A point that we made in our editorial this morning is how important it is that both political branches now will sign off on the CIA program. It no longer can be smeared as the mad work of Bush and Cheney, but in an important respect will be institutionalized, with the support of Congress, presumably a lot of Democrats, and the man widely considered to have the most moral authority on this issue, John McCain. This is a great victory for our security and a stark defeat for the anti-coercive interrogation hysterics. Here’s how we put it:
…a great virtue of this compromise is that, for the first time in our history, both political branches have spoken clearly to the issue of interrogating unlawful enemy combatants. They have agreed that, while torture and the more extreme coercive treatments — i.e., “cruel and inhuman” treatment — ought to be eschewed, aggressive interrogation is legal and necessary. Critics of the interrogation program can no longer lay it solely on President Bush’s doorstep. Now it is just as much the program of Congress and of John McCain…