RNC Chairman Michael Steele predictably monopolizes all of David Gregory's questioning of the issue of torture, successfully distracting and obfuscating with his insinuations of how Republicans welcome investigations on torture now that the "REAL" issue of when and whether Nancy Pelosi knew about the techniques.
MR. GREGORY: Should there be a wider--should there be a truth commission? Should there be an investigation?
MR. STEELE: I think, I think you've heard a lot of Republicans call for that. And if this is, if this is a door that the Democrats and, and their leadership, since they have the House and the Senate and the presidency and they want to expose all of this...
GOV. KAINE: Mm-hmm.
MR. STEELE: ...then let's put it all on the table and let's take a closer look at it.
[..]The point is that you have the Speaker of the House who said that she, she wasn't told, she didn't have a clue. And, in, in fact, the evidence contradicts that.
Of course, when Gregory asks whether Steele himself thinks that torture was committed, Steele turns suddenly coy and tongue-tied. And surprise, surprise, Gregory lets him get away with it.
MR. GREGORY: Do you, do you think it was torture?
MR. STEELE: Well, my, my opinion on it doesn't matter. My personal opinion is look, I want the information.
MR. GREGORY: Yeah.
MR. STEELE: We'll get it however we can get it.
MR. GREGORY: But you do, you have an opinion?
MR. STEELE: I have a personal opinion, yes.
MR. GREGORY: Do you think it was torture?
MR. STEELE: That's my--I'm not, that's not appropriate here.
What crap. So he can spew verbal diarrhea in the form of opinions on the ethics of whether Nancy Pelosi was fully informed (and lie about the evidence) and there his opinion is not only appropriate but given freely, but as to the central question of whether torture has been committed (truly, not even a question, ask the Red Cross and the OLC), then he's shy?
And curses to any and all of the Democratic Party insiders who thought that the best way for Tim Kaine to serve his party was as the Chairman of the DNC. What a pathetically milquetoast weasel. Here we sit, with perfect potential for moral high ground, the likes of which hasn't been seen since WWII, and what we get is this weak tea, sitting-on-his-hands shadow of a Democrat simpering that isn't a good thing we all agree that we don't do torture? Dagnabit, Democrats. How hard is it to even getting half-way decent talking head? Way to represent, Kaine.
Transcripts below the fold
MR. GREGORY: Should there be a wider--should there be a truth commission? Should there be an investigation?
MR. STEELE: I think, I think you've heard a lot of Republicans call for that. And if this is, if this is a door that the Democrats and, and their leadership, since they have the House and the Senate and the presidency and they want to expose all of this...
GOV. KAINE: Mm-hmm.
MR. STEELE: ...then let's put it all on the table and let's take a closer look at it.
GOV. KAINE: Michael, can't, can't we agree, sitting right here, it's a great thing that this nation has stated that we're not going to use torture as an instrument of foreign policy? Can't we agree on that?
MR. STEELE: I, I, I think that, I think that's perfectly fine. But that's not the point. The point is that you have the Speaker of the House who said that she, she wasn't told, she didn't have a clue. And, in, in fact, the evidence contradicts that.
GOV. KAINE: But, but I'm glad we have agreed now that turning the page and stating that torture is an instrument of foreign policy is a good thing.
MR. STEELE: You can, you can turn...
MR. GREGORY: Well, do you...
MR. STEELE: Well, you can turn the page all you want to that. That fact is still sitting there...
MR. GREGORY: Do you believe...
MR. STEELE: ...that your party's going to have to address.
MR. GREGORY: Do you believe interrogators under the Bush administration's watch engaged in torture?
MR. STEELE: I think what, what was engaged in at that time was what the, the intelligence community, what the administration, the Department of Defense, the secretary of state all agreed were forms of getting information that were at that time...
MR. GREGORY: Right.
MR. STEELE: ...you know, deemed appropriate. Now, if since that time if there's, if there's another opinion that's been formed by this administration or others, then that's the direction of the course.
MR. GREGORY: Do you, do you think it was torture?
MR. STEELE: Well, my, my opinion on it doesn't matter. My personal opinion is look, I want the information.
MR. GREGORY: Yeah.
MR. STEELE: We'll get it however we can get it.
MR. GREGORY: But you do, you have an opinion?
MR. STEELE: I have a personal opinion, yes.
MR. GREGORY: Do you think it was torture?
MR. STEELE: That's my--I'm not, that's not appropriate here.
What an asshole...
..and a coward.
If a drone kills a child in Kandahar, do the crying parents make a sound?
is it appropriate?
Pelosi should be tossed under a bus and replaced, torture or no torture.
They should learn a thing or two about liberty and justice from the great, but forgotten, founding father, James Otis:
http://yellingatthemoon.com/2009/05/17/the-po...
Just who do you think will be a good candidate to take her place and call for investigations of the CIA?
Give us some names,For some reason I don't think you have any
Let's face it. Pelosi has been complicit with the criminal Bush/Cheney administration from the beginning. She made it clear that impeachments would be kept off the table when she became the House speaker after the elections of 2006. She's a typical Washington beltway political hack who will say or do anything to make political points. I believe that there should be a special prosecutor appointed to gather all of the available evidence and to present it to a Grand Jury. Let all the chips fall where they may and so be it!
Sorry but Canada doesn't decide this. STFU
Apparently the US doesn't decide it either or something would have been decided by now by our current decider. So what's wrong with an accurate observation from our northern neighbor?
and i have no prob with both her and our senate leader being kicked to the curb
if the repugs can push the issue, they are doing us a favor
put someone in with teeth
then they will be begging wussy nancy to come back
You got somebody in mind that will be more vocal or willing to call the CIA on it's lies than her?Give us some possible names to take her place please.
Well name some?
I'm Canadian as well, and you don't decide what anybody else gets to say on a message board unless you: a) own it or b) pay my cable internet bill. STFU yourself, cupcake.
This is the same moronic a$$ that said same-sex marriage would harm small businesses. So anything that this ignorant pice of garbage says is not relevant to the real world whatsoever.
that Obama was against same-sex mariage too.
Okay...so he can bait me with some illogical asinine point and I cannot respond? I'm sorry..but this jerk knows he's on my ignore list and continues to harass my posts. Does he get his comment deleted?
I agree you are entitled to your opinion of Mr. Steele
"So anything that this ignorant pice of garbage says is not relevant to the real world whatsoever."
I respectfully disagree with your assessment though.
After listening to the clip several times, the main topic at hand was information gathering, truth commissions, what Pelosi did and what the Bush administration did or did not do. Mr. Steele is entitled to his personal opinion and it does not have to be publicly made or discussed, hence it was irrelevant to the conversation.
Your comment has no relevance to the comment it was in response to.
The topic here is Michael Steele and his lack of intellectual substance, not your obsessions.
"Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati" - Red Green
Freedom Ain't Free - Pay Your Share
many on the right are saying the left/liberals just want to get BUSH/cheney. seems to me steele wants the same thing they accuse the left of by going after pelosi. NOW some on the right including steele, say lets
put everything on the table. if that does NOT happen for whatever reason NOW the (r) will be able to say they (D) did NOT want the commissions/further investigations because of pelosi. i don't know whether pelosi knew or NOT. i'm thinking she did NOT. the RIGHT wants this to go away at least at this point.pelosi may have opened the political door to something. i'm not sure what. to me even if the CIA said they told pelosi i'm NOT sure i would believe them.
she was one of the few politicians in the US. Guess when a Prez is in power, he/she can do whatever they want, whenever they want, with nobody knowing? Pelosi supported the Iraq invasion spewing the exact same talking points as Bush, Rumsfeld, Clinton and others. Only Howard Dean at the time, was against it publicly, and Pelosi didn't support him at all. She's a piece of _____. Toss her.
Do you really think Howyer would take on the CIA as agressive and vocal as Pelosi has?
Because I certainly do NOT
"..to me even if the CIA said they told pelosi i'm NOT sure i would believe them."
Now there's an understatement.
What ever the CIA's claims may be,we can go ahead and simply assume the complete opposite.
"To me, truth is not some vague, foggy notion. Truth is real. And,
at the same time, unreal. Fiction and fact and everything in between,
plus some things I can't remember, all rolled into one big "thing."
This is truth, to me. "
-Jack Handy
That is a slam dunk.
That (Lying) is what the CIA specializes in.And they are pros at it
Used to be respectable once--now it's a laughable shadow of its former self---hosted by a weak and worthless corporate stenographer who can't be bothered to ask the right questions. He interviews worthless hacks like Steele every week and calls that "journalism."
In reality they should pull the pin on this farce of a show and put it out of its misery.
"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."
Robert F. Kennedy
it just turned out to be a dud.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
MTP has been the same cesspool as it ever was...
I couldn't tell...
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
Was journalistic integrity and true investigative reporting when they became cowardly lapdogs to their corporate masters. Tim was better than Gregory---but not by much.
"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."
Robert F. Kennedy
Who gives a shit about Michael Steele anymore unless you just want to get him to lose his job. What a clown.
Now let's talk about David Gregory. What is with that asshole? Is he trying out for Mike Wallace's son's job? Gregory had a panel on today that was four conservative talking heads. WTF is that all about? I really really dislike David Gregory. He is no journalist. You can say what you want about Tim Russert but at least I could watch him on Sunday without getting confused whether I was watching Fox or not. (I know a lot of you would compare Russert to Mike Wallace's son as well but I don't agree)
Limbaugh and thugs installed has burnt his brain cells out
This is Gregory's version of grilling a Republican. Yes, it is. Really. He had all week to get somebody on to ask some difficult questions from the Republican side about torture and this is who he gets. And these are the idiotic questions he asks and the retarded follow up questions he asks. Journalist? Bullshit!!
...Looks to me like the CIA is still working for elements of the old administration and friends. That scares me more than anything else about this orchestrated Pelosi-roast, and I think it is the real underlying issue. If the CIA has been converted into a goon squad, we are all in trouble. BTW I'm not a fan of Pelosi, but what she's doing is pretty gutsy.
Time to rein in the CIA? Never liked the way state secrets are handled. Now with the Rumsfeld revelations, yikes!
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
Looks like some of them are commenting about her on C&L,Trying to get us to throw her under the bus
Good call out by Nicole too. Tim Kaine is worthless. With the crap that is hitting the fan in the past two weeks he has had great opportunity to bring the ax down on what the Cheney administration was up to and how the cons are trying to cover it up and show how they are scrambling. He had a great opportunity to point out how the cons have reshaped the discussion onto Pelosi when the real discussion is Cheney torturing everybody he could get his pink little hands on. And right there in front of him today was this Michael Steele freak saying that the important thing was whether Pelosi knew and when which makes absolutely no difference. Howard Dean would NEVER have let that happen. Never!!!
Seems like when Dems get into power, they choose a p*ssy to lead the Party. And it's not like there was nothing left over from the prior administration that warranted investigation...
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
Time to face facts. The MSM and the Republicans are now a clear and present danger to America. The republicans won't back down and the MSM will follow the republicans where ever the republicans will go.
American law does not have the support of the MSM.
Americans do not have the support of the MSM.
The Republicans have the support of the MSM.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
Where does the Demblican party fit into all of this?
seemed complicit.
I'm sick of these politicians talking about "turning the page". We need a Special Prosecutor to investigate this issue legitimately, and once all the guilty people are prosecuted (regardless of party), THEN we can think about turning the page.
Our multi-tiered American justice system has become a joke, we now debate publicly whether it's important to enforce our laws or give our leaders the all to common free pass... It's sublime, but we're becoming inured to it. Leaders should be setting examples. I'm totally Obummed out by what has and still is going on in Washington.
If they get away with that Micheal Weiner is right we are a savage nation,Led by insane murdering madmen
Frankly I did'nt have the heart to listen to MS... I'm getting tired of all this. O.K. Listen, I'm just a crazy canuk, and a french speaking too. I can't believe you guys are putting up with all this crap ! Bush and co are criminals according to your own laws and nobody is lifting a finger... Gee... it's time you take back your own government. Put pressure on Obama. A lot of pressure. Insist that justice must be serve. Put Bush and co behind bars...
Get serious !
as well as full stepandfetchit
anyone got a hot line to heaven?
would love to know steve gilliard's take on all of this
im sure he is kicking back right now, right hand to god, feet up on some celestial pillow, saying, "told you so"
Any guest can "successfully" make Gregory into a squishy little sponge, because he was a sponge before you got there.
What do Republicans hope to find out of a full blown investigation. If all Democrats need to do is let them find out Pelosi was a liar in order to get Republicans to cooperate in an investigation on torture, then it's a no brainer.
I, like the article below, think the Republicans are bluffing in the hopes that Dems won't investigate one of their own. I hope the Dems call them on it.
http://progressnotcongress.org/blog/?p=1090
Maybe KKK rally?
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