The world awaits the answer to this pressing question. Although Madam Speaker has little time for the U.S. military, we all know how much she likes to avail herself of its aircraft when traveling from point A (California, say) to point B (Washington, D.C.). It costs the taxpayers a bundle, but, hey, what are taxpayers for if not to keep their leaders living in the style to which they’ve become, or would like to become, accustomed?
But will hoi polloi soon be welcoming her back in the airport security lines please-remove-your-shoes-and-jacket-m’am? Who knows?
“Toast.” That’s what some friends of mine say while savoring the spectacle of Madam Speaker twisting in the wind of her own words:
The CIA lied to me! They lied to us all! I thought waterboarding was a lower-class sporting event. No, I mean, I never heard of waterboarding. That is, I’d heard of it but it was President Bush’s fault. Let me repeat: I have it here somewhere . . . I never Bush administration why are you pestering me that’s the wrong page be very clear it’s not my fault.
As an editorial at NRO points out, once you untangle the spaghetti of Pelosi’s palaver, you’ve got some pretty serious allegations there. Lying to Congress is a no-no, that is, a crime, and it is not surprising that the agency’s director Leon Panetta, though a California Democratic like Nancy Pelosi, instantly took issue with Madam Speaker’s aspersion. “CIA officers briefed [Pelosi and others] truthfully on the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah,” Panetta noted tersely, “describing the ‘enhanced techniques that had been employed.’”
What do you say to that, Nancy?
In one sense, this is exactly the sort of event that the word “schadenfreude” was invented to describe.
But into every silver lining a cloud must come. For although it would be nice to welcome a former Madam Speaker Pelosi back into the airport security lines with the rest of us slobs, one feels a bit like St. Augustine contemplating his embrace of chastity: Give us Pelosi, Oh Lord, but not yet. As Mark Steyn says, there is a lot to be said for keeping Nancy Pelosi in situ until the 2010 elections have run their course. What better public face, unless it be that of Harry Reid, can there be for Democratic legislators? Better, I mean, for Republicans.
Yes, on balance, though I regret the pleasure of witnessing Nancy Pelosi’s early and ignominious departure from her position as Speaker of the House, I see the wisdom of foregoing that delight until after she is allowed to inflict even more damage on her spendthrift, vindictive, and morally scrofulous party. Bring it on.
Schadenfreudemocrat: The feeling you get when watching a Democrat on TV self-destruct. A feeling much like seeing your mother-in-law drive off a cliff in your brand new uninsured car
Lying to Congress is a crime? Why did I just find myself chuckling, then feeling slightly depressed?
Oh, Roger. Do keep up.
The Sergeant at Arms specified that Pelosi fly military transport just as Hastert did and the White House defended it. If you wish to keep your egghead street cred, try acting less willfully stupid.
STOP! The Attacks On Speaker Pelosi
Last time they tried to attack Speaker Pelosi ( second in line to the President of the United States) it was about her alleged abuse of military transportation. This attack as expected turned out to be bogus. It turned out that the previous Speaker (Hastert – a Republican) made far more use of military transportation. It turned out that Speaker Pelosi was possibly overly prudent and too self-restrained in her use of military transportation.
Now Republicans are trying to attack her about allegedly having been told by the Bush administration about things she was not told about, like water boarding. Republicans are attacking her because she is being so effective at getting the peoples work done in congress, like healthcare. And Republicans want to stop her. Don’t put up with that. Every time they attack Speaker Pelosi they are attacking you and the rest of the American people. If they go after her, go after them even harder.
They are trying to con Speaker Pelosi and the American people. And here is how it works. Approximately 6 years ago CIA had a briefing with Pelosi and congress, but DID NOT tell congress and Pelosi that the Bush administration was using torture ( water boarding ) on detainees. Then the Bush administration sent in Porter Goss to head the CIA and to destroy, and doctor records in part to make it look like Pelosi, and the Democrats in congress were onboard with the illegal torture of detainees by the Bush administration.
See, apparently at these intelligence briefings members of congress are not allowed to take notes. And if they do, they are not allowed to keep them. Apparently the CIA makes notes, but the members of congress are not allowed to see those notes either. And they can’t tell anybody about what was said at the briefings. But the CIA can come back six years later and claim they told members of congress something six years ago that they did not tell them at that time. And they can use falsified notes to substantiate their claim. Planting disinformation was the type of thing the CIA became very good at during the time Porter Goss was a young CIA agent. Just gotta love it.
