Admiral says:

This is no shock. I am proud of Helen Thomas for pursuing this line of questioning. But, in all reality the job of press secretary is to deny all wrongdoing, no matter what evidence is presented. It’s sad really because we all know that the US tortures people. But again the press secretary denying what is known to be true is not new.

greyrat says:

Reading between the lines:

“PERINO: And what I’m telling you is we have — ” always had a clear and up to date policy in the Executive branch for water boarding, stress-positioning, starving and psychologically abusing whomever we felt like torturing, based on the obviously false premise of protecting the stupid, ignorant populace that tried to keep us out of power, even though we lie like dogs and tell that same stupid, ignorant populace that “torture has not occurred. And you can go back through all the public record. Just make sure — ” you don’t look too hard because as you said the evidence is piled deeper than the horse shit at a manure factory. “I would just respectfully ask you not to misconstrue what the President said.”

It’s a good thing.

gnomic says:

When did the job of a press secretary become to LIE TO THE CITIZENS OF AMERICA? We pay this lying political whores $alary and that of the scumbag idiot she lies for.

Frankly, if we can impeach Bill for lying, why the hell can’t we toss these malevolent war criminals in gitmo for the terrorism they have done to America in the betrayal of their oaths of office?

Leland says:

Because Bill lied under oath.

War criminals… You crack me up.

ronbailey says:

Good on Ms Thomas!

I’m betting Perino dreads going to work in the morning, knowing that Helen’s just waiting there for her…

ronbailey says:

@Leleand - I don’t think the term “war criminal” is too far off the mark - after all, Gonzalez and Rumsfeld have both been advised by legal counsel not to travel overseas; and I’m guessing Cheney and Rove will probably face the same when they leave office.

Andrew says:

> Because Bill lied under oath.

I gotta jump in here.

So you’re saying that because Clinton lied after promising not to lie, it’s worse than simply lying?

And the fact that Bush’s lies have gotten a lot of people killed and pretty much destroyed the economy of this country — that’s OK because he never promised not to lie?

That certainly seems to be what you’re implying!

Randy says:

Didn’t we find out earlier this year that the reason this administration says we never tortured was because to the Bush administration, torture is whatever the Bush administration says torture is. By merely saying what they did was not torture, in their eyes it became not torture. I’m not going through the effort now to search for that bit of history, but I believe that is accurate.

gnomic says:

Randy, Thats much the same defense the Nazis used and similar to the Japanese that we prosecuted for the war crime of waterboarding. We as still signatory to the Geneva Convention and there is absolutely no doubt that these criminals and our country is guilty of torture.

As for lying under oath, the President, VP and other members of this administration also take oaths of office. They are subject to the laws of this land. They are elected officials and subject to the will of the people. They are bald-faced lairs and criminals that deserve criminal prosecution for their crimes. To argue otherwise is to hold that their oaths of office are meaningless and their position holds them unaccountable for their actions.

But we have come to expect this reprehensible behavior from our elected leaders. And if you believe that Bills crime is somehow less reprehensible than Bush, Cheaney, Ashcroft, Rice, Tenet, and the rest of these scumbags, you are simply playing politics with the law.

gnomic says:

Odd - or maybe not - but since you’ve posted this torture story, I see a lot more McCain and GOP push poll ads. I click ‘em just to take thier money and give it to Andrew, but I really have to admire google adsence for putting the two together.