Fox News correspondent Jonathan Hunt today candidly gave voice to what Republican leaders have privately been saying for the last week -- the controversy over the briefings Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi received from the CIA several years ago is an orchestrated & deliberate distraction from the real debate about torture and the collapse of the GOP.
FOX NEWS FLUB: Instead of this debate being about national security, what is and isn't torture, what the Bush administration should and shouldn't have allowed and whether anybody in that administration should now be prosecuted, the Republicans are now able to frame this debate as to whether Nancy Pelosi is fit to continue as Speaker. So they are not about to let their foot off the gas in any way, shape, or form.
The video is here:
The Republicans mistakenly think Speaker Pelosi has thrown them a thin lifeline in the rough political seas in which they are drowning (and doing so because of their own failures and internecine warfare).
Democrats who support the dramatic progressive victories during the 120 days since the Obama inauguration should stand up for her and, likewise, avoid any move that throws the GOP a life raft. "When your opponent is in the process of destroying himself, don't step in and interfere."
Only the Republican base, desperately trying to create the Democratic failure that Rush Limbaugh so feverishly desires, should have the nuttiness to buy into these talking points and these distractions.
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What are those victories? Here's a little reminder since Nancy Pelosi became Speaker of the House in January of 2007 ... an increase in the minimum wage; higher benefits for veterans; tough new ethics rules; improved gas standards; funding for schooling, Medicaid, infrastructure & state assistance; health insurance for millions of uninsured children; and a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. And think of the opportunities to come on health care reform, civil rights, and climate change reform.
Read more: "The Pelosi factor - Julian E. Zelizer - POLITICO.com" -
Riiiiggghht! Because Cheney Bush Rumsfeld and Co. were minor players.