Via The Plume Line
Greg Sargent:http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/probes-of-bush-administration/fox-focus-on-pelosi-changes-subject-from-whether-to-prosecute-bush-officials/Check out this surprisingly candid moment on Fox, where a top network correspondent says that the GOP’s attack on Nancy Pelosi over what she knew about torture is a winner for the GOP because it changes the subject from whether Bush officials should be prosecuted.
The Fox correspondent, Jonathan Hunt, says the Pelosi focus is a distraction from a real debate about torture:
“Instead of this debate being about national security, what is and isn’t torture, what the Bush administration should and shouldn’t have allowed and whether anybody in that administration should now be prosecuted, the Republicans are now able to frame this debate as to whether Nancy Pelosi is fit to continue as Speaker. So they are not about to let their foot off the gas in any way, shape, or form.”
h/t Steve Benen:"correspondent Jonathan Hunt telling Shep Smith the truth -- GOP lawmakers are using a manufactured controversy to drive attention away from what really matters."
I'm still inclined to think this is a flawed strategy. For one thing, before going after Pelosi, Republicans were poised to get what they wanted anyway, and the attacks on the Speaker run the risk of backfiring. For another, the criticisms only make sense if you turn off your brain -- Republicans are demanding to know what Pelosi knew about the Bush administration's crimes and when she knew it, as if the failure to raise adequate objections was more important than the wrongdoing.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018239.php
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
