Waterboarding works! Who knew?

Over the past two years, the Art Pope Puppetshow has served as an exceptional lightning rod for galvanizing progressives against the toxic agenda of North Carolina's free-market extremists. With a multi-million dollar budget to oil their influence-buying machine, the Show has clearly had some measure of success in shaping the agenda with small town newspapers in general and with the Raleigh News and Observer, in particular.

The fondness of the N&O's political reporters for all things Pope has been well discussed, as have the water-carrying activities of Rick Martinez, an opinionator at the N&O whose wife Donna works backstage at the Show. And while I'm reluctant to boost his readership by linking to his columns, today's piece in the N&O shows Martinez at his worst.

As you read his column about presidential politics and foreign policy, pay special attention to these two stunning paragraphs:

Paragraph No. 1
What's surprising is Obama's acceptance of the Bush Doctrine of unilateral pre-emption. Of course, he proclaims he'll exhaust all diplomatic options before firing a shot in anger. But bottom line, he writes: "I will not hesitate to use force, unilaterally if necessary, to protect the American people or our vital interests whenever we are attacked or imminently threatened." There's little qualitative difference in that statement and the policy implemented by Bush/Cheney.

Paragraph No. 2
Most intriguing in the McCain plan is the creation of a new specialty -- interrogation. Instead of waterboarding, McCain's interrogators would use advanced psychological techniques to get critical information from detainees. Fine, Senator, but keep the waterboarding option open. It works.

Regarding the first paragraph, the kindest thing I can say about Martinez is that the poor guy is probably not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Every current or future candidate would espouse the exact same policy, as well they should. But to assert that such a policy was "implemented by Bush/Cheney" is laughable. One teeny-tiny element missing in Bush's misguided rush to war: there was nothing even remotely resembling an imminent threat. Period.

Regarding the second paragraph, I simply point out that if the US were to drop a nuclear bomb on Tehran tomorrow, there would be plenty of people like Martinez who would claim "it works" as well.

So there you have it. A News and Observer columnists who believes (1) George and Dick's Big Adventure in Iraq was inspired public policy, and (2) torture works, so why not use it.

Thanks Rick. You make me proud that I no longer subscribe to the crappy paper you write for.