GOP: Torture is not the point - It is all about Pelosi

Nancy Pelosi, House Speaker, has come under fire recently for allegedly knowing about the torture (excuse me, I forgot to use Orwell-speak: "enhanced interrogation techniques) in 2002 from a CIA briefing. The GOP is all over her for this, blasting her for suggesting the CIA isn't being truthful, blasting her for "knowing" and even going so far as saying, via Michael Steele on Meet the Press, that whether there was torture and whether or not this was a good thing "was not the point," the point was all about Pelosi and what she knew at the time. Oh. My. God. (Said the atheist).

Now, it isn't surprising that the GOP, morally bankrupt and bereft of anything but talking points for the latest 24 hour news cycle, is doing this. That is all they know how to do. What is surprising is how the MSM totally buys into this bullshit. Ok, that isn't surprising either. Sigh.

Just for sport's sake, I'm going to list all of the reasons why this whole Pelosi thing is bullshit. There's so much bullshit there, it is difficult to know where to start.

1. Whether or not she was briefed, torture is the issue, not what Pelosi was told. In the long list of people that deserve to have their asses thrown in a hole for life for violating the law, Pelosi would be dead last on that list (if she were on it at all) even if she did know about it. Telling someone about a crime isn't the same thing as planning and executing it yourself. Sure, if she did know and did nothing, that is a problem, but until the planners and perpetrators of torture are tried and convicted, we should not be going after the mealy-mouthed 3rd-hand enablers. First things first.

2. If you buy into the GOP bullshit that there was no torture or that it was legal torture or that it was justified, then why are they complaining at all? What duty is there to report about legal activity? By complaining so loudly about Pelosi, the GOP is admitting that there was wrongdoing done by the Bush administration - they are admitting there was torture and that it was clearly illegal. Otherwise, why get so upset about it?

3. The GOP people complaining about how horrible it is to malign the CIA are the exact same people who blasted the CIA up and down during the illegal outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. So I guess it is only ok to blast the CIA when it does something that harms the GOP electorally. I wish the MSM would be as good as, say, the Daily Show, at pointing out these partisan 180s - and better yet, would then completely ignore everything said by political types who do them, because they are empty bullshit. But this goes beyond just this issue. It still amazes me that only shows like the Daily Show actually call people out on things like this. I guess reporters or networks don't want to jeopardize "access" - but what is the point of "access" if you aren't allowed to report anything meaningful?

So, to sum up, according to the GOP: the CIA is out to get president Bush, the CIA is beyond reproach, torture is fine, there was no torutre, there's no issue at all, and hey, Pelosi is evil because she was briefed on a non-issue.