President Bush was questioned about the torture memo repeatedly today. No matter how specific the questions became, though, he kept on pretending he was answering them.
Pressed repeatedly during a news conference here about a Justice Department memo saying torture could be justified in the war on terrorism, Bush said only that U.S. interrogators had to follow the law.
Asked whether he agreed with the Justice Department view, Bush said he could not remember whether he had seen the memorandum. "The authorization I issued was that anything we did would conform to U.S. law and would be consistent with international treaty obligations," he said.
A second questioner asked Bush whether he would authorize "any means necessary" to elicit information from a prisoner who had information about an imminent terrorist attack. The president replied: "What I've authorized is that we stay within U.S. law."
Pointing out that the administration lawyers who wrote the memo believe terrorist suspects could be tortured without violating the law, a third questioner asked whether torture was ever morally justified. "Look, I'm going to say it one more time," Bush replied. "Maybe I can be more clear. The instructions went out to our people to adhere to law. That ought to comfort you."
No, Mr. President, it doesn't comfort me. What would comfort me is if you would address a direct question with a relevant answer once in a while. You often hold yourself up as a great shining light of moral certainty, surely you can answer the question, "Is torture ever morally justified?" Is it? Huh? Come on, you sonofabitch, answer the question.
The clever thing about Bush's is that since his lawyers and Justice Department have set about changing the laws as they regard torture by crafting complex and disgusting legal arguments, technically by ordering torture he could still be said to be instructing people to stay within the law -- as he sees it.
