Wednesday’s Daily Show w/ John Stewart interview segment was one of the most intense in recent memory. By “intense” I mean thoroughly and thoughtfully debated by both sides, with very little jokes interwoven in. Stewart hosted previous George W. Bush speechwriter and current author Marc Thiessen, he was on to promote his book “Courting Disaster: How the CIA Kept America Safe and How Barack Obama Is Inviting the Next Attack“. Apparently presidential speech writers don’t understand the concepts of simplicity or subtlety. Not this one, at least. And surprisingly, for a Bush administration head, he was kind of a cry baby. While defending the use of waterboarding, and other questionable interrogation methods (which he, Rove, and Rumsfeld conveniently labeled “enhanced interrogation techniques”), Thiessen made a few points which to any rational person would consider openly debatable. Whenever he did, Stewart would jump in to make that obvious to the audience, mentioning the flip side of the coin. Thiessen complained several times about “not getting a chance to make his points”; shocking considering the amount of respect guests get on The Daily Show. To his credit, Stewart apologized even though he thought Thiessen was given ample time, and proceeded to give Thiessen an extended interview which is now available on the Daily Show website. All this torture talk has been stewing up the surface as of late. Liz Cheney made quite the stir this week by referring to the lawyers who defended accused terrorists as the “Al-Qaeda Seven” in a television political ad (which Stewart compared to John Adams; he defended a number of British troops in court of openly firing on unarmed civilians in the famed Boston Massacre). Karl Rove went on the offensive by saying he’s “proud” of the previous administration for its use of waterboarding. The Thiessen/Stewart conversation is well worth watching (and well worth having), here are links to all 3 parts:
Marc Thiessen on The Daily Show, Part 1
Marc Thiessen on The Daily Show, Part 2
Marc Thiessen on The Daily Show, Part 3
-D
