Editorials

What would the liberal's fantasy of putting the Bush administration on trial for its deceptions and misdeeds look like?

A reasonable guess is what happened Thursday before a U.S. House committee.

Speaking to members of Congress were David Addington and John Yoo, two of the Bush administration helpers who handed over the sledgehammers that aides used to chip away at the Constitution.

"Speaking" doesn't do justice to what the pair did. A seemingly dazed and confused Yoo, now out of the Justice Department and in the employ of a California law school, appeared as if he wandered in from a two-week bender. During an exchange with a Minnesota congressman, Yoo got into an extended tussle over the meaning of the word "implement."

Addington is chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney; "Cheney's Cheney" is how one pundit put it. His answers Thursday were laced with condescension and seething anger.

What about the work of the so-called War Council, a group of Bush staffers assembled to find a way to work around U.S. laws and principles that frown on torturing prisoners?

"To me, it was just the lawyers getting together to talk," Addington said.

Addington claimed he could not speak more freely because al-Qaida might be watching C-SPAN. Who knew those cave hideouts got cable TV?

The pair went to Capitol Hill to discuss their role in the White House's post-9/11 pro-torture policies. However, they managed to say something while at the same time saying very little.

At one point, Alabama Congressman Artur Davis implored the chairman to compel the witnesses, one playing hostile and the other senile, to set aside their semantic dissections and speak in plain English. Rep. Davis was surely disappointed at the end of Yoo's and Addington's testimony.

However, lessons, subtle and requiring interpretation, were on display Thursday.

The first is that none of the torture defenders wish to loudly voice their legal reasoning. Nor are they readily willing to confront the horrible consequences of torturing suspects, a practice the United States, in other times, has prosecuted others for carrying out.

The TV show 24 is just that, a TV show. It's difficult to discuss the reality of simulated drowning or stress positions, the technique used on John McCain and the reason his range of arm motion is so severely limited today.

A second lesson deals with hubris, something the president's men have in ample supply. Jan. 20, 2009, may be the end of the Bush administration, but if Thursday's performance by Addington and Yoo is any indicator, the arrogance and conviction that they were right will endure.

Most Americans have come to see the broad missteps of this president. Acknowledgement by White House insiders of the mistakes and betrayals of U.S. principles will take more time, if it ever happens in this life.