Media coverage of the disclosure of the "torture memo"
authored by Bush Justice Department official John C. Yoo has been
mostly a deafening silence. But on this morning's Chris Matthews'
show, someone finally fired a shot. As we mentioned in this morning's
liveblog, credit goes to The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan, for taking
the opportunity to ensure that this matter got out into the televised
discourse somehow. SULLIVAN: The latest revelations on the torture
front show the memo from John Yoo...means that Don Rumsfeld, David
Addington and John Yoo should not leave the United States any
time soon. They will be, at some point, indicted for war crimes.
The moment came during a segment on Matthews' show where the
panel is invited to "tell him something he doesn't know,"
though this might be more accurately termed, "something he
doesn't know he should talk about."
Every day, it becomes more difficult to blame George Bush, Dick
Cheney and comrades for their seven years (and counting) of crimes,
corruption and destruction of our political values. Think about
it this way: if you were a high government official and watched
as -- all in a couple of weeks time -- it is revealed, right out
in the open, that you suspended the Fourth Amendment, authorized
torture, proclaimed yourself empowered to break the law, and sent
the nation's top law enforcement officer to lie blatantly about
how and why the 9/11 attacks happened so that you could acquire
still more unchecked spying power and get rid of lawsuits that
would expose what you did, and the political press in this country
basically ignored all of that and blathered on about Obama's bowling
score and how he eats chocolate, wouldn't you also conclude that
you could do anything you want, without limits, and know there
will be no consequences? What would be the incentive to stop doing
all of that?
