Applying his well-known conservatism of doubt, Andrew Sullivan made the following post earlier this evening:

Ann Coulter: set your Tivo. Money quote:

"We spent a lot time doing research on this game," says Surnow. "Using a sponge, team members must take the water from a filled bucket and squeeze the water from the soaked sponge into an empty bucket. First team to fill the empty bucket wins." Surnow said he chose the Sponge Bucket Game because it provides opportunities for little Jack to interrogate the little Arabs.

"There's a great scene before the game starts where little Jack takes an Arab kid named Abdul and sticks his head in the water-filled bucket," says Surnow. "Jack keeps his head under the water until he drowns. The kid did not give Jack the answers he needed, and for the greater good of the Cub Scouts of America, Jack had to send a strong and clear message."

That's a strong "enhanced" message. Just like Mr Tenet says.

The Dateline Hollywood article Andrew links to includes quotes like:

“Just because we’ll show Jack as a little kid, doesn’t mean he’s going to stop kicking the ass of all those Arabs he runs into,” says Surnow. “We’re getting our message across to adults that it takes a lot of torture to get the truth from these terrorists, and we believe that children need to see that as well because they’re growing up in an extremely dangerous world.”

As if this wasn’t enough of a hint that the whole thing was a gag, in the sidebar of the piece Andrew links to are stories titled, “BASINGER RELEASES OWN LINE OF ANSWERING MACHINES,” “BEAN FARMERS BURNING HUGH GRANT IN EFFIGY,” and “CARSON DALY’S PAID AUDIENCE DEMANDS WAGE INCREASE.”

Did Andrew really not know this was a joke? Is it possible his intellect and