Is Censure The Next Stop For Pelosi?
by Buck • Saturday, May 16th, 2009 - 8:08 pmI think it’s time that the majority party pissed or got off the pot. To stand back and do nothing while that POS Gingrich continues on spreading lies is embarrassing and despicable. It sickens me. Sickens me almost as much as when Pelosi declared impeachment to be “off the table.” If we’re not going to follow the rule of law (impeachment was called for in this case), and if we’re going have a yellow streak a mile wide, I’d just as soon the democratic party went back to minority status. Isn’t that what we’re seeing anyway?
This witch hunt reminds me of how the republicans went after Clinton. The democrats went on to forgive shitty republicans over that huge waste of time and money, choosing instead to turn the other cheek. And we saw what that got them. Well, here we are again.
I’d like to see Pelosi prove me wrong and stomp Gingrich’s fat ass back into obscurity. But history tells us otherwise. If our democratic leaders choose not to come out swinging on this one, then the hell with the party.
Tagged: CIA, Newt Gincrich, Waterboarding, censureGingrich: Pelosi could be ousted as House speaker if she lied
WASHINGTON (CNN) – Newt Gingrich continued his attacks on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Saturday, saying she “defamed everyone” in the intelligence community and he can’t “see how she can serve as speaker if it turns out that she has lied about national security both to the House and to the rest of the country.”
“I would expect at that point a motion of censure, and I think under the rules of the House, you can’t serve for the rest of that term if you’ve been censured,” Gingrich, a former Republican speaker of the House, said in an interview with CNN.
Pelosi has been under fire from critics who say she was fully briefed on the controversial waterboarding technique — now deemed torture by the Obama administration — in 2002 and 2003. On Thursday, the California Democrat accused CIA officials of misleading her, reiterating a claim that she was briefed on such techniques only once — in September 2002 — and that she was told at the time the techniques were not being used.
Pelosi said the briefing she received from the CIA was incomplete and inaccurate, and she called on the CIA to release a full transcript of the briefing.
May 16th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
I would like to see Pelosi and Gingrich destroy each other like the mutant snake and mongoose that they are.
May 17th, 2009 at 1:07 am
Well if she is what the Dem's offer. Then what is the difference. Her comment on being more important to be in power again just shows who she is. Why I am not a Dem for years now. D or R just represent more government and power. I believe in a balance and they dont' want that. I think it is time we push to drop the two party system.
May 17th, 2009 at 4:17 am
I'm not a big fan of Pelosi, but a few observations:
1) These attacks are bullshit, a deliberate distraction, and the press has been happy to play. Emptywheel's been superb in covering this story.
2) Gingrich and other Republicans have to know this is bullshit, but they're raging like rabid dogs with little cause. In contrast, Pelosi took impeachment off the table.
The Bushies tortured. The CIA broke the law. They also lied about Pelosi, apparently. The GOP goes on full attack mode, ridiculously out of proportion to the offense, even if which were true - which it's not. The press plays along, ignoring the real issues – the CIA broke the law, ordered to torture - torture- by the Bushies, and saying it was legal doesn't make it so.
Yeah, the press is vapid and vile. Yes, the Republican leadership are a mix of ignorant and evil assholes. Yes, the game is stacked to benefit the scumbags. But the Dems also make all these bullshit games much easier to play (and some play 'em themselves), by being gutless and/or corrupt. This crap is why liberals don't like the Dem leadership much, and a key reason that the general population doubts the Dems. As Josh Marshall observed, regardless of the specific attacks, the Bush campaign's meta-attack against Kerry was that he wouldn't fight back when they lied about him.
Pelosi at least supports a full investigation.
May 17th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Hey Tim I agree about D or R both being lousy representatives. Nancy Pelosi is not the Dem. offering. She is an AIPAC shill and nothing more.
May 17th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Deliberate distraction indeed. Although the complicity of some Dems (Pelosi among them), to some degree anyway, makes it easy for the repukes to try to shift the spotlight (focus of media) to the Dems who in fact were informed and therefore complicit. Had the aware Dems (collectively) screamed bloody murder when they first became aware they wouldn't be in the conundrum they now find themselves in. Complicity in the crime to ensure silence and cooperation is one of the oldest organized crime tricks in the book. Once you're in the know and do nothing about it there is no way out without incriminating yourself. They got suckered, plain and simple. I particularly like the way that the Messiah, Obama, has now declared torture illegal, as if at some point it actually was legal. It's not surprising that the Dems seem perfectly willing to play along with that silly notion.
May 17th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Bro, I agree for the most part, but by the rules, IIRC, the intel committees are only notified, and can't say anything about it publically although they can protest it privately, as at least some Dems did. In this specific case, Emptywheel has shown that the CIA is either mistaken or lying - plus, crucially, prisoners were being tortured months before the briefing in question. I just say, let's have a full investigation, and let the chips fall where they may. Reid and Pelosi are far from impressive.
May 17th, 2009 at 11:39 pm
TBogg puts it best:
http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2009/05/16/nancy-pelosi-is-the-new-lynndie-england/