Editorial: Pelosi is far from class act

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has damaged her credibility and tarnished her office with defensive prevarications over briefings she received five years ago about the CIA’s waterboarding of terrorism suspects.

Pelosi’s outrage over information in the White House memos that the Obama administration recently released rings false. Her performance about what she knew and when she knew it is pure drama — and bad acting at that.

For citizens leaning toward giving Pelosi the benefit of the doubt, keep in mind she served on the House Intelligence Committee when the CIA briefed Congress in 2002. No member on that committee (one paying attention anyway) could be unclear about a briefing as important as waterboarding, which some people consider torture and others an effective, acceptable interrogation technique.

We take the stance that waterboarding is unacceptable.

Leon Panetta, Obama’s selection for CIA director and a former Democratic member of the House, stopped just short of calling the speaker a liar. When Pelosi said the CIA misled her, Panetta countered that the CIA does not — and did not — mislead Congress.

The speaker knew what the CIA was contemplating. She did nothing to stop it.

We suspect that’s because she didn’t see anything wrong with it seven years ago. That’s when many national leaders, House Democrats included, wanted to get to the people behind Sept. 11 attacks as badly as President Bush did. Depriving terrorism detainees of sleep and pouring water down their noses seemed acceptable to get them to talk.

Pelosi has attempted to rewrite her role history now that waterboarding is politically incorrect. She saw an opportunity to cast the Bush administration as the villain, but the memos show that she was a player from the beginning.

The question now is this: Will Democrats keep her in the speaker role? After all, national security is real life, not a play.

Tags: nancy pelosi, opinion, editorial