Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

Bucco, in the grand scheme of things I'm finding it hard to get too exorcised about any of the people involved in this exercise of juvenile finger-pointing, who said what to whom and when, etc. I'd say that particularly the members of Congress caught in this flap have done their personal reputations some damage, but then I considered what their reputations were in the first place.

The best example of how government officials communicate with one another when they don't want to was Alan Greenspan's frequent appearances before one Congressional committee or another as part of the 'oversight process'. The Congressmen always wanted him to say something they could use politically and he knew what they were up to and was a master of verbal avoidance of their questions and obfuscation in framing his answers. Greenspan kept Congress, the financial markets and the public guessing for the entire 19 years he was Fed chairman. Did Greenspan always tell Congress the truth? I'll bet that he did. But I'd also bet that for the most part they only understood what he wanted them to understand--nothing more, nothing less.

I suppose we could also use Bill Clinton's attempt to define what is is to a grand jury as an example, but let's not go there again.

My guess is that some CIA operatives fulfilled their legal obligation to communicate with certain members of Congress as the result of the oversight process. Those Congress-people probably didn't know enough or didn't care to ask the right questions. Now they're now caught in a flap over what they knew about "waterboarding" which has become the cause celeb of the media.

I guess I'm left thinking...who cares? This country has a lot bigger problems than this one. The less I hear from Nancy Pelosi, the better. And Leon Panetta ought to be left alone to supervise those practicing their spycraft in the silence and vagueness that lets the CIA work for the best interests of the American people.