If you will remember, their was a mass exodus of senior CIA officials after Porter Goss took over. And the complaint at the time was that longtime, highly experienced agents were being replaced by other people based mostly on their political loyalties to the Bush administration and their extreme right-wing ideologies. Which is just exactly what you need if you want people who will be willing to break the law under orders. Sound familiar? I don’t think you can trust any CIA records after Goss took over.
I have nothing but the utmost respect, and admiration for the dedicated and patriotic members of OUR! Central Intelligence Agency. When the Bush administration betrayed one of OUR! agents (Mrs. Wilson) it made me boiling MAD! I think our new Director Pennetta has got some internal investigation and agency house cleaning to do. If you backtrack on the individuals that have been making the false attacks on Speaker Pelosi, and trace who they have had contact and conversations with, you should be able to connect the dots and catch your conspirators.
The key that the CIA records are falsified is Sen. Bob Graham and his journal, and common sense.
By the way, I think Mr. Pennetta is an excellent choice to head the CIA and fix it.
They are trying to kill healthcare reform. And continue our healthcare crisis. Don’t put up with that.
PASS THE WORD.
To The Congress Of The United States:
If it is true that you are not allowed to have or make any permanent records of your intelligence briefings for later clarifications, and protection, that is ridiculous. That leaves all of you vulnerable to just this type of scam that is being perpetrated on Speaker Pelosi. So here is what you can do about it to protect your-selves in the future.
Members should be able to make notes and other recordings of these briefings. Then these briefings and recordings can be reduced to a computer file that can then be encrypted and digitally signed with a detached digital signature using key encryption. Then each of you can encrypt, and sign each others copy of the record that can only be unlocked with the other parties key. And both parties copies can be verified with each others copy of the files detached digital signature.
Very easy. Very secure. No more exposure to falsified records down the road.
You see, it almost doesn’t really matter what CIA allegedly did or didn’t tell Speaker Pelosi, and congress. Because the briefing format is so deficient of any checks, balances, or verification that all we know is that all external briefing accounts support Speaker Pelosi’s version of events. Pelosi and congress should have been given every benefit of the doubt. And that should have been it.
There are many other booby traps out there set for you congress. Be careful.
God Bless You
jacksmith — WORKING CLASS
p.s. I still think the timing of Sen. Bob Graham’s ruptured cerebral aneurism was suspicious. More so now, than before.
jacksmith: are. you. serious? I guess you think 911 was an inside job, too.
Jacksmith,
You are really on top of things. Do you have a few extra bucks laying around? If so I can make you a real deal on this bridge I know about in Brooklyn………….”there are none so blind as those who will not see”
Ken
Oh yeah, jacksmith, there’s nothing like giving all of us a glimpse into your world to really convince us.
jacksmith:
Would you not agree that the CIA controversy was largely Pelosi’s own doing? She should have kept her mouth shut. Instead, she told several different stories only to play that well-worn card, “Blame Bush!”
About the “planted stories” six years after the fact: no one who attended the same briefing she did defended her. Why is that?
Oh, and do you know who outed Valerie Plame? It was her husband. In the book he wrote, she admitted she was CIA the night they made out for the first time. Not exactly a shrewd spy.
To: Jacksmith – better stop drinking so much kool aid, next thing you know you’re going to begin to believe that Pelosi is a very concerned centrist who has nothing but the absolute best for all of America, and does not possess any evil thoughts or feelings for anyone in the current Congress or former President Bush. Also remember what Obama’s man at the CIA said, and remember that Leon Panetta is not exactly classified as a Bush loyalist, again, Pelosi lied.
The fact that you cannot separate fact from fiction reduced the credibility of your well written piece of fiction.
TBogg:
“The Sergeant at Arms specified that Pelosi fly military transport just as Hastert did and the White House defended it.”
Duh. No one here, especially RK, doesn’t know that. So why did you bring it up? Because you thought that since no one over at FDL knows anything, the same holds here? roflmao Over at The Lake, the one-eyed man is truly king.
The truth is, bumbling re-framer that you are, you brought that up to divert attention. (Look! Over there! A puppy!!)
The actual issue, clear to us all, is Pelosi’s imperious sense of entitlement regarding the plane, her insistence on far more plane than is necessary or economical, her nose for spending more, not less, on her own perks, her scheming to take family and pals along for free rides, her record of keeping the expensive jet fueled, staffed, and waiting for endless hours (often to no-show), etc., etc. The superplane is no different for her than the glistening limos wealthy NY narcissists line up each morning outside their Stamford homes and Manhattan offices…it serves the same purpose. Validation by show of bling.
