More evidence that the pro-torture wing of the GOP is not just politically dominant but intellectually dominant in the Republican Party. The right's dominant think tank, the Heritage Foundation, is taking on Dick Cheney's legal alter ego David Addington in a leadership role:
As Dr. Butler leaves his current day-to-day role to concentrate full-time on this new effort, he will be replaced as Vice President for Domestic and Economic Policy Studies by David Addington.
Mr. Addington is a brilliant policy expert with over twenty years of senior experience at all levels and branches of governance. As a trusted advisor to two White Houses, the Defense Department and four congressional committees, Mr. Addington understands Washington and how policy ideas become law. Most recently, Mr. Addington served in the Office of the Vice President, first as Dick Cheney's counsel and later as his chief of staff.
It's difficult to overstate the importance of Addington's role in helping craft the Bush administration's adoption of torture, denial of due process for terror detainees, and warrantless surveillance. Like John Yoo, Addington simply believed there were no limits on executive power during wartime. The Heritage Foundation's commitment to "limited government" could hardly be more cynical at this point, although its partisan reversal on the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act comes close.
