President Bush: We do not torture.

The leader of the Republican Party, President Bush.

"There's an enemy that lurks and plots and plans and wants to hurt America again," Bush said. "So you bet we will aggressively pursue them but we will do so under the law."

He declared, "We do not torture."

A betrayal of our most precious values

Well, I guess that settles that.

"We do not torture," President Bush said on Monday. Never mind all those torture pictures from Abu Ghraib. Never mind all those torture stories from Guantanamo Bay. Never mind the 2002 Justice Department memo that sought to justify torture. Never mind reports of U.S. officials sending detainees to other countries for torture. Never mind Dick Cheney lobbying to exempt the CIA from rules prohibiting torture.

"We do not torture," said the president. And that's that, right? I mean, if you can't believe the Bush administration, who can you believe? No torture. Period, end of sentence.

But . . . What does it say to you that the claim even has to be made?

Go read the whole Leonard Pitts editorial.

Bush and his Republican culture of corruption in congress has betrayed our moral values, torture is now acceptable to the leaders of the Republican party.

Bill Frist on the existence of overseas "black sites" where the Bush administration secretly holds detainees in the war on terror:

I am not concerned about what goes on and I'm not going to comment about the nature of that.

The Republican party claims to preach against the evils of the worlds, but now they don’t speaks against the evils of torture.

Isn't it extraordinary how it's the people who reject "moral relativism" and insist on the black-and-white difference between good and evil who argue for making exceptions when it comes to torture.

Indeed.

"We do not torture," says the president. I can remember when that went without saying.