On the Sunday morning news programs, several pundits went out of their way to either endorse waterboarding and other techniques endorsed in the torture memos - or to dismiss the idea of holding their authors responsible...
"Some things in life need to be mysterious," said Noonan, adding, "Sometimes you need to just keep walking."
"We do not torture," Mr Bush told reporters during a visit to Panama.
He said enemies were plotting to hurt the US and his government would pursue them, but would do so "under the law".
William J. Clinton, 1/27/1998.
"I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky," he said.
Now it's Monday morning, we've all had time
to digest and absorb the astounding Allan Drury novel that unfolded
this weekend, and one should say it: The good guys finally won.
And it was moving, because they did it against the odds, and they stood
on principle, and they didn't let the polls rule them, and they acted
in a way that may have put them in both short-term and long-term
political jeopardy. But they did what they thought was right. And down
the road Republicans may see these nerve-jangling days as the time when
their party, long buffeted by doubt and confusion, began to find its
soul again.
It was Henry Hyde, stupendous and tremendous Henry Hyde, who explained
better than anyone, I thought, what was at issue. "The question before
this House," he said, "is quite simple. It is not a question of sex.
Sexual misconduct and adultery are private acts and none of Congress's
business. It is not a question of lying about sex. The matter before
the House is a question of lying under oath. This is a public act. This
is called perjury. The matter before the House is a question of the
willful, premeditated, deliberate, shameless corruption of the nation's
system of justice. Perjury and obstruction of justice cannot be
reconciled with the office of the president of the United States. That,
and nothing other than that, is the issue before us." He was followed by a series of Republicans
who spoke soberly, factually. The Democrats had long labeled the
impeachment debate a distraction from the urgent business of a great
nation. But the Republicans argued that the pursuit of justice is the
business of a great nation. In winning this point, they caught the
falling flag, producing a triumph for the rule of law, a reassertion of
the belief that no man is above it, and a rebuke for an arrogance that
had grown imperial. It was strange and Druryesque that the most
electric moment of the Clinton impeachment was the resignation of
Speaker-to-be Bob Livingston, when he said of the president, "You, sir,
may resign your post," and the Democrats hissed, "You resign!" and he
held up his hand, and looked at them, and told them he would. That
breathtaking moment, the hooting and the hand and the announcement,
seemed to me revealing of different styles, of almost characterological
differences between Democrats and Republicans these days. The Democrats
in Congress now are like the young Chuck Colson, partisan, ruthless and
tough. The Republicans seemed like the young William Cohen, thoughtful
and stricken.... It seemed to me the perfect metaphor for what
had happened in the House this weekend. They were trying to take a
grand old institution and make it clean again, make it shine like new.
It was the right thing to be doing. It's how the good guys finally won.
For the record, the Torture Memos:
The fourth document, dating from 1 August 2002, was written by OLC lawyer John Yoo and signed by his colleague Jay Bybee.
It contained legal authorisation for a list of specific harsh interrogation techniques, including pushing detainees against a wall, facial slaps, cramped confinement, stress positions and sleep deprivation.
The memo also authorises the use of "waterboarding", or simulated drowning, and the placing of a detainee into a confined space with an insect.
For the record, Bill Clinton was untruthful in regards to fellatio.