Politics and Government in America

Monday the CIA released a report that showed what conservatives have been saying for a long time, Democrats knew about enhanced interrogation techniques and did not raise any objections until it seemed to present a political benefit. This led Democrats in Congress to accuse the CIA of playing politics with the issue. However, what they are not saying is that there is anything inaccurate about the document.

Sen. Carl Levin, who according to the document was briefed five different times, told the Politico, “I think there is so much embarrassment in some quarters that people are going to try to shift some of the responsibility to others — that’s what I think.” Meanwhile Sen. Dick Durbin, who once compared our troops to Nazis and Stalinist thugs, reminded us that this document was released while, “some of the groups that have been responsible for these interrogation techniques were taking the most criticism.”

The problem for the Democrats is that this document was prepared by their own request as part of a move to begin investigations of the Bush administration over this exact issue. By having it known that the Democrats knew and did nothing on this issue makes it clear that their outrage is just a political ploy and that the investigation is just a way of grinding some political axes. I guess they don’t like transperancy as much as they thought.