from FNC 

 In the midst of Republican criticism against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's claim that the Bush administration had misled her about waterboarding, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has issued a unique yet rather effective statement belaboring the speaker.

Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist minister whose pro-life stance is widely believed to have brought him victory in the first primary contest in last year's presidential election, wrote on his website:

 

Here's a story about a lady named Nancy A ruthless politician, but dressed very fancy Very ambitious, she got herself elected Speaker But as for keeping secrets, she proved quite a "leaker."

She sat in briefings and knew about enhanced interrogation; But claims she wasn't there, and can't give an explanation. She disparages the CIA and says they are a bunch of liars; Even the press aren't buying it and they're stoking their fires.

 

I think Speaker Pelosi has done too much speaking; And instead of her trashing our intelligence officials, it's her nose that needs tweaking.

 

Pelosi is one of several Democrats who have called for a "truth commission" to investigate the detainee treatment by the Bush administration against detainees. Republicans have responded by saying that Congress had been informed by the Bush administration about the CIA's interrogation program, which includes waterboarding.

 

Waterboarding is a form of simulated drowning that critics say is torture. The Obama administration banned the technique two days after it occupied the White House.

 

Intelligence reports and Justice Department memos declassified by the Obama administration in the past weeks have confirmed that waterboarding and other aggressive methods were used by the CIA as early as 2002.

 

Last Thursday, Pelosi had insisted that she had been told by Bush officials that aggressive interrogation methods were legal under Justice Department opinions, but not that they were being used.

The Speaker, who has been accused of issuing contradictory statements about her knowledge about when the CIA began using waterboarding, said in her weekly pres briefing that that she had been briefed only once about enhanced interrogation techniques, in September 2002, when she was the top minority member of the House Intelligence Committee.

 

But she disclosed for the first time that she had found out in 2003 that waterboarding was being used by the CIA. She also said that Republicans were criticizing her to divert attention from the Bush administration's terror policies.

 

Pelosi said she was informed by an aide five months after the briefing that the Republican chairman and the new top Democrat in the Intelligence panel, Rep. Jane Harman, had been briefed "about the use of certain techniques which had been the subject of earlier legal opinions."

 

According to her, Harman had sent CIA General Counsel Scott Muller a letter to raise concerns and protest the use of the interrogation methods, but "no letter could change the policy. It was clear we had to change the leadership of the Congress and the White House."

 

Pushed by reporters to clarify her statement, Pelosi had said, "The CIA was misleading the Congress and at the same time the [Bush] administration was misleading Congress on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq."

 

Sen. Kit Bond, the ranking GOP in the Senate Intelligence Committee, has called the claims "outrageous."

 

Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich also called his successor on ABC News Radio last week a "loser" and "a trivial politician" who was engaged in "the most despicable, dishonest and vicious political effort I've seen in my lifetime."

 

Over the weekend, House Minority Leader John Boehner said on CNN's State of the Union, "Lying to the Congress of the United States is a crime. And if the speaker is accusing the CIA or other

 

intelligence officials of lying or misleading theCongress, then she should come forward with evidence and turn that over to the Justice Department so [they] can be prosecuted."

 

"If that's not the case, I think she ought to apologize to our intelligence professionals around the world," he added