Pelosi Admits Briefing but Still Plays Surprised About Water-boarding

This New York Times article sympathetically conveys the argument that because their staff could not be briefed, “few lawmakers are equipped to make difficult legal and policy judgments about secret programs.” My experience with highly classified programs such as this is that even within the executive branch, few officials at the staff level outside of the intelligence community are given access to this information, so you probably could make the argument that the policymakers were at the same disadvantage as members of Congress, having to rely on a handful of lawyers at OLC for legal opinions.