Media Fighting for Terrorist Rights

Sometimes you have to think that the media can't possibly be as clueless as they appear. For all their anti-Bush bias, if given a chance to play to type, they can't resist. It's almost as though Karl Rove really was pushing their buttons.

The latest example is yesterday's media frenzy over something that Vice President Dick Cheney may or may not have said. This is what started the circus:

Cheney triggered the flap in a radio interview Tuesday. The interviewer, Scott Hennen, said callers had told him, "Please, let the vice president know that if it takes dunking a terrorist in water, we're all for it, if it saves lives."

"Would you agree a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives?" Hennen asked.

Well, it's a no-brainer for me, but for a while there I was criticized as being the vice president for torture," Cheney said. "We don't torture. That's not what we're involved in."

If you read the whole statement, how can you assume Cheney was endorsing torture, and yet that's exactly what the media started reporting and what the Dems immediately started criticizing. The most noise came from the usual suspects:

Democrats also pointed to Cheney's statement.

"Is the White House that was for torture before it was against it, now for torture again?" tweaked Sen. John Kerry. Kerry, in his unsuccessful campaign for the presidency in 2004, had been skewered by Bush for saying he had voted for war funds before he voted against them.

Memo to the Dems and the media: The vast majority of America is not concerned about the right of terrorists, and if waterboarding or other types of tough interrogation measures are what it takes to protect Americans, we're all for it. If you wanted to reenforce the notion that you don't have what it takes to protect the lives of Americans, this is exactly the way to do it.

It's almost as though Karl Rove has some sort of idiot dog whistle that he can blow near election day and that the Dems and media can't resist.