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I was a little sleepy when I heard it and so I didn't take notes about the actual perpetrator, but was still shocked to hear a newsbimbo blithering on at about 6:45 this morning, with complete sincerity, about how poor Judge Mukasey can't call waterboarding torture because he doesn't want to get any interrogators in trouble for things they might have done "in the past," things for instance that might have been illegal just because there were laws against them. I think the Military Commisions Act already granted the poor endangered torturers immunity for past acts, so she might want to check her facts. But what kind of world is it when our "reporters" don't think reasonable people think that people should be prosecuted just because they broke laws against torture?

Thanks to CNN's transcript service I have been able to track down the offending bimbo: Elaine Quijano White House "Correspondent". Here's how the little predawn report ran:

ROBERTS: I guess Senator Schumer, who supported him at the beginning, still has his support behind him, but the fact that the chairman, Patrick Leahy, is starting to waffle a little bit could be an indication he may not survive. What else did Mukasey lay out to the letters as to why he struggled with the definition of torture as it related to waterboarding?

QUIJANO: Yes, well, he gives a couple of reasons, in addition to not being briefed on the programs involved, Mukasey says he doesn't want anything he says to necessarily be used against interrogators, so he's very well aware, of course, it's a very tricky sort of fine line here. He doesn't want to necessarily give any ammunition to people who may be saying that people he says to necessarily be used against interrogators, so he's very well aware of course it's a very tricky sort of fine line here. He doesn't want to necessarily give any ammunition to people who may be saying that people who've used waterboarding in the past conducted illegal torture. He's very mindful of that. We're not just talking about interrogators from this point forward. We're talking about anything that interrogators may have done in the past.And finally, John, he also talked about the fact that he doesn't want to give the enemies of the United States the U.S.'s playbook when it comes to techniques.

Sweet Jesus! I guess you can't really expect anybody with that Bushian level of verbal aptitude to be able to fathom the arguments against torture or for accountability.