Coming In From The Cold

Nancy Pelosi (my Congressman!) is learning the hard way that it's not a good idea to make grandstanding statements about national security, morals, and "torture," especially when the one demonstrable area of competance of the CIA guys you are stabbing in the back is in the area of domestic political warfare: Memo: Pelosi Knew About Harsh Tactics

Intelligence officials released documents today saying that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, was briefed in September 2002 about the use of harsh interrogation tactics against al Qaeda suspects, seeming to contradict her repeated statements that she was never told the techniques were actually being used.

In a 10-page memo outlining an almost seven-year history of classified briefings, intelligence officials said that Pelosi and then-Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla., were the first two members of Congress briefed on the tactics. Then the ranking member and chairman of the House intelligence committee, respectively, Pelosi and Goss were briefed Sept. 4, 2002, one week before the anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

I have lived among progressives my entire adult life. Indeed, I harbor a certain affection for some, and even acknowledge the justice of some of their agitations. But, their noisy abhorrence of Bush-era "torture" is truly puzzling to me. I'm sure there's plenty of good old fashioned opportunism at work, as they use "torture" to try to discredit the Bush Administration and make people forget that, no matter what else may have happened, W did keep his promise to the American people and kept us safe in the years after 9/11. A Republican success? We can't have that!

Still, it's hard to comprehend the almost ludicrous adamance of Pelosi's denunciation of Bush/CIA "torture," even as she must have known that she was in danger of a leaked memo such as this one.

I suspect that when Pelosi was receiving those briefings in 2002 and 2003, she didn't object to the use of enhanced interrogation techniques because she was scared. She was scared from 9/11, scared of another attack, and scared of what might happen if one of those guys we were holding in GITMO would clam up if we didn't press them hard enough. She was scared and so were a lot of progressives. And, for a couple years at least, they had to look to the "cowboy" Bush for safety, something that I am sure made them cringe inside. It wasn't until the summer of 2004 - with the combination of Farenheit 911, the 9/11 Commission, the publication of the first set of Bush bashing tomes, and the after-effects of Abu-Ghraib - that progressives were truly able to refocus and rediscover their lost hatred for all things conservative and Bushian.

The hysteria now makes up for their feelings of shame, panic, and fear back then.