Bush: "We don't torture."

In Panama today, a reporter asked President Bush about allegations that the CIA is operating secret prisons in Europe where it is believed people are being tortured. Bush's rambling, non-responsive answer began with the declaration that we are at war and ended with the flat assertion that the United States does not engage in torture.

One wonders if Bush retains any connection to reality. Even as his vice president fights tooth and claw to keep torture available as an option in the War on Terror, even as Bush himself vows to veto any bill containing John McCain's anti-torture amendment, he still manages to look into the eyes of the people and the press and deny what everybody can see. God help us.