Thoughts on the State of Play of the Torture Debate

DougJ perfectly sums up where my head is at right now on the whole torture debate:

At this point, it’s worth considering what the claims about [Pelosi] being briefed mean and where this is all going. My view is that the story that Pelosi was briefed on waterboarding is subterfuge, like the quilts and blankets in “Pulp Fiction“. It’s not about nailing Pelosi, it’s about having a sufficiently truthy line of bullshit for David Brooks et al. to repeat (Brooks spoke about torture on the Times yesterday, blasting Pelosi and everyone who wants investigations—these are his first comments on torture, to my knowledge). This probably won’t be fully investigated and, even if it is, the findings will probably be equivocal enough that Republicans can continue to scream “Pelosi knew about it” just as the nutosphere likely continues to trash Scott Beauchamp.

To me, though, the big take away here is that the right is losing the torture debate. It started with “Dick Cheney was just keeping us safe from teh terrorists, don’t you libtards watch ‘24’?”. Then it became “mistakes were made, but it was a difficult time.” And now it’s “okay, maybe the whole thing was fucked up, but Pelosi knew about it so it’s her fault.” It’s just another variation on “Clinton did it too” and it’s essentially a defensive posture.

Don't get me wrong. I don't think Nancy Pelosi is a saint. I actually view her and Harry Reid with a huge dollop of suspicion. But when it comes to weighing my suspicion of Pelosi against the proven lie factory that was the Bush administration -- it's really no contest.