First the video clip of the exchange between the Bob Barr, a former federal prosector and CIA employee, and Faux Noise's Bill O'Reilly:
O'Reilly starts the interview off by asking Barr whether the President deserves respect in the "areas" of "national security," and then adds, "So do you disagree with Karl Rove and I?"
Already we know that this is going to be an interesting interview.
Rhetoric is one thing, but this "are you on my side" or "are you against me" is known in psychology as splitting. It's a mindset that is common among children but also persists in certain psychopathology.
Barr didn't take the bait.
Barr said that he had his disagreements [with O'Reilly and Rove]
"but not on everything" and then turned to Cheney, saying that his "main criticism of those who are criticizing the President--such as the former Vice President, Mr. Cheney--is that... it is simply politics and partisanship and not substantive criticism, because when you have the vice president from the prior administration criticising the current administration, really what they are criticisng is themselves.... because the problems that we see... the problems long pre-date Jan. 20 of 2009, when the president came in."
Barr attributed the controversy over the who issues visas to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, "early in the Bush administration, coming up to the Congress... and saying 'Don't give the authority to issue visas to the Department of Homeland Security... we want to keep [the power to issue visas] in the State Department."
O'Reilly, confronted by a statement too complex for his Manichean mind, scrambles to remake a binary world, saying, "You know as well as I do--EVERYBODY knows at this point, that the Obama Administration has dismantled the Bush/Cheney anti-terror apparatus... they've dismantled it."
Anyone familiar with O'Reilly will recognize this line. When the right wing says something so matter-of-factly, it must be questioned.
Barr should have said, "What is it that Obama has done that makes you think he has dismantled the Apparatus?"
O'Reilly said "dismantling" three times unopposed--and even had a chance to both plug Bush's forthcoming book (any guesses to who the ghostwriter will be?) and also take up Cheney's point that these two war criminals kept America safe after 9/11 (ignoring for a moment the anthrax, Richard Reed, the DC Sniper, etc).
When Barr finally got in a word to question the "dismantling", O'Reilly repeatedly interrupted "COME ON COME ON COME ON" and began to amplify his volume and obnoxious tone.
O'Reilly enumerated dismantling included "no coercive interrogation" (the coward wouldn't call it torture), "civilian trials," "closing Guantanamo Bay -- and YOU'RE saying they're NOT DISMANTLING it? COME ON, Mr. Barr!... THOSE ARE BIIIIG! THOSE ARE HUUUUGE!!!"
O'Reilly thinks that torture got us good information and -- without any evidence -- wants us to believe that this info stopped terrorist attacks.
I think that folks like O'Reilly are anxious and can't wait till 24 kicks off again in a few weeks. Goons such as O'Reilly love to see the brown man tortured, suffering. We know from the intelligence community that torture gives us shitty information and worse, is a recruiting tool for people who have legitimate grievances against America.
Barr pointed out that torture is banned by our own laws and that the Obama Administration, by following the law, is following the law.
Pretty weak answer for Fox audience, Mr. Barr.
He should have said that Obama is preventing terrorist recruiting. He should have said that by following such international standards, we are preventing future CIA officers from being killed by double agents.
THAT is the answer Barr should have given.