Readerreader, the torturers and torture apologists may not have all been Christians. But the tortured were Muslims. And this our media would not have condoned this torture if the victims had not been Muslim.

There is an assumption among anti-Muslim bigots like Frum, that torture can be contained, limited to those they feel are expendable and undesirable.

But torture regimes eventually begin to widen the circle of targets, it is the simple cold unalterable logic of fascism.

You complain about the expense of prosecutuion. I'd note that poorer countries--Chile, Argentina, South Africa--have felt it more costly not to confront their pasts, to put a stop to their torture regimes. Obama is wrong to think reconciliation means nothing more than a hero-worship photo op for himself at CIA headquarters.

If not for the inconvenient fact of the detainees, perhaps Holder and Obama could have sidestepped their sworn duty just as you describe.

Obama can shape his daily message as much he wants, schedule as many smiley photo ops with Muslims abroad and torturers at home as he likes, but the sticking points are 1) those tortured who deserve to be convicted but for whom the evidence is tainted by torture and 2) those tortured (and some killed) whose crimes were either relatively small or nonexistant. Obama himself has set a deadline for closing Gitmo in one year: Tick, tick, tick.

The evil that Bush did lives on after him. Obama would do better to substantively confront that evil than assume Americans will look at a pretty new Presidential face and forgive and forget.

No cases currently referred to the Justice Department rise to the level of constitutional consequence as cases involving law breaking by officials in the Bush adminstration.

Many of us will be watching for the cases that Obama and Holder feel are more important to prosecute than torture. Imagine the cynicism if the administration adopts the argument that, with 10,000 referrals, by gosh they just didn't have time and money. Heck, maybe torture just slipped Obama's mind, what with all the photo ops with Bo and all.

Obama swore (twice!) to "the best of [his] ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Holder swore a similar oath. Moreover, Obama promised an "era of responsibility." Since that moving statement, both have argued that they should not have to uphold the plain language of the constitution, and have repeated Bush arguments to the court in the detainee cases. This may prove both a constitutional and tactical error.

No matter the legal course the administration chooses for the detainees, the Constitutionally important fact that the American government tortured them will not neatly fade. Obama's desire not to get bogged down in the Bush administrations problems is beside the point. Torture may have been the Bush Administration's fault, but it is inevitably Obama's problem. By needlessly identifying with Bush, Obama is quickly making torture both his problem and dirtying his hands with culpability.

The best alternative is to execute all laws, even if the lawbreakers are elites. Obama should be a substantive partisan of the constitution as he seeks to disentangle a constitutional mess. Instead, Obama offers reconciliation based on nothing but his perceived likability and the anti-American argument that elites like himself are above the law.

Thanks Advocatus, that was perfect.

Garrison is a soft bigot, of a type I know well. I hope others now see the danger behind the faux-ksy Americana that Keillor preaches behind literary cover, not so very different than the German educated class' obsession with the Volk in the early 20th century.

Lake Woebegone still blows the fire siren at a certain hour, as many Midwestern towns once did, to note the onset of curfew. People of different backgrounds than Keillor, Ted Stevens, or George Bush had best leave town or face the "rough men."

But even Lake Woebegone, there are those with good hearts, willing to stand up to terrorists, torturers and socially respectable bigots like Keillor alike.

Obamas and Clintons are buds.

Spector brings the 60th vote.

9 in 10 elite pundits agree: Obama is great for us!

The stock market is soaring!

Ah, but.

Yo, Gary dear heart, am I right, am I right? Do I win a free copy of Liberty?

I read the blurb in Amazon, though, and [sigh] sounds like more image-conscious clap-trap.

Spin this column into a novel worth reading, eh? You're a loathsome creature, but I think you're finally finding your voice.

Leinie's on me anytime, bigot.

I may now die a happy man.

I wonder if that was intentional disinformation. Shades of Rummy.

Obama should stop trying to finesse and lie about Gitmo, ship the detainees to the mainland and force the courts to sort the whole mess out. The bad ones can go to the Fourth and the tortured mistakes to the Ninth, wtf.

Let Holder think on his feet for a change.

Since the flu is a swine-avian hybrid, why not call it When Pigs Fly Flu? Or maybe: Pigs Can Fly Flu.