The Benefit of the Doubt

Both The New York Times and The Washington Post saw through the smokescreen of this "compromise" on torture and see it for what it is: sanctioning the President with full authority to decide what is and what isn't cruel, degrading or humiliating. In a brilliant post, Tbogg underlines that this is the same President who mocked the execution of Karla Faye Tucker, committed hazing that came dangerously close to torture while at Yale, blew frogs up with firecrackers as a kid, and shot at his own brother with a BB gun. Very reassuring indeed that we're giving this guy the benefit of the doubt on torture.

The media immediately got that this compromise is not a compromise at all. They probably feel suckered but that won't stop them from being suckered again. The only thing that will stop this madness is by the Democrats actually bothering to take a stand. The message is so clear. "Do you trust George Bush to decide what's torture? After everything else he's done? Or do you trust the tripartite system of government and its virtues of checks and balances?"