Will GOP attacks on Nancy Pelosi backfire?

After a one-two punch from Newt Gingrich and Dick Cheney, House Minority Leader John Boehner and other Republican lawmakers worry that their party has overplayed its hand on Nancy Pelosi.

The Republicans’ fear: Gingrich’s call for Pelosi’s ouster has set an unattainable goal, and Cheney’s jabs at her during a speech Thursday will allow Democrats to portray the controversy as a partisan attack by one of the GOP’s most polarizing figures.

“If the story becomes about us and not her, it’s a problem for us,” said a senior Republican lawmaker.

Boehner has been working to cool off other Republicans who want Pelosi’s scalp. He fears that, if Republicans move to call for Pelosi’s ouster — as Gingrich did — before laying out a case for an investigation first, then they will have squandered a major opportunity to cut into Pelosi’s authority.

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“The best thing for anyone, let alone Nancy Pelosi, is to be the subject of a petty, venal, absurd attack by Newt Gingrich,” said Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.). “He’s the gift that keeps on giving.”

“If anything, people have circled the wagons around her,” said Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson. “All you have to do is mention the names Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich and Dick Cheney as attacking the speaker of the House ... and people see this for what it is.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22848.html#ixzz0GExD7Gr3&B

Didn't know that happened and it's horrifying.
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A new federal probe of the 2001 downing of a plane carrying West Michigan missionaries in Peru concluded the CIA operated outside the law and then lied to Congress and federal officials, according to U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra.

"We cannot have a community that operates outside the law and covers up what it does and lies to Congress," Hoekstra said today.

Hoekstra said he will press for criminal investigation following release of the report by the Office of Inspector General.

Veronica "Roni" Bowers, 35, of Muskegon, was holding her 7-month-old daughter, Charity, when their plane was misidentified by as a potential drug-smuggling aircraft and fired upon by a Peruvian air force jet. A bullet struck Bowers in the back, killing her and the baby.

Bowers' husband, Jim, then 37, son, Cory, 8, and the pilot survived the crash that followed the shooting.

"This is a shootdown that should not have occurred if we had an agency that was working appropriately," said Hoekstra, a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

The report concluded CIA operatives failed to follow rules of engagement in the 2001 incident as well as several others, Hoekstra said.

It also found there was an active coverup by the CIA of the facts surrounding the case, Hoekstra said.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2008/11/post_24.html

may ...just may...come to US media light.