Cheney Dark Side Update

Dan Froomkin, writing critically in WaPo, sources the "dark side" reference that might have set off the NYT opinion writers today. Here's Cheney's comment to Tim Russert in an interview a scant five days after 9/11:

"We also have to work, though, sort of the dark side, if you will. We've got to spend time in the shadows in the intelligence world. A lot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly, without any discussion, using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies, if we're going to be successful. That's the world these folks operate in, and so it's going to be vital for us to use any means at our disposal, basically, to achieve our objective."

Froomkin immediately relates this to torture -- stretching the Cheney quote rather thin. "Using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies" is in Froomkin's eyes, the same as saying "we will torture the SOBs'til their eyes fall out."

What does Froomkin recommend? Not using any means that are at our disposal with the 20 or 30 worst and highest ranking of the entire terrorist scumworld? Allowing another 9/11 because we're afraid to drop the temperture too low, turn the music up too high, or deprive a pig of sleep?

The McCain bill is a horrible piece of legislation that lets the world assume we're just a bunch of Husseins who need to be threatened with jail time in order to be decent. It is also a "have you stopped beating your wife" bill -- you can't fight it without looking bad. But you have to fight it.

Sen. McCain, sane Republicans -- and we are the vast majority of the party -- will remember this.