Two front-page Politico headlines, two hours apart:
GOP keeps the heat on Pelosi over CIA
By ANDY BARR | 5/18/09 9:27 AM
Pelosi tried to quell the controversy over her CIA comments, but some aren't ready to let it go just yet.The Huddle: Changing conversation
By MARTIN KADY II | 5/18/09 7:27 AM
Recess can't come fast enough for Pelosi and her staff and Republicans are enjoying the implosion.
Wow, this Nancy Pelosi-vs-CIA story must be really awful for Pelosi, huh? Sounds like people just aren't buying her statement that the CIA misled her.
But wait, what's this? Polling shows that more people do think it's likely the CIA misled Pelosi?
How likely is it that the CIA misled Pelosi about the use of waterboarding when interrogating prisoners?
20% Very likely
23% Somewhat likely
19% Not very likely
22% Not at all likely
16% Not sure
Strikingly, this is almost completely at odds with the way the traditional news orgs have covered this dispute. Most have focused almost entirely on the doubts the competing claims of Pelosi and the CIA cast on Pelosi's credibility, with very few giving anywhere near the same level of scrutiny to the ways in which the CIA's credibility is now in question.
If this poll is to be believed, however, more people are focused on the latter, despite what the news orgs are telling them to think.