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Republicans are starting to make the motivation for their attacks on Nancy Pelosi on the torture issue known. On Fox News, Stephen Hayes admitted that the GOP is hoping to stir up enough controversy to kill any potential congressional investigations, or a truth commission on torture.

Here is the video of Stephen Hayes making this exact point on Fox News:

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It is no coincidence that the Republicans turned up the heat on Pelosi after she announced her support for a truth commission. Last month Pelosi said that, “it might be further useful to have such a commission so that it removes all doubt that how we protect the American people is in a values-based way.” This statement sounded the alarm bells for Republicans, because the Speaker rules the House, so if the Speaker wants a truth commission, odds are that there will be a truth commission.

It all would have been fine, if Pelosi would not have taken things too far by claiming that the CIA lied to her in her briefing. This claim gave the media a headline to run with, and the story blew up. It has become about Pelosi versus the CIA. Republicans want to link Pelosi to torture in the hopes that this will get the Democrats to call off the dogs.

As Hayes said last on Fox News, “Democrats who have been so enthusiastic about truth commissions have to be stopping and saying, OK, wait a second.” However, Republicans shouldn’t be counting on Obama’s help to kill an investigation. While the president opposes an investigation, he has decided to let this be a congressional fight. I don’t think this is an issue that translates to next year’s election. It is nothing more than media filler for a slow news week.

(H/T: Think Progress)