torture

We’re in the midst of a slow-moving, long-running Constitutional crisis, where the authoritarians in the White House and the Republican party have, in large part, freed themselves from the restraints of Constitutional authority, and are governing as despots, in an extra-legal fashion.

What Digby said:

The simple fact is that Jay Rockefeller, Jane Harman and Nancy Pelosi have known since 2002 that the US Government was engaging in torture. They have done next to nothing to stop it and have not used the power of their offices to reveal it or guide the congress to investigate it.

Pelosi knew and lied, she knew and mocked voters for caring that civilized countries don't torture innocent people. She joked about it to reporters when she foolishly thought that Lindsay Graham would get Dick Cheney to be more humane!

Read that again. It's true. She thought that the GOP would splinter on its own over the use of torture - no need for Democrats to weigh in on this little issue! This is a miscalculation so grievous that Nancy Pelosi is officially a braindead shitbag.

What could Dems who were briefed do? Civil Disobedience was suggested by some, including me - the reason being that these lawmakers were not allowed to go public with the classified information - so leaking the news is a crime. However, they could have gone to the floor and included the question into privileged speech and debate - - thereby vastly increasing the possibility of leakage.

Because Jane Harman, Jay Rockefeller and Nancy Pelosi could not be bothered to do the right thing they could have at least increased the likelihood that SOMEONE in the caucus would.