She flies in the military version of a Boeing 757. As in jetliner. It’s lavish. It seats 50 people in its noncommercial, spacious layout. It burns thousands of pounds of jet fuel every trip. It dumps more CO2 into the atmosphere in one of its weekly SanFran runs than a normal family does in several years. It has a crew of from 8 to 16, depending on itinerary. It features a communications center, a fully enclosed stateroom for Madame Antoinette, a changing area, a conference facility, an entertainment system, and a convertible divan that seats three and folds out to a bed. It costs about $20,000 an hour to operate.
Sound like a Democrat to you? Sure does to me. Good stewardship of the taxpayer’s dime, working to minimize one’s CO2 footprint, and showing sensitivity to the austerity of the times are for the little people.
Now run back to FDL where the puppies are numerous and the populace is uninformed.
buh-bye lol
4. “Now Republicans are trying to attack her about allegedly having been told by the Bush administration about things she was not told about, like water boarding.”
Er, in case you don’t know, Bush isn’t the President now. The Republicans wish to take credit for the Madam Speaker’s dilemma, but they are really irrelevant.
Our Madam Speaker was “attacked” by our CIA Director Panetta, appointed by our President Obama, confirmed by our Senate. Our Madam Speaker accused the CIA who happen not to serve any parties except themselves of lying. Their boss who happens to be a Democrat knows that he should better save his own skin than the Madam Speaker’s. Even President Obama learned a thing or two about crossing our spies who do better sabotaging their domestic enemies than our country’s enemies. President Obama accused the CIA of “torture” and green lighted his attorney general Holder, one of his numerous tax-evading cabinet members, to hand out some prosecutions. After the CIA gave him a little talk-to, no one is to be prosecuted.
“Pelosi and congress should have been given every benefit of the doubt.” How about the benefit of the doubt for the Bushies who believed the CIA’s yellow cake story? In that case, we gave every benefit of the doubt to, in fact we haven’t doubted, every lie, including the “buts” and “ands”, of the discredited husband of a CIA operative, and we doubted every word of the President of the United States.
Earth to jacksmith…
Poor tbogg doesn’t sound very happy.
Unfortunately, leaving Pelosi in place won’t just hurt the Democrats, it will hurt the country.
Time for her to go.
Jack- She lied. Get over it.
jacksmith: Are you really saying that Panetta is acting on behalf of the Bush administration? Seriously? And that Armitage, the one who accidentally spilled the beans on Wilson-Plame, and who was inimical to Bush, was acting under orders?
And are you really of the opinion that a free market system which has produced the greatest medical advances on earth should be abolished, so that no one has to suffer the indignity of actually paying for the services that they use?
Funny. I’d love to see her flying commercial after she loses the speakership.
Re: “stop the attacks on Speaker Pelosi” — the right will stop those when the left stops attacking Bush and company. Maybe when Speaker Pelosi stops attacking the right and the CIA and Bush and anyone in the Bush administration. Democrats can dish it out but they sure can’t take it. They think they should automatically be immune from scrutiny even when they put themselves into the line of fire. Can’t blame this on Bush.
Agree with overall tone of article, though the lede is not thought out.
All House Speakers has access to mil aircraft.. no matter what party. Nancy is keeping a long tradition alive.
What separates Nancy from others:
– is she is trying to get a larger aircraft than allowed. The Speaker gets a “Corporate Jet” size plane. She’s tried to upgrade this to a significantly larger “Commercial Airline” size plane. This is a increase in costs to the taxpayer. And in my opionion, is a key indicator of her weak character and intellect.
– she is trying to fly passengers that are not allowed the perk of govt subsidized air travel
Go. Away. Jacksmith. Visit Kos.
Oh, tbogg, there you go trying to erase Nancy “Nonstop Flight” Pelosi’s well-publicized desire to fly in style with her posse with a jet bigger and plusher than anything that routinely transported her predecessor.
Plus, surely now with the creation of the Transportation Security Agency and the federalization of airport screeners, commercial flights are once again safe enough for the House Speaker to use.
Hey, Jacksmith – WORKING CLASS
I guess Pelosi’s check must have cleared.
Keep drinking that Kool-Aid, jack!
Posts like yours make it easier for me to prove that all the Corruptocrats and the orcs and Trolls who support them are little more then totalitarian thugs that will stop at nothing in order to achieve their goals. They don’t care if they have to lie, cheat, steal and commit murder in order to do so. They will also do everything in their power to assist their union thugs, race warrior and Islamofascist allies because they are their proxy army.
Please do not feed the troll.
Trolls feed on the the attention.
If you ignore it, it generally goes away.
If Pelosi survives this one, she may take on the “teflon Bill” reputation for being scandal-proof. Far from weakening her, it might leave her with an impression of invulnerability which discourages further challenges to her leadership.
There are a long list of democrats (ted kennedy most notably, of course) who have survived scandal after scandal, getting repeated passes from the media because it’s now “old news”. Gary Studds, Uncle Ted, Joe Biden, Barney Frank, and many, many more. The democrats run as the party of racial equality with a KKK member as their senior senator!
Don’t let Pelosi off the hook for political advantage.
She’ll be Speaker in 2010, and she’ll be re-elected (not sure what you meant about just keeping her around)? The only way she won’t get re-elected to the House would be if someone in SF ran to her left
Those of you who defend Pelosi on both the air travel and Waterboarding entirely miss the point.
She called for the witch hunt and should know better than to throw stones when her shattering glass house could so easily screw up her face-lift.
On military escorts, as with the CIA Interrogations, you liberals commit the same foul.
She’s not getting heat because she uses her entitled privileges. She’s getting heat because she constantly berates and criticizes those who protect her while demanding their protection. Do you understand now? No one asked for investigations about what she knew until she started screaming for war crime trials for the people who kept her safe for 8 years.
Get it?
Once on a flight out of St. Louis, I sat next to their local congresscritter (Rep. Gray, I think?). He waxed eloquent describing the beauties of D.C., what I should see when I’m there, how much he enjoyed his seats at the Kennedy Center, &c. &c.. He spoke nary a word about his “home” district – it was this silence that truly spoke volumes.
I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I was from Rockville, MD.
I did a search for “Bob Graham’s cerebral”. jacksmith posts at many, many places, and the same comment appears in full. Got bored after seeing six such sites, and that was just on the first page of Google.
jacksmith is a seminar commenter. LOL
Jacksmith was here and gone. That novel you see here is something he has cut and pasted to here and at least one other blog that I have seen.
Can you say astroturf?
The SchoolMarm of Capitol Hill
—————————————-
I’ve been brought up not to judge people by appearances but to only consider “the content of their character”.
But I’ve never been able to practice what I’ve been taught. When I see a target on public display, I go for the bullseye, not to say the jugular.
Nancy Pelosi is that not so rara avis that brings out the worst in me. I can’t help it.
Here’s this ol’ biddy pontificating on subjects she know diddly about and stirring up storms where there are only tea-kettles. She looks like she’s in constant pain or nursing a broken heart.
She reminds me of innumerable school teachers of mine that had an axe to grind, usually against men. (Pelosi has 5 brothers, after all, all older than she !)
Wikipedia has an interesting aside on her; “Pelosi continues to be among the richest members of Congress.“
I find it hard to swallow that she’s 2nd in line for the presidency. That is about as preposterous and outlandish as having to accept the female Clinton as Secretary of State, who, by the way, is proving to be totally useless in that position, making a mockery of whatever pride we once had in facing our overseas friends and foes.
Pelosi should resign her position. She has no business being there.
Lawrence Summers – don’t you have anything to say?
The CIA is adding chemicals to Pelosi’s food that makes her scalp shrink and stretches her face. swear to god.
Pelosi is 2nd in line for the presidency–has someone informed Biden of this change?
nancy was always wanting to investiage during bush’s term but now the shoe is on the other foot. nancy keep up the good art of lying
Perhaps we should all re-read jacksmith’s post. It was so consistently outrageous and over the top, perhaps it should have been taken as pure satire?
Like it or not, Nancy’s not going anywhere. She will just refuse to talk about it, the lapdog media will comply, and events like North Korea, Pakistan, and the Supreme Court nomination will just push it off the radar.
There will be no resignation, no investigation, and no media coverage. Case closed.
She is a joke, and living in the state of Califonia I am beyond Embarrassed that she is still in office.
Nancy, who does not rejoiceher? She may be sloppy…But she’s still the cutie-pie!
Queen Nancy, enough said……….