“Human Rights Watch opposes the nomination of Alberto Gonzales to serve as Attorney General of the United States. Mr. Gonzales played a key role in providing legal justification for policies that led to torture and abuse of detainees in U.S. custody.” (my emphasis, full story)

Despite all this, the US Senate just confirmed Alberto Gonzalez. What this means is fairly obvious. You can’t seriously claim you don’t support torture but ask for “rough treatment” of foreigners. Torture is torture - regardless of what you call it.

And for one person this is a particularly sad day, namely for Senator John McCain, the supposed “maverick”. Senator McCain was tortured himself while being in captivity in Vietnam, but this experience didn’t prevent him from voting for Mr. Gonzalez. This is John McCain’s personal day of infamy.