I know that a few people have already mentioned this, but not enough for me to think that I'm not crazy, but is the current Republican strategy on torture a really, really bad idea for them?

 I thought I knew what they wanted - they were against investigations mainly because it would look bad for their party to have leaders who were convicted of war crimes, or for people to at least know that that's what Cheney and company were doing behind closed doors.

They spent the last week trying to change the conversation to Nancy Pelosi's involvement in this mess, and I can see why they'd want to score a few, cheap partisan points here, but I can't imagine why they'd think this would be a good idea.

 If liberals were alone in talking about torture, then no one would have cared while the Obama administration waited for this whole thing to boil over as people lose interest. But then the Republicans thought they had a smoking gun with Nancy Pelosi calling the CIA liars when they said they briefed her on the techniques used on abu Zabaydah.

They think they caught Pelosi doing something scandalous! But, wait, what did they catch her doing? At worst, if their accusation that she's lying is true (and, let's be clear, there's no proof that she is other than the CIA's non-denial), then isn't her crime just the fact that she knew about the torture the CIA was performing and that Cheney and other White House principals authorized?

I mean, how could there have be anything wrong with the fact that she didn't protest loud enough against illegal torture if illegal torture wasn't happening in the first place?

 I know, I know, the Republicans were never half the brilliant strategists the media made them out to be. They probably assumed that this whole torture thing was a partisan issue, not realizing that most people who want investigations and prosecutions believe that if Democrats participated in war crimes as well, that the book should be thrown at them too. Get them all out of power.

 Instead, Karl Rove is on TV calling for investigations into what Pelosi knew. Is there a way Pelosi can oppose those investigations without being accused of trying to cover up her possible crimes? I think we all know that Republicans would have no problem framing the issue as such if she put her foot down against investigations. 

 Far be it for me to comment on Republicans' strategery, but this just seems like a really bad idea on their part. I hope it blows up in their collective face.