I think this might be different-possible reasons for follow-through/bigger happenings than in the past:
1) All of this is coming on the heels of a vigorous torture debate among dems and repubs presidential candidates-mainstream repubs in particular might be compelled to take public positions on this
2) Major detainee hearings going on in Supreme Court, ongoing congressional investigations relating to the issue-this is major fuel in the fire. PLUS there is legislation on board to bring the CIA questioning practices into line-this is a near-perfect example of why the bill should pass. Big people are going to have to talk about this-again, 08 elections on board-ALSO: read sheldon whitehouse's statement on TPM on OLC opinions-same shit.
3) If house and Senate leaders were told about the tapes and the 'intention to destroy them'-somebody was quoted as urging them not to do it-it becomes pretty ridiculous that the president/vc wouldn't be briefed as well. Anyone who oversaw the decision is liable-again, this is straight obstruction of justice.
Scandals like this only get follow through when a certain amount of factors line up-political salience, interest from the public, effort on the part of legislators, etc-this has more possibility of reaching the top than most of the shit before it-somebody ordered those tapes destroyed. We're already into the 'I don't recall' stage of political debate only a day after the story broke which seems to me indicative of a bigger scandal. Anway, could be I'll be eating my words in a months time, but this thing seems big.
