth of waterboarding did what any self respecting liberal warrior would do. Why hide behind the skirt of Jane Harman of course and pass the blame to those lying CIA bastards! Oh the irony and shame to those noble dissidents of Fascist BushHitler that one of their champions played the duped fool. But it only took her 6+ years to admit eh? How’s that for transparency for ya? lol
Neo,
After reading and checking out your post about the see through dress, I found your use of the words naked and animal with respect to Ms. Pelosi a bit startling.
Just as an aside, a while ago I saw some show on Fox (actually, I thnk it was Hannity) on which Pelosi’s daughter was a guest, discussing a documentary she made, following the campaign of …John McCain, believe it or not.
She is very different from Pelosi — a big girl — not petite like Mom — and rather plain. She appeared as unconcerned with what she wore as her mother is with wearing designer suits, perfect matching jewelry and hair just so. But she had such a wonderful personality: warm and bubbling over with enthusiasm. You really couldn’t stop watching — she was that magnetic.
I’ll always remember this because I’ll never be able to reconcile this personality-plus young woman with the vain, venomously partisan, botoxed-eyed politician who is her mother! Really amazing!
By the way, despite he seriousness of the subject, I have to admit I sort of enjoyed the Speaker’s bumbling and fumbling thru her press conference — she seemed nervous as a cat, and at one point, couldn’t remember what she was supposed to be saying (which truth am I supposed to tell them today?) as she resorted to sorting thru all her notes in a mini-panic.
Even the press, who are so in the tank for the Dems seemed to enjoy her digging herself ever deeper into a hole she might have difficulty climbing out of.
And Huxley, if you’ll add Chuck-y (E.) Schumer to your list of the worst of the Dems, I nominate your list for the best of the worst! (or maybe it’s the worst of the worst?) Kennedy would be on my list, too, but since he’s so ill, I don’t have the heart to include him anymore.
I’d hit it.
She needs to go. For the sake of the chillllllldreeeeennnn.
The above was for the “venus” thread, not the “Pelosi” thread. Thank you.
I saw Pelosi’s press conference this morning, too. She lacked confidence and was not at all impressive. I never watch Jon Stewart but watched his bit on her to see him skewer someone on the left….very funny. I hope it gets a lot of “hits” on youtube or wherever else it can be viewed now. When an uncomplimentary film clip about a conservative attracts a lot of viewers on youtube or in the blogosphere, it is big news.
The liberal bloggers may think she’s a liar but not as “bad as Bush or Cheney” but after watching her performance, they will have to admit she is not as good a liar as Clinton.
By the time this dust-up is finished, Pelosi will be a wholly owned subsidiary of The Obama Machine. He owns the means by which to either save her or destroy her: The CIA. For, while it’s true that they’re both Democrats and to that extent have similar interests and ends, she doesn’t yet work for him. She soon will, though, or she will be removed and replaced. Count on it.
Obama acts like a pimp. I’m not sure who he works for (Soros? Someone worse, unknown?). It’s even conceivable that he works for no one beyond himself. I wonder how long the American people will put up with it. One supposes that, first, they will need to recognize it. I don’t see that happening any time soon.
Anyway, if I worked for Pelosi, I’d tell her to shut the f*** up, and remember the First Rule of Holes. She’s very close to being in so deep there’s no way out.
But hey–what an object lesson she’ll be for everyone else! There’s no real way for him to lose, is there?
Dr. Frank: Not to mention the Venus of Willendorf. There does seem to be a certain theme emerging today, doesn’t there?
Gray: and not the Padma Lakshmi thread?
No. Padma looks like she could has a cheezburger and a wash; not necessarily in that order….
Judging by the damage control and spin being employed by the MSN, I fully expect that Speaker Pelosi will survive her faux pas.
I’m afraid I’m with Fred on this. It would be delightful if Nancy P. were hoisted on her own petard but I have a theory about scandal vis a vis Democrat politicians: It has to be simple and it has to be obvious.
What she knew and when she knew it is neither of those. You have to pay close attention to timelines and examine her statements closely in order to know how much she is lying. The MSM will muddy the waters and keep her safe.
Evidently there are other Democrats who were briefed and could be dragged into it – plus the Obama administration seems to want to backtrack from the witch hunt they were so eager to launch a short while ago so I doubt that we will see a ‘truth’ commission.
The wild card in this is the CIA. She’s accused them of lying. As we saw with the Plame affair the CIA is good at causing trouble to those that they dislike. Of course the CIA had the MSM’s help with that but even so ….
Quoting a commenter over at HotAir, “Pelosi’s lies are so transparent that birds are slamming into them.”
Ol’ Nancy had better be a little more cautious in continuing to poke a stick at those “spooks” over at the CIA. Misleading or outright lying to Congress is a crime and I doubt they take to kindly to her accusations of the same. I would imagine that somewhere in the secret warehouse over at Langley they have a file on Her Speakerness that takes up considerable space and I don’t think they will hesitiate to wash her dirty laundry in public for her if the need arises.
I would like to see the entire entourage of assclowns who reign on the Hill remain in place for the duration. Why? Because they keep serving up course after course of errors in judgment, venality, deceit, incompetence, and ideological rigidity.
The time has come for the American people to have it shoved right in their faces the consequences of their sloth, enervation, and corrupt soft cultural Marxist ideas and worldview.
We have two generations of Americans (X and Y) who grew up on the diet of self-esteem and no consequences for their laziness and sloppy thinking. It’s time for a lesson in life.
So far, most of the voters seem to not be listening to Pelosi’s shrill, shrieking downfall. But with four more years of her neural flatulence I think we may see the voters restive and angry.
But, after all, when one considers just b>HOW this all got started, isn’t it all just a little bit delicious?
I just heard this on Beck’s show: “…and I was fighting the war in Iraq at that time…”
Heh. All by yourself? Or did you have help? Did you/we win?
She is an idiot. Oh, well, we get the government we request.
Grackle is probably right. Remember Whitewater? Too complicated and too many layers of deceit for the average American.
Since there are purportedly no transcripts of the top secret briefings, no smoking gun. Just “he said, she said” and shameless liars do well in that arena.
Nothing will happen to Pelosi at this time.
The only thing that will unseat this woman (or any of her ilk) is if the mid-term elections go especially bad for the democrats.
Given the extent to which the MSM is in the tank for the democrats, I don’t expect anything approaching fair coverage of the party in power, and as such the general public will continue to believe things are going well.
Right up to the point the country collectively hits the wall……
JThoits & Grackle
Yep. Nothing will come of it. It’s early yet in the reign of the stupids, and the media will make sure the issue goes away quickly. You see Obama put his little stop to it, flip-flopping on the release of “torture” photos. His tone deafness and incompetence again got him in trouble, so he simply reverses himself. Easily done with a groveling press and a spineless GOP.
We’re getting hit with one debacle after another and we’ve got 3.5 years to go. This Pelosi “mess” will pale in comparison to what’s in store. However, we will be well conditioned by 2012.
Nothing to see here, move along.
I never knew a man who could tell so many lies
He had a different story for every set of eyes
How can he remember who he’s talking to
Cause I know it isn’t me
And I hope it isn’t you
Neil Young
Prediction: Nancy’s next story will be that she thought by waterboarding they meant they were taking detainees on a surfing fieldtrip to Malibu.
I don’t like it when people say their political opponents are stupid…. but there is sooo much evidence that Pelosi is an idiot…. one does not need to be partisan to believe it… one has to be a partisan to not…
There has never been any evidence for Pelosi having much intelligence, but one has to give her credit for possessing a certain low cunning and faultless social radar. I would not discount her sharp teeth and claws; she’s like some members of the weasel family in that way.
AJStrata has a good piece on this…
Truth Commission’s First Victim: Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“By making the charge the CIA lied she has opened herself up to proving this charge. She has opened the door to a full investigation”.
–
“Pelosi appears to be intent on kicking up enough dust, making so many accusations of “liar” towards those in the CIA who allegedly informed her, that people will be too distracted to care when and how and why and exactly what she was told about the practice of waterboarding, and what she then did or didn’t do about it. “
Won’t work, at least unless ALL Republican leaders completely gack it (not beyond possibility), and even then, it presents too big a problem.
Pelosi, and other Democrats, made the anti-“torture” a major talking point in their attacks on Republicans, and planned to keep using it. She was in the lead pushing for a “truth commission” to find expose our governments fascist face, as she saw it.
Now, it comes out that she was part of that face, and she blatantly lied about it more than once.
What does she do now?
If she presses forward with the commissions, there is NO way she can do so and ignore Republican calls for Dems like her to appear. Even the MSM CAN’T ignore that much hypocrisy, not to mention the blood in the water.
If she backs off all that rhetoric, suddenly announces no investigations will take place, she then admits that she was part of it and is afraid of being exposed. Again, still a hypocrit.
Her big mouth and even more massive ego has finally gotten the better of her.
Nice little box you built for yourself, Nancy. Gonna get hard to breathe in there…
All of President Bush’s political enemies,those who lied about him and slandered him, will fall, one by one.Wait and see.
Oblio Says:
“There has never been any evidence for Pelosi having much intelligence, but one has to give her credit for possessing a certain low cunning and faultless social radar. I would not discount her sharp teeth and claws; she’s like some members of the weasel family in that way.”
I seem to remember stories that she was coached by experts, using focus group data, to act like this. Just attack attack attack (re: the attacks don’t even need to make sense, just verbally ‘destroy’ the republicans). re: It was not even her idea or strategy. And now that she over reached, using someone else’s idea that brought her to power, it could be her undoing.
All it will take for this to go away is for the MSM to simply stop reporting on it. Of course, that will happen.
The millions who get their news from sources other than MSM pale in comparison to those who still get their news from the conventional means. I am as continuously surprised by the things most people have not heard at all as I am the fact they have only heard the one side.
I try to approach all of this from the point of view as if I were studying the current goings on in America from a history book as opposed to live on screen one day at a time. Outcome based education seems to have worked for the left. They are now trying it in government. Loud enough and long enough.