Condi Rice Pulls A Nixon: When the President Does It, That Means It is Not Illegal

[struggle4progress]

Cenk Uygur
Host of The Young Turks
Posted April 30, 2009 | 03:54 AM (EST)

Condoleezza Rice was recently speaking at Stanford when students asked her an excellent question on waterboarding and torture. They have her answer on tape and it isn't pretty ... Here are the relevant quotes:

... "I didn't authorize anything. I conveyed the authorization of the administration to the agency, that they had policy authorization, subject to the Justice Department's clearance. That's what I did ...

"The United States was told, we were told, 'Nothing that violates our obligations under the Convention Against Torture, and so by definition, if it was authorized by the president, it did not violate our obligations under the Convention Against Torture'" ...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/condi-rice-pulls-a-nixon_b_193379.html

Apparently Condi would never have complained, even if her King had ordered her drowned in a cask of malmsey

[tulsakatz]

1. because as we all know.......

....that excuse didn't help Nixon and it won't help her either!!

[Jeep789]

2. So Georgie didn't just talk to God, per Condi he played God

I wonder if she thinks Obama has the same authorization. If the Obama administration's Justice Dept. claimed that torturing Condi was legal, I guess she would think it was. Right?

[aquart]

3. We should try it and find out.

[Jeep789]

4. It would be interesting to hear her defense

(Oops. I almost forgot, she wouldn't be entitled to one per her own understanding of Presidential rights.)

[90-percent]

5. didn't help Nixon?

The extreme doctrine of "If the President does it, it's not illegal", that seems to have been the operating doctrine of the entire Bush Administration, is STILL IN FULL FORCE!

Obama now has the powers of an Emperor, which I find distressing and Un-American.

This doctrine must be drowned in a bathtub or something. It is against what the awesome Founding Fathers were going for with America in the first place!

-90% jimmy

[ihavenobias]

6. The video is posted in the video section...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x305364

[katty]

7. CON-di the hollow hack....go bye-bye... some more shoes

[glitch]

9. I would give up all the shoes in my closet to never have to hear from or about her again.

Unless it's about her war crimes trial.

[katty]

12. me too-she is a shameless tool-always has been

[Seldona]

8. K&R nt

[endarkenment]

10. She needs to make this true or she is just another perp.

[crimsonblue]

11. her lack of knowledge of the Convention Against Tortures is glaring

In the Convention, it states:

"No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture."


That means Bush can't proclaim torture to be legal.

[mzmolly]

13. What about the Fuhrer?

:eyes:

[ihavenobias]

14. Kick. If it's good enough for the front page of DailyKos and HuffPo, it should be featured here too.

I'm not saying anything, I'm just sayin'.

;)

[bemildred]

15. The President is not King, and he is not a sovereign.

He can be impeached for lying about a blow job.

[ihavenobias]

16. Ha, ha..

Sad, but true.

[LuckyLib]

17. Condi, we'd like you to leave the stage now. Take that addled academic brain that

elevated you so way beyond your capability and find a nice quiet corner in Chimpy's library to write your memoirs. With any luck, they won't sell.

[ihavenobias]

18. Kick n/t