Over the past week Nancy Pelosi has provided five different stories regarding the briefings she received about waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques. It is clear to any casual observer that Pelosi is obfuscating the truth about her knowledge of EIT's prior to their use by the CIA to extract information from terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay. Pelosi claimed that the CIA routinely misleads the congress, she accused them of lying and then was gently rebuked by Lou Panetta the new leader of the agency who just happens to be a liberal Democrat. In addition Panetta made it clear that Pelosi was indeed briefed about and had full knowledge of the methods being used by the CIA to extract information.

     Pelosi is trying to hide this for two major reasons: 1.) Her political survival in her ultra liberal congressional district depends on her denying her knowledge of the EIT's before they were used. Liberals consider these methods torture and would never support a candidate who had condoned them. 2.) She wants to hold a "truth commission in order to prosecute the Bush administration for what she considers to be "war crimes" and if she was complicit then any "truth commission" would implicate here along with the Bush administration in addition to other members of congress who had prior knowledge of the EIT's that were used. Pelosi is in a terrible position and her power has been significantly damaged as a result of her many missteps during this fiasco. In the end what matters most is that the American people do not trust her and since she is the face of the democratic congress this means that the GOP has just found some traction against the one party rule in Washington. This was a gift from Pelosi.

     Whether or not Pelosi will remain the speaker much longer doesn't even matter at this point. If Pelosi stays she will be a weakened Speaker who will be largely ineffective and seriously lacking moral authority. If Pelosi ends up stepping down or being forced out it would  be an embarrassment to the Democrats and lead to some serious momentum for the GOP. Either way the GOP will benefit from this and the Democrats will be hurt. Pelosi should just admit she was wrong and apologize but I doubt that will ever happen. But the good news is that as a result of this I believe a  "truth commission" is highly unlikely which is good for America, the last thing we need to be doing is prosecuting Bush administration officials for protecting Americans in a post 9/11 world. In the end what do we take from all of this? Nancy Pelosi is a liar!

(The Photos can be found at http://quipster.wordpress.com/2009/05/18/nancy-pelosi-and-pinocchio-affliction/ )