I strongly suspect that Panetta takes his job as bossman at the CIA very seriously and is doing what is best for his agency and the intelligence capabilty of his country. The Speaker of the House called his people liars and he’s hitting back hard in defense of the agency.

I’m just disgusted by the way Obama has handled this. If he wants to change the policy on interrogations, fine. He won. There was, however, no need to open the whole can of worms. He should have just changed the policy, said that whatever happened in the past is the past and we aren’t going there. Instead, he lit a match to this whole “truth commission” meme and I would like nothing better than to see a bunch of Dems (starting with Pelosi) get burned.

I’m digusted by what the President has done to undermine our intelligence agencies in a time when intelligence is really our only effective weapon against terrorism. The work that was done by the intelligence agencies post 9/11 was outstanding in crippling the Al Queda networks. I don’t have to agree with every technique used to appreciate that the prior administration was acting in good faith tryng to decide some very complex issues with no clear right answers in regard to intelligence gathering after 9/11. The issues surrounding e-mail and phone data mining are incredibly difficult to grapple with.

Just like a good communist Agenda is more important for Obama than anything else. See everybody is talking about Pelosi. Focus shifted from spending, debt and taxes. Nobody is talking about Obama’s unemployment numbers. Nobody is talking about GM/Chrysler dealership closures (bid dealerships getting the stick). No talk of Soda/Salt/chips taxes

Besides, The Imperial Pelosi was quoted as saying that Obama would have to work with Congress if he wanted to get anything done right after he was elected. When I read that, I knew that she was living on borrowed time anyway. This is the best reason to get rid of her know. Many Dems despise the woman themselves.

If the Democrats don’t wake up and remember this — and quickly — this could spin way out of their control. Saying “the CIA lied!”, then trying to spin that into “Bush Lied!”? Lame.

Does the Redstate Store carry them?

Leon Panetta was Clinton’s Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997; Obama appointed him CIA Director.

All the waterboarding took place under Tenet’s leadership … allegedly supervised by the House Oversight Committee of which Pelosi was ranking Democrat.

It is obvious that Congressional oversight committees are better at overlooking than overseeing … just look at the Banking Committees.

But Pelosi was RESPONSIBLE for oversight. ANY claims that she was “mislead” or “didn’t know about” are COMPLETELY facetious … If true, she did not do her job … if false, she’s a liar.

They have no way to conceptualize a President who makes hard decisions to protect the country. Except to call him “Bushitler.”

Panetta may just be motivated by a desire to do the right thing for his agency or for his country, or it may be more than that.

Obama has nullified the Clintons by putting Hillary in a position that he can completely control, which in turn puts Bill in a position where he’s unlikely to be critical of Obama (which would be unlikely in any case). But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t Clinton loyalists in the administration, ready and willing to undermine Obama and his supporters whenever possible.

Suppose that Leon Panetta is one of them. What better opportunity is he going to get to make Nan look bad and Obama look amateurish at the same time? She is providing all the ammunition; all he has to do is turn it back on her. And that’s exactly what he’s doing.

Don’t believe for a minute that she isn’t aware that she’s stepped in it, either. Notice that her latest on the subject amounts to “I wasn’t actually saying that the CIA had misled me. They were fine. It was the nasty Bush Administration led by the evil Dick Cheney who lied to me, not the CIA. Cheney did it! Bush did it! Their lawyers did it! Off with their heads!!!!” (Sentence first, no trial necessary or desirable)

She’s backing way off of any criticism of the CIA and trying to aim her weapons at Bush. And if you listen to NPR at all, you would think that she was perfectly logical in her statement, because they never put them all together.

If she successfully gets the attention diverted from her former claim of CIA “misleading information” and “lies,” her friends in the media will have her back (and Obama’s). But if Panetta presses the fight and more leaks (or outright press releases) come out, it might not be too much to guess that there is a Clintonian plot in play in the Maclean or even Foggy Bottom.

In any event, once Pelosi asserted that the CIA misled her, the game had changed. Whether Obama is viewing this as damage management, damage management first with a residual opportunity, or an outright net opportunity, it sure looks like he’s throwing Pelosi under the bus.