Gibbs Stonewalls on Pelosi's Lies

From yesterday's press briefing:

Q Somebody suggested that Speaker Pelosi should come forward with the evidence of her allegation that the CIA misled her. Does the President agree that she should have some evidence -- MR. GIBBS: You know, I appreciated the opportunity to get involved in this on Friday and I declined, and I haven't changed my mind on Monday. Q Does the President have confidence in Speaker Pelosi? MR. GIBBS: He does. [...] Q If I could go back to the CIA and Pelosi and just try this one different way. But Panetta has issued his statement. Does the President agree with Panetta that the CIA is not in the business of misleading members of Congress? MR. GIBBS: I appreciate the opportunity. I would point you to my remarks from Friday. Q So we can kind of be in limbo on whether or not the President agrees with the CIA director? MR. GIBBS: I appreciate the hypothetical. Yes, sir.

The fact that Gibbs clearly has such definitive orders not to say anything at all about Pelosi-gate shows just how bad of an issue this is for Democrats and how the White House desperately hopes it will go away. Also, the Washington Examiner reports that Pelosi knew about the letter before it was sent out:

The Central Intelligence Agency gave House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., advanced warning before CIA Chief Leon Panetta sent a memo to employees at the spy agency that countered Pelosi's claim that the agency lied to Congress about waterboarding. A CIA official, but not Panetta, made the call to Pelosi. "His office gave a heads up," a Democratic aide said Monday. The aide said Pelosi protested Panetta's memo on the call to no avail. [...] [O]ne top Republican aide said it would be unusual for Panetta to act without the White House "being aware of it first," particularly because the memo referred to the speaker.

As Bill Kristol wrote on Sunday, it seems highly unlikely that the White House didn't know about the letter before it was sent out, and there's a good chance that Rahm Emanuel and President Obama encouraged Panetta to throw Pelosi under the bus.