GOP lawmakers worry that their party has overplayed its hand on Pelosi. Some fear Pelosi attacks may backfire

After a one-two punch from Newt Gingrich and Dick Cheney, House Minority Leader John Boehner and other Republican lawmakers worry that their party has overplayed its hand on Nancy Pelosi.

The Republicans’ fear: Gingrich’s call for Pelosi’s ouster has set an unattainable goal, and Cheney’s jabs at her during a speech Thursday will allow Democrats to portray the controversy as a partisan attack by one of the GOP’s most polarizing figures.


“If the story becomes about us and not her, it’s a problem for us,” said a senior Republican lawmaker.

Boehner has been working to cool off other Republicans who want Pelosi’s scalp. He fears that, if Republicans move to call for Pelosi’s ouster — as Gingrich did — before laying out a case for an investigation first, then they will have squandered a major opportunity to cut into Pelosi’s authority.

He’s not the only one worried about going too far, too fast.

“I can’t speak for [Gingrich], but I think most members of the House believe that whether it’s this issue or something else, we have a procedure if there are questions of impropriety or wrongdoing on the part of any member,” said Rep. John McHugh (R-N.Y.), ranking member of the Armed Services Committee and a former member of the intelligence committee. “If that system is gonna stay together, I think we have to respect or implement it.”

Rather than advocating Pelosi’s ouster, House GOP leaders Thursday pushed a resolution calling for an intelligence committee investigation into the truth of her claim that the CIA misled her. The House voted 252-172 not to consider it.

Boehner declared himself “disappointed” that Pelosi’s “Democratic colleagues blocked the effort to look into this matter in a bipartisan way,” and Republicans made it clear that they’ll try to revisit the matter when Congress returns from its Memorial Day recess.

But House Democrats believe that the worst of this is now behind them — and that the double-barreled attack from Gingrich and Cheney has helped put it there.

“The best thing for anyone, let alone Nancy Pelosi, is to be the subject of a petty, venal, absurd attack by Newt Gingrich,” said Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.). “He’s the gift that keeps on giving.”

“If anything, people have circled the wagons around her,” said Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson. “All you have to do is mention the names Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich and Dick Cheney as attacking the speaker of the House ... and people see this for what it is.”

During his speech at the American Enterprise Institute, Cheney said that “leading members of Congress, including the current speaker of the House,” were briefed on the Bush administration’s interrogation program “on numerous occasions.”

“Some members of Congress are notorious for demanding they be briefed into the most sensitive intelligence programs,” Cheney added. “They support them in private and then head for the hills at the first sign of controversy.”

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Pelosi has said that she attended just one briefing on the Bush administration’s enhanced interrogation program and that she was not told during that September 2002 briefing that the CIA had begun using waterboarding.

Gingrich said earlier this week that Pelosi has “disqualified herself to be the speaker” with an allegation that “smears” intelligence officers who have kept Americans safe.

Democrats say there’s an element of political payback in the former speaker’s criticisms. Pelosi served on the subcommittee of the House ethics panel that investigated Gingrich back in the mid-1990s. Gingrich was eventually reprimanded by the ethics committee and required to pay a $300,000 fine for giving inaccurate information to congressional investigators.

Democrats acknowledge that the GOP campaign has disrupted their own PR efforts to play up major legislation they’ve passed in recent days, including a big credit card bill this week.

“In that sense, it has been effective,” admitted a senior Democratic leadership aide. “We are talking about [Pelosi] rather than what we want to talk about.”