House kills Utah Rep. Rob Bishop's Pelosi probe

For the second time in a month, the House on Tuesday killed an attempt by Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, to order a probe into whether the CIA lied to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi about the use of torture, or whether her claims were the real deception.

The House killed a resolution by Bishop calling for that probe on a 247-171 procedural vote, mostly along party lines.

Bishop had introduced a nearly identical resolution, which suffered identical failure, on May 21.

He tried it again because last week, Pelosi said at a news conference that she continues to receive CIA briefings. But news reports said she refused to say whether she believes the CIA is continuing to mislead her, which she said earlier that it did by not telling her about use of torture. The CIA has denied misleading her.

Bishop said he called for a probe again "for one simple reason … there is no cloture on this particular issue."

"Silence is not a solution," he said. "In an era in which perception is the same as reality, silence does not solve the problem and indeed harms" trust in Congress.

"If the data we are to receive is in question, then the solutions and the arguments we derive are equally in question," he said. "All of our decisions therefore become suspect."

Bishop called for a subcommittee of two Democrats and two Republicans from the Intelligence Committee to research Pelosi's claims and report back within 60 days.

"Their report, by the very nature of the make-up of that committee, will not be subject to political spin, and we may be able to move on," he said.

"It's the integrity of the House that is in question here and needs to be answered," Bishop told the House. "This is about the integrity of the institution to make sure that we were not intentionally misled by an agency of the government."

Pelosi's office has called such moves by Bishop a partisan ploy.

After Bishop's first attempt to seek a probe, Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami called it "an attempt by the Republicans to distract from the real issues of creating jobs and making progress on health care, energy and education."

Pushing such resolutions also helps blunt Democrats' criticism of the George W. Bush administration for allowing waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation methods."

The tactic reminds voters that Democratic leaders may have known about torture; if not, then the CIA lied to them about it — but Democrats have not pressed to hold the CIA responsible for that, or punish the agency for any deception.

"Republicans will continue to insist on answers on behalf of our intelligence professionals and the American people," House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a written statement after the vote.

E-MAIL: lee@desnews.com