“Democrats knew about torture” stories are getting dumber by the minute

Given how thoroughly the media has bought into the GOP's “Torture is totally fine and necessary and Nancy Pelosi should resign for knowing about it, even though we can't prove she did” argument, you have to wonder how long it will take before the media begins applying that “logic” to other Democrats in Congress.

And maybe it's beginning. Here's a sensationalistic report in the The Intelligencer:

Records: Murphy briefed by CIA on waterboarding

Posted in News on Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 at 3:15 pm by Intelligencer writer Gary Weckselblatt

Eighth District Congressman Patrick Murphy has attended two CIA briefings at the center of a firestorm between the agency and the Speaker of the House, who said she was lied to about waterboarding.

Wow! Patrick Murphy knew, too!

Oh. Wait. It turns out Murphy didn't actually attend “two CIA briefings at the center of a firestorm.” He attended two CIA briefings held years later, long after the fact:

Murphy, a member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, is listed among lawmakers in attendance on Jan. 16, 2008. The topics included “Videotape Desctruction” and “Discussion of EITs, including waterboarding.”

On March 12, less than two months after President Barack Obama signed orders that end torture, Murphy was briefed with other members of the Intelligence Committee about “General references to EITs, interrogations and the end of the use of EITs by the CIA throughout. One mention of one specific EIT, waterboarding,” according to the CIA chart.

The CIA briefing “at the center of a firestorm” between the CIA and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi occurred in 2002. That's a full six years before the meetings the Intelligencer's crack investigative unit says Patrick Murphy attended. The difference is rather significant, since the whole controversy is about whether Members of Congress knew about the Bush administration's torture in real time.