Jon And John

Here's a pretty good interview Jon Stewart had with John Yoo about his "torture" memos. It's actually one of the best things TV's done on the issue. It shouldn't be that way, but there it is.

Stewart was fair and charming. Woo, on the other hand, did a fairly weak job. Maybe he came in too defensive. He doesn't get into the legality of his arguments as much as he might--was he afraid it would be too technical, or he just didn't think it would work?

It's easy to theorize about the issue, but it would be tough (even without pressure from your bosses) to write a memo about how we're allowed to treat top terrorists who are at war with us. Such people would likely have valuable information that could potentially save quite a few lives. We're going to interrogate him one way or another, so imagine what specific guidance you could give. You can't use general phrases like "no torture" or "treat them humanely" and leave it at that. You've got to say what can and can't be done. Unless you say "let him go," I guarantee you'll find some claiming you're being too hard.

PS I should add most on the right are clucking about how Yoo cleaned Stewart's clock. And the left is bemoaning Stewart's lackluster performance. Apparently, by today's standard, "winning" in a face-to-face interview means gotcha moments. But it seems to me when a Stewart or a Bill Maher take cheap shots and win applause, it proves nothing (except maybe what a jerk Stewart or Maher are).

Some partisans seem to have a simplistic concept of how things go down. According to their view of the Yoo story, torture was banned, so the White House, through the Department Of Justice, told Yoo to write some legal opinions justifying it anyway. It was never that simple, and it never is. (I'm not denying the DOJ lawyers regularly write memos supporting the White House stance--that's their bread and butter.) You can oppose Yoo, and think he was wrong, without believing this caricature. But if this is how you do think, I suppose you will be disappointed in the interview.

Stewart was open, if critical, and honestly let Yoo express himself. That Yoo didn't answer as well as I thought he might was a lot more damning than Stewart scoring a lot of cheap, easy points.