It is a very open secret in Democratic circles that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) do not have the best of relationships. The pair were rivals for the speaker’s gavel after the Democrats took control of the House in 2006. Later, Pelosi backed the notoriously corrupt Jack Murtha (D-PA) for Majority Leader against Hoyer. Tensions have simmered beneath the surface ever since.

But now that Speaker Pelosi finds herself embroiled in a growing scandal over what she knew and when she knew it regarding the use of enhanced interrogation techniques on terrorist detainees, those tensions are about to boil over. Hoyer is backing an inquiry into the interrogations, sought by Pelosi, but said today that the Speaker herself should be a target of the investigation. [sub. req.]

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer said Tuesday that investgations into the Bush Administration’s use of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques should look at what congressional leaders, including Speaker Pelosi, knew about the use of the methods that have been criticized as torture. [...]

“Frankly, information about what was said, when it was said, who said it, that ought to be on the record so the American public knows.”

Welcome back from your trip, Madam Speaker.

Pelosi seems about to learn the true meaning of that old saying, “revenge is a dish best served cold.”. But there is another saying with which the Speaker may have a more intimate familiarity: payback is a [Pelosi].