House Tables Resolution To Investigate Pelosi

A month ago, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi claimed that the CIA had misled her as well as the rest of Congress on the topic of interrogation techniques used on terrorist suspects. There have been calls for the release of documents describing the use of these techniques and the information acquired from using techniques such as waterboarding. This release of documents was to coincide with an investigation into Nancy Pelosi's claims against the CIA. Last week, the House GOP drafted a priviledged resolution that would establish a select subcommittee under the Intelligence Committee to "review and verify the accuracy of the speaker's aforementioned public statements." The resolution was packaged as a "priviledged resolution" so that the House would be forced to vote on it. Democrats quickly tabled the resolution on a 247-171 party line vote. Not a single Democrat crossed party lines meaning they all backed the Speaker and thus are inclined to believe that the CIA is lying.

Republicans had wanted to use the resolution as a way to create a special committee that would be comprised of four members of the Intelligence Committee — two appointed by the chairman and two appointed by the ranking Republican on the panel. This subcommittee would have been able to use subpoena power to obtain documents and testimony. “I am disappointed that, once again, rank-and-file Democrats have refused to join Republicans in establishing a bipartisan investigation into these serious allegations,” Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said.