MUST PELOSI DEPART? - AT 11:06 A.M. ET:  Organ music up.  A theme of lament.  Will she go?  After all these years of working toward becoming America's first female speaker of the House, will Nancy Pelosi have to step down over her fight with the CIA?  (music stronger)  Is the end near for the woman they affectionately call San Fran Nan?  (fade to commercial).

Dick Morris says yes.  Nan must take one for the team.  From RealClearPolitics:

It's obvious that either Leon Panetta, Obama's head of the CIA, or Nancy Pelosi, his party's Speaker of the House, has to go. No administration can tolerate a permanent, public civil war between two such high-ranking officials.

Especially when their disagreement stems not from issues of policy but from matters of veracity and credibility, the battle must end in one of their resignations. You cannot have the head of the nation's first line of defense against terrorism calling the Speaker of the House a liar and being attacked by her in turn.

The key point:

Obviously, Obama cannot fire Panetta. First of all, he just appointed him. And second, to cave in to Pelosi (D-Calif.) would earn him the massive disrespect and disapproval of the very operatives on whom he must depend to keep the nation safe.

COMMENT:  Morris makes sense, as he usually does.  But I doubt if either will go, unless Panetta decides to resign in disgust, which is unlikely.  He's a beltway gut fighter with great political instincts.  Pelosi won't quit unless a release of documents completely convicts her in the court of public opinion, but even then I suspect she'd hang on.  Her court consists of flaming liberals for whom lying about the CIA is fine sport.  It's hard to imagine her being forced out by House Democrats unless there are major losses for the party in the 2010 midterms.

What's weird here is that Pelosi's crowd in the House is trying to continue her feud with the CIA.  Maybe they just know their constituency, but Obama should, as the dad in "Love Story" said, "make a couple of calls." 

May 20, 2009