So, simply saying that torture is wrong, immoral, and ineffective has been thrown out as truly eye-opening arguments for investigations?
Well played, Republicans.
Despite their status, they manage to still come up with a few cards up their sleeves.
However, they are still operating in a very limited purview. Although the public is still largely on the sidelines, they have started to take notice. There are a few polls that show that the public will support (note the distinction) an investigation.
On top of that, the Republicans have largely been playing defense. While the Democratic party hasn’t played offense particularly well on this, they managed to get the Republican party on overdrive. Getting Cheney and his daughter to come out of the wood-works to defend torture isn’t too bad, considering that the best possible outcome would still be making the party look old and outdated.
And Gingrich. Seriously?
But all of that defensive overdrive has the GOP making some serious mistakes. In an attempt to play offense, they ramped up their attacks on Nancy Pelosi. The hope may have been to spread the blame. Maybe even to get the pressure off of actual investigations.
In doing so, however, Nancy has to defend herself. The "CIA lied to me" bombs makes her look complicit (to a degree I believe she is) and now she is stuck in a bind. On top of that, all of the noise they are making is starting to make major networks notice the far more sinister plot of using torture for political means to support a war.
The only way out? A full investigation.
So I write all of that to say this:
I feel that now the investigations are inevitable. Whether Barack Obama likes it or not, he initially opened the door by punting to AG Eric Holder. Holder needs to do something and I don’t think that his first truly major decision that goes on record would be to not at least initiate an investigation into this. Nancy Pelosi now has not only the political will but the need for survival to push for the investigations. And the
Obviously, there still needs to be pressure from everywhere to press for the answers and accountability that is needed. But so far, even by modest political calculations, the die is being cast.