The Other Kennedy Going Political?

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. usually busies himself by trying to save the world from pollution -- while trying lamely to justify his opposition to off-shore wind-generation ... off his ritzy shore, at least.

But his position as a columnist at HuffPost gives him opportunity to show off his ultra-elite brainpower on other topics, as well. Like today, when he's not trusting the Bush Administration on torture.

Frankly, when given Albert Gonzales' statement to the Council on Foreign Relations Thursday night, which Kennedy tees off on, I'm a bit leery myself, because it's a grand overstatement:

"We are not going to torture, period. [The president said that] even in a situation where you have custody of someone who might have the launch codes of an atomic bomb that's about to go off in Washington D.C. and may kill millions of Americans and that person has the information that may save millions of lives, the president has said we're not going to torture…We don't believe in torture, and we're not going to engage in torture."

I'm comforted by what discomforts Kennedy: Gonzales' refusal to get into what constitutes torture. If we begin defining it, as a Human Rights Watch representative tried to do at the Gonzales speech, we are sliding down a slippery slope while Human Rights Watch and others will ski merrily beside us, ever tightening the defintion. In the end, anything short of three squares a day and fresh linens will be torture.

Remember, Human Rights Watch is synonymous with George Soros.

There's a line between harsh and beneficial intimidation and brutal, physical terror. That's a line Gonzales sees clearly but Kennedy can't see at all.

Why is this icon of the greenie movement straying off into subjects like this? Could it be that saving the world is no longer enough for him? Does he now want to rule it as well?

Chilling, because it's hard to see him not being a force if he were to go for it.