The old cliche question coming out of Washington D.C. when a political interest smells political red meat is always "what did they know and when did they know it?" I guess that question is being pasted all over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi this morning, as she and the CIA trade insults over what exactly Pelosi was told about "enhanced interrogation" techniques that she was briefed on by CIA in 2002.

The insinuation through all of this is that Pelosi is some kind of political opportunist, opposing "torture" when it's safe to do so but staying silent when the political winds were blowing a different direction. Now, so the critics assert, she is opposed to torture, but back then, she didn't seem to have much to say about it.

I actually started to get whiffs of this controversy through the blogs and on my email lists a number of days before it hit the mainstream media, as usual. The speculation on the blogs was that the reason that the Dems were downplaying investigating the illegal use of torture by the Bush administration is because they knew about it and did nothing - guilt by association. The mainstream media is reporting that the left wing of the Dem. party is criticizing Pelosi for her acquiescence. It isn't the first time she would have been criticized by the left. In fact, I myself have been very upset by some of her tactics over the years.

For example, she showed little respect for Cynthia McKinney when Ms. McKinney regained her Congressional seat, stripping her of her seniority. In fact, with Pelosi the leader of the Dems in the House, the Dems pretty much abandoned Ms. McKinney when she was challenged again, and Pelosi once again stayed silent in the face of the bogus charges that Ms. McKinney had "slugged" a Capitol policeman. I wrote a piece in "Counterpunch" about it. (that was before I started "Rural Thoughts.) A lot of the information in that piece came directly from an email that Ms. McKinney sent me. I think it was wrong, low down and dirty, and will, in the long run hurt the Dems to have driven Ms. McKinney to the Greens, although one could hope that the Dems will come around someday and the left can reunite. The audacity of hope! Anyway, you can read the story at the link below.
http://www.counterpunch.org/donham12092004.html

While one has to admire Ms. Pelosi's power and skill, and it is good to have a woman in that position, she still, to me, represents establishment thinking - "inside the box" so to speak. It just seems as if she is too far into the big money corporate world, and therefore has the standard bias toward the corporate big money world that most big time politicians have which favors maintaining the status quo. Unfortunately, the status quo is hurling us at breakneck speed toward disaster.

I do not believe this is anywhere near a scandel that will cause Pelosi to lose her Speaker position, unless some tapes or film come forward that shows that she flat out lied to the press. That could undo her, but short of that, this is sort of a tempest in a teapot. But there is a bigger issue behind all of this - whether or not Pelosi is leading the Dems on a path supported by many in the party - a path to the left. If she goes too conservative, she may find that when she turns around, the ground behind her has been crumbling.