I can’t believe I’m going to do this, but I have to jump in here to defend House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Not because I like her or respect her though. I think she’s an ineffective opportunistic political hack, and I think Congress would be better off without her. But she’s getting a raw deal over this whole issue around whether and when she knew about the torture of suspected terrorists and why she didn’t do anything.

Did she know the torture was going on? I suspect she knew more than she’s admitting, but I also doubt that the CIA or anyone else came right out and explained to Congress that they were actively using techniques considered illegal until the Bush attorneys rationalized them.

Does thinking that the CIA is capable of lying or at least obfuscating the truth to Congress disqualify someone from being third in line to the Presidency? That’s Newt Gingrich’s claim. I’m sorry to burst your bubble there Newt, but the CIA lies for a living. Any organization so adept at being covert should never be blindly trusted by anyone. That’s not to say they can never be trusted, but they are certainly capable of lying and some skepticism in dealing with them would always be well deserved.

However, none of this is really the point. Even if Pelosi was shown video of waterboarding and is now blatantly lying to cover her butt, why are we hunting her? Isn’t that like having arsonists burn down a house and deciding to scapegoat the neighbor who saw the perpetrators in the act but opted to close her blinds rather than call the cops? Shouldn’t we really be focused on the arsonists?

If either lying or accusing another group of lying is intolerable for the third in line, why aren’t we concerned about our former number two? This is the guy who authorized acts which this country has previously declared as war crimes and executed those responsible. How can anybody be outraged at Pelosi without being somewhere north of catatonic over the guys who actually are responsible?

At it’s root, what Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, and John Boehner are unwittingly decrying is that Pelosi didn’t blow in the torture program while it was going on. after all, they are saying the CIA couldn’t have lied, therefore she knew. And if she knew, she was honor-bound to act. But we all know, as does Pelosi, that if she had phoned in that arson back in 2003, those same goons would have stood in her front yard and hurled rocks at her house until it was a pile of rubble.