‘Boehner to Pelosi: Put Up, or Shut Up.’

Whoops! I was channeling Maureen Dowd there, for a moment*.

Anyway, the title is of course from Hot Air Headlines, and it refers to this story:

GOP leader: Pelosi should show proof or apologize

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A key Republican leader demanded Sunday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi produce evidence to back up her assertion that she was misled by the CIA on the use of so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques.”

[snip]

“Lying to the Congress of the United States is a crime,” House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“If the speaker is accusing the CIA and other intelligence officials of lying or misleading the Congress, then she should come forward with evidence and turn that over to the Justice Department so they be prosecuted. And if that’s not the case, I think she ought to apologize to our intelligence professionals around the world.”

Personally, I look forward with some interest to what the Speaker’s explanation tomorrow will be. She’s had a day in hiding – excuse me; ‘first Communion’ – to come up with something good.  The GOP will be happy to hear the latest version of it, whatever it is – and, contra this particular article – we’re not especially worried that her negatives will be, well, negated by Dick Cheney’s.  That’s because this conversation has very little to do with who is liked; it has to do with who is credible. There’s a lot of things that you can say about Pelosi’s performance right now; ‘credible’ isn’t one of them.

With a straight face, at least.

Moe Lane

*Sheesh, Ms. Dowd: the people who read sites like Talking Points Memo are the only ones left reading your stuff any more. It makes absolutely no sense ripping off material that they’re going to be familiar with. Try something like this, next time. Trust me, they’ll never twig to it.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.