Bishop fails to secure Pelosi probe

Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, unsuccessfully attempted Thursday to convince the House to order an investigation into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's claims that the CIA lied to her about whether it used torture.

He introduced a resolution calling for the House to appoint a committee of two Republicans and two Democrats to investigate the truthfulness of her claims and find out if the CIA indeed has been lying to the House.

After some parliamentary maneuvering, the House voted down whether to consider that resolution on a 252-172 mostly party-line vote.

Bishop told the House before the vote, "If indeed there has been a pattern of misinformation that has been given to the House of Representatives by an agency of government, that is an untenable and improper situation to have."

He added, "It is imperative that we try and find the truth of that matter, to make sure that if it has happened, it never happens again."

Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami called Bishop's move a partisan ploy.

"This is partisan politics and an attempt by the Republicans to distract from the real issue of creating jobs and making progress on health care, energy and education," he said.

Bishop's resolution outlined the sometimes conflicting statements by Pelosi and CIA Director Leon Panetta (a former Democratic House member) about whether the CIA had been truthful.

"Speaker Pelosi's public statements allege a sustained pattern of deception by government intelligence officials," Bishop's resolution said.

For example, the resolution noted that she told MSNBC on Feb. 25, "I can say flat out they never told us that these enhanced interrogation techniques were being used," even though they had been.

The resolution added that when asked at a May 15 news conference if she were accusing the CIA of lying to her, she said, "Yes, I'm saying they are misleading, the CIA was misleading the Congress" and further, "they mislead us all the time," and "they misrepresented every step of the way."

Bishop's resolution noted that Panetta said it is not the CIA's policy or practice to mislead Congress, and that its records show that CIA officials had briefed Pelosi and others truthfully.