Apparently I wasn't the only one completely disgusted by CNN allowing a host of Bush neocon war mongers to ask questions at their "national security" Republican debate, including torture advocate, Cheney's Cheney, David Addington.
HAYES: Alright, don't call it a comeback. The neocons have been here for years... and they were out in full force at this week's presidential debate. Paul Wolfowitz, the architect, one of the architects of the war in Iraq asked a question. There was Fred Kagan, one of many Kagans who were constantly advocating war in some place or other. And then there was David Addington, who helped craft the Bush administration's war on terror policy.
Mr. Addington got some applause from the crowd there. Can I just say something about David Addington? David Addington was one of... was probably the foremost legal mind, in the Bush administration […] who was masterminding the most maximalist, extremist positions on what the government could do, and he guided John Yoo through crafting the infamous torture memo, which essentially said anything short of pain, equal, up to and including what would be the same as organ failure... short of organ failure would be legal under U.S. law.
He was the mastermind behind pushing through the entire sort of regime of detention without, in the beginning, until the Supreme Court overruled, denied habeas, denied the most basic rights to contest imprisonment for those in prison, and I think there's a very good... a good case to be made that he is guilty of violating U.S. law and should be held to account.
And here he is, at this debate, along with a whole bunch of other people who were responsible for this travesty of Iraq, being treated like like any other eminent (inaudible) or think tanker to ask questions and I found it appalling. I found it absolutely appalling.
As Hayes noted, no one associated with the Bush administration that lied us into war has had to pay any kind of social cost for their actions while serving in the Bush administration and Hayes found it a “remarkable moment” to watch them being allowed to ask questions during that debate.
His guest, Eli Lake, from The Daily Beast claimed that they paid the ultimate cost by being out of power and the fact that they were “roundly criticized in almost all corners of the press, with the exception of the conservative media” and he noted that the justification for holding prisoners without a right to a trial has only been scaled back somewhat and is still being used today by the Obama administration when it comes to not releasing some of these terrorist suspects.
As Hayes replied, that just makes what Addington did “even more egregious” and that the ultimate cost would have been some of these Bush neocons being prosecuted and landing in jail and not just being shunned socially or in the media.
Lake continued to make excuses for the Bush administration excesses and Hayes followed up with this.
HAYES: People do think all the time... that break the law and then later look extreme and they still have to face... they still have to stand trial. They still have to answer for their actions and accountability.
What's really disgusting as well is that MSNBC has relegated Hayes' show to the crack of dawn on the weekends where they're hoping no one will watch it. It's too bad this type of conversation isn't what I'm waking up to on a daily basis when heading to work during the week on the satellite radio instead of the hackery on Morning Joe Monday through Friday.
