Scott Lemieux notices a new addition to influential liberal Fred Hiatt's editorial page at the Washington Post: former speechwriter Marc Thiessen, who has spent the entirety of his post-Bush administration career attempting to defend the use of torture by his former boss. I'd have to say the highlight would be the time he argued that torturing Muslim terrorist suspects was necessary because of their religion -- and since that column appeared in the Post, I'm guessing Hiatt thinks there's something to this. Clearly, Hiatt felt that between Charles Krauthammer, Bill Kristol, and Richard Cohen he still didn't have the whole "I heart torture" contingent covered.
There's really no limit to what you can achieve in Washington as long as you leverage your efforts toward helping the powerful escape culpability for their wrongdoing. It's like the mob. You show loyalty to the right people, eventually you get made.
-- A. Serwer
