Happy Hour Open Thread: Bush’s FBI Chief Not Backing Off Torture Views* Robert Mueller, the Bush-appointed FBI director, is not backing away from his claim in a 2008 interview that torture has not foiled any terror attacks on America, a view that directly contradicts Dick Cheney’s claims.
I asked Mueller’s spokesperson, John Miller, whether he wanted to revise or clarify his view, now that some time has passed since he first expressed it, and Miller declined comment. So Mueller’s claim stands.
* Andrew Sullivan memorably terms the GOP’s defense of torture “the rot of the rump.”
* The Huffington Post catches House GOP leader John Boehner using the word “torture.”
* Which prompts this explanation from a Boehner spokesperson:
“It is clear from the context that Boehner was simply using liberals’ verbiage to describe these interrogation techniques. The United States does not torture.”
* Ben Smith points out that one reason the Cheney camp is successfully shifting the torture debate is that “the White House’s main position on the issue seems to be that it would prefer it went away.”
* Steve Benen explains the lack of White House pushback.
* A big blow to the anti-torture argument: Matthew Yglesias admits that he wouldn’t hesitate to cough up all sorts of secret info about the vast George Soros-Think Progress left wing conspiracy if he were subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques.
* GOP Rep Pete King offers a nuanced take:
“If we have another 2,000 people killed, I want Nancy Pelosi and George Soros, John Conyers and Pat Leahy to go to the funeral and say, ‘Your son was vaporized because we didn’t want to dump some guy’s head under water for 30 seconds.’”
Maybe King should have a conversation with Bush’s FBI director about this.
* Some Obama allies are working very hard indeed to push back on the Cheney camp’s torture spin.
* A new Research 2000 poll for DailyKos finds that a majority of Texas Republicans approve of secession talk.
* Which prompts Eric Kleefeld to nominate Chuck Norris for President of the New Texas Republic.
* And Dan Froomkin says that the public sees Obama’s multi-lateralism and embrace of compromise and dialog with enemies as signs of strength.
Update: And a former 9/11 Commission member tells Sam Stein that probing Bush-era torture is not in the country’s interests, which is potentially problematic because the Commission is being held up as a template for what might happen now to investigate torture.
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/probes-of-bush-administration/happy-hour-open-thread-bush-fbi-director-not-backing-off-torture-views/
