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Pelosi's Quagmire

8:24 PM, May 13, 2009 • By MICHAEL GOLDFARB
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Republicans in the House are keeping up the pressure on Pelosi by pushing for answers about what she knew and when she knew it, emailing this report from Rick Klein (whose made it his job to jam up Pelosi on her continued backpedaling):

Pelosi told reporters today that she won't answer questions on the matter until her weekly press conference tomorrow -- keeping the story alive for a full week after ABC News first reported on the intelligence report....

As we wait for answers, Pelosi has found relatively few allies among her fellow Democrats. Pressed by reporters yesterday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., allowed that "what was said and when it was said, who said it" should be part of a congressional inquiry -- though his aides later explained that he was not referring specifically to Pelosi.

Some Democrats may even be making things more difficult for the speaker. Senate Intelligence Chairman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told AFP: "I don't want to make an apology for anybody, but in 2002, it wasn't 2006, 07, 08 or 09. It was right after 9/11, and there were in fact discussions about a second wave of attacks."

Republicans are accusing Pelosi of hypocrisy and intellectually honest Democrats are accusing her of complicity, but Klein calls the Speaker out for the unforgivable political mistake of not killing this story in a timely fashion. She's let this thing spin out of control and it's going to get worse before it gets better. Tomorrow's pres conference will get pick up on the cables and written up in Friday's papers, and the overall subject of detainee policy, including Obama's reversal on the pictures, will dominate the Sunday shows for another week. Pelosi's waffling will remain center stage.

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