"We're Americans -- We Don't Need No Stinkin' Laws"

Jon Chait has a little think piece in the New Republic entitled Tortured Logic . He complains a little about why Republicans say that the rule of law applies to one President's sex life, but not to another President's torture policies.

I responded on-line, like a good Fox commentator, by raising an issue I know absolutely nothing about.

"I don't really watch 24, but my understanding is that Jack Bauer is someone who the President knows personally. I think that is an important point that is never brought up. If the President really had a handful of people (literally 10 or less) who engage in torture on behalf of truth, justice and the American way, then the President would be able to use the pardon power on the grounds of their extraordinary service to the nation. These 10 (do you even need 10) would work on the rare occasions where torture might be justified on some morally ambiguous basis. But that really was not or is not what the Republicans ever had in mind."

"Regarding the first part of your excellent essay, I believe the Republicans believe that if you are a certain sort of person worshipping a certain kind of God living in a certain part of the country, then you don't need the law to tell you what you need to do. But everyone else does."