NEOAVATARA

Congressional Republicans yesterday stated on the record that intelligence briefings have confirmed former Vice President Dick Cheney’s claim that enhanced interrogation techniques did in fact work, and reportedly saved numerous lives.

The report, made to the Hill, ignited charges from Democrats that Republicans were violating top secret clearances.  Republicans countered that Democrats were trying to hide the truth behind the interrogation policy.

“Democrats weren’t sure what they were going to get,” said Rep. Pete Hoekstra (Mich.), ranking Republican on the Intelligence panel, referring to information on the merits of enhanced interrogation techniques. “Now that they know what they’ve got, they don’t want to talk about it.”

The hearing was publicly described only as a subcommittee hearing on “Interrogations.” A committee spokeswoman would not comment on whether the development and use of controversial interrogation tactics were discussed.

But Republicans on the panel said that not only did the use of interrogation techniques come up Thursday, but that the data shared about those techniques proved they had led to valuable information that in some instances prevented terrorist attacks.

“I am absolutely shocked that members of the Intelligence committee who attended a closed-door hearing … then walked out that hearing — early, by the way — and characterized anything that happened in that hearing,” said Intelligence Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chairwoman Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.). “My understanding is that’s a violation of the rules. It may be more than that.”

Shocked!  Absolutely shocked that information would leak in Congress!  Oh, the humanity!

As part of their line of attack, Republicans have called not just for open hearings on interrogations, but for an inquiry in which Pelosi would testify about what she was told by the CIA, as well as for the release of still-classified documents they say will back up their claims that waterboarding and other methods have yielded valuable intelligence. The Obama Administration, however, is doing something unusual:  they are basically following the Bush era policies of not releasing any information at all, if at all possible…a complete flip-flop for Barach Obama.

We will see how things work out.  Democrats are quite fearful of open disclosure both on the interrogation policy as well as the Pelosi debacle, primarily because the public is not just against them; the public is strongly against the Democratic position.  Gallup shows that 65% of Americans believe Guantanamo Bay should not be closed, and 74% don’t want those held at Gitmo to come to their state.

This is starting to affect personal ratings as well.  Nancy Pelosi is now less popular than (gasp!) Darth Vader/Dick Cheney.  Pelosi is liked by 34%, while Cheney is liked by 37%.  Yikes.

It is also affecting Barack Obama’s poll numbers.  Rasmussen is now showing that Obama’s strong favorable/strong unfavorables are now even, both at 34%.  This downward trend has been slowly moving lower ever since the Cheney fight began last month.