Situational ethics.

• Author: Rothschild, Matthew
• Position: Editor's Note - Editorial

When Ruth Conniff returned from her reporting trip to Iowa, she called me up and said she'd just heard the worst political speech of her life. It was by Rudy Giuliani, and she tells us all about it--and Rudy's lack of touch--in her cover story this month.

Giuliani suffers from a lack of morality, as well. Asked about the legality of waterboarding, he infamously said, "It depends on who does it." If that's not situational ethics, I don't know what is. When rightwingers talk about "moral relativism" on the left, remember to hurl this one back at them.

The Democrats aren't blameless on this torture issue, either. As Amy Goodman pointed out, they had the chutzpah to invite retired Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez to give the Democratic response to Bush's radio address on the weekend after Thanksgiving.

Sanchez is the guy who authorized the use of dogs on prisoners in Iraq and then lied about it to Congress. He also kept prisoners off the books so the Red Cross could not access them, which is against the Geneva Conventions.

It was, to say the least, ironic that in his radio response, Sanchez talked about the importance of "regaining our moral authority by requiring all government employees to abide by the Army Field Manual on interrogations, which is in compliance with the Geneva Conventions." He added: "America must accept nothing less."

Sanchez can try to wash his hands all he wants, but the Democrats shouldn't be handing him the soap and towel.

As Goodman noted, "The Bush Administration passed Sanchez over for a promotion, worried about reliving the Abu Ghraib scandal during the 2006 election year. Now it's the Democrats who have resuscitated him. Have they no shame?"

I'd like to dedicate this issue to my mother, who died on November 18...