What we have to get the press (and the freaking President) to remember is that the only Republicans left are wing-nuts. There are maybe a couple of reasonable Republicans -- people like Dick Lugar or Olympia Collins -- but for the most part, the Lincoln Chafees have left. They're gone. So, this idea that anything is going to be bipartisan is absurd.

Let's have hearings. Let's have prosecutions where people broke the law. Come on -- torture is very serious stuff and if we don't send the message that we take it seriously, the next Administration may come along and ignore the law again.

Any prosecutions will be turned into "partisan politics" by the republicans. What amazes me, and probably shouldn't, is the hypocrisy of those on the right. They tried to impeach Clinton for lying about an affair/sexual interlude but think it's okay that bush broke the law and okayed torture? Stunning!

I have said this from the beginning. If you read Sands book, "Torture Team" and understand International Law, there is no way anyone connected to this will escape the reach of the UN Convention on Torture. It is that pressure and not the US political climate that is the real pressure for it is inescapable from the law.

Either we do it to ourselves and prosecute the policy makers, lawyers and perpetrators or they will.

If Obama wants to give crooked answers, he really should look for somebody who is better at it than this poor guy.

Strange thing is that the "White House Press Corps" direct the only questions at the Obama administration.

I don't hear any of them expressing outrage that Bush and Cheney disgustingly supported the Torture and other illegal and corrupt behavior - during the past 8 years.

So my response to the press is still - where were you whining a$$hole idiots during the bush years????

Jake Tapper and Ed Henry act suddenly outraged now - as if it was the Obama administration who tortured - But ABC and CNN were all supportive of the Bush Torture years.

So this sudden "white house press corps" outrage is pretty stupid.

That sort of "journalism" really irritates me.

It seems pretty clear to me that the Obama Administration is saying:

1) They want to "look forward." They have a lot to do, and they don't want to waste any time and energy re-fighting old battles.

2) That "nobody is above the law" i.e. criminal acts must be prosecuted, as a matter of principle.

3) That this is a complex issue. It's difficult to determine who should be prosecuted, who was ultimately responsible, whether it was criminal and at what level it became criminal, etc.

4) The principle they're operating on is that low ranking people were doing what they believed were legal acts and had been convinced by superiors they were legal and ethical actions. Therefore, any prosecutions will pursue those responsible for the opinions, who should have known better.

I fully agree with all of those points. I want them to proceed cautiously rather than hastily, and get it right. I also think there are more important priorities at this immediate moment, so it's good to continue investigations in the background.

Also, while I think these acts are clearly torture, I can also understand how someone of lower rank could be convinced otherwise if supposedly the greatest legal minds had deemed it was ethical and not "torture" per se.

Lastly, Nuremberg analogies of "following orders" really don't apply here. This wasn't genocide. The Bush Admin did a good job of convincing interrogators they were acting in the best interest of their country and within the law.

A better analogy is the famous Milgram social psychology experiment where a "teacher" conducting a "scientific experiment" instructs ordinary people to give increasingly severe electric shocks to another person who fails to answer questions correctly. The teacher/authority reassuring the shocker it's OK. The electric shocks were actually faked and the shocked person an actor, but the study found that 65% of people would administer a lethal 450 volt shock to a screaming victim, given enough reassurance from an authority it was reasonable.

Gosh, image if these geldings in the MSM had actually had some cajones during a Bush press conference about the fucking torture?

I'd really love to pound Jake Tapper in the face for about an hour.

"Enhanced feedback technique"

"Let's see Dick enjoy a few "dunks" and see how he likes it."

As much as I loathe ALL of the despicable people who did this, I do not believe that even THEY deserve to be tortured... if only because of what the act represents as to the nature of the person carrying on the act....

It really is amazing how they let Bush get away with misfeasanace and malfeasance of historical proportion, yet are all over Obama for any missteps in trying to correct these wrongs.

If worthless pieces of shit like Tapper and Henry had done their jobs over the last eight years, we might not be fighting over whether Obama is cleaning up Bush's messes according to Beltway protocol.

You have to admit that Emanuel went pretty far on Sunday and Gibbs followed along. Somebody in the White House, probably the President, had an "Oh Shit" moment and realized that giving the grunts a pass at the CIA is one thing, but letting Bybee, Yoo, Addington, Cheney and Rummy off the hook is something else again. You just can't say senior officials are above the law the way Emanuel did. Obama decided to punt that ball over to Holder, with a wink and a nod.

The sad thing is that Emanuel's comments probably reflect current administration thinking better than Obama's walk back. My guess is the White House is hoping this will all go away and they won't have to do anything about the blatant criminal conduct in the Bush DOJ.

I think it's significant to consider that the first mention of George W. Bush in the New York Times occurred in 1967 when, as former president of the Delta Kappa Epsilon chapter at Yale, Bush defended the fraternity's practice of branding its pledges with a red-hot coat hanger. Regardless of one's position, one way or another, as to the efficacy of torture, it's worth remembering that our former unelected president's moral default setting is one of petty, vindictive sadism, and that infiltrated through the mechanisms of government during the course of his shameful, illegitimate watch. President Obama, none of these people should get off the hook, least of all this pea-brained, sociopathic excuse for a faux president.