These guys just can't help tripping on themselves:

Cheney triggered the flap in an interview Tuesday by radio broadcaster Scott Hennen of WDAY in Fargo, N.D. Hennen said callers had told him, "Please, let the vice president know that if it takes dunking a terrorist in water, we're all for it, if it saves lives."

"Would you agree a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives?" Hennen asked.

"Well, it's a no-brainer for me, but for a while there I was criticized as being the vice president for torture," Cheney said. "We don't torture. That's not what we're involved in."

Translation: We believe in torture, but we don't do it.

Cheney denies it:

"I have said that the interrogation program for a selected number of detainees is very important ... I believe it has allowed us to prevent terrorist attacks against the United States. I did not talk about specific techniques and won't. I didn't say anything about waterboarding ... (the interviewer) didn't even use that phrase."

Spoken like a lawyer. What next? Quibbling about the meaning of "is"? (The cliché comes to mind, "When Clinton lied, nobody died.")

Let's turn to the White House spin:

At his photo op, Bush said, "This country doesn't torture, we're not going to torture. We will interrogate people we pick up off the battlefield to determine whether or not they've got information that will be helpful to protect the country."

Snow, at a morning meeting with reporters, tried to brush off the controversy.

"You know as a matter of common sense that the vice president of the United States is not going to be talking about water boarding. Never would, never does, never will," Snow said. "You think Dick Cheney's going to slip up on something like this? No, come on."

Not a slip up. He knew what he was saying, clearly.

Of course, the White House doesn't do itself, or America, any favors by being coy with what it does not consider torture:

The White House refuses to list permitted techniques but said torture, cruel or inhuman treatment, mutilation or maiming and intentionally causing serious bodily injury, rape, sexual assault among other techniques are prohibited.

The measure was in response to a US Supreme Court ruling in June that Bush had overstepped his powers and breached the Geneva Conventions by setting up special war crimes tribunals.

I marvel at how low these people have brought America.

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