While media reports indicate House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., may have contradicted herself on when she learned about waterboarding of terror suspects, she has largely remained silent, letting her aides come to her defense.
Democratic strategists say that may be a good thing, and predict she’ll ultimately be vindicated.
“I don’t think it would be wise for her to respond to these various charges,” said Richard Goodstein, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton. “This would be like death from a thousand cuts if she did.”
But Republicans Wednesday continued to hammer Pelosi on her statement that she was not aware that CIA operatives were waterboarding high-profile terror suspects in an effort to get information from them. They are calling for any probe into the matter to include questioning Pelosi about what she knew.
Republicans have said the CIA briefed both parties about the use of waterboarding beginning in 2002 and that Democrats did not object.
House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Wednesday that Pelosi needs to clarify her knowledge of the use of waterboarding.
“It’s pretty clear she did receive these briefings on these interrogation techniques, but I think, at the end of the day, we just ought to know what did she know when did she know and what did she do about it,” Boehner said. “You can’t have your cake and eat it, too, and it appears that is what the speaker is attempting to do.”
Pelosi said she was never told that waterboarding tactics were being employed, only that the technique was deemed legal. According to the speaker, she was briefed once on the topic, back in 2002.
Media outlets have reported that Pelosi’s top aide was told in 2003 that the CIA was waterboarding terror suspects, and the aide informed the speaker.
Pelosi then remained silent, according to reports, other than to concur with her top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Jane Harman, D-Calif., who sent a letter to the Bush administration protesting the tactic.
On Tuesday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said he believed the facts should come out about what Pelosi knew, but on Wednesday his staff said Hoyer was not referring to Pelosi, but rather the facts surrounding who in the Bush administration approved of the use of waterboarding.
Goodstein said he suspects Pelosi already knows what is in the yet-to-be-released CIA memos about the congressional briefings.
“I believe whatever documents will come out, she knows what they say, and she would not be saying anything at odds with it,” Goodstein said, adding that despite the Republican criticism of Pelosi, “this is not going to have an unhappy ending for Democrats.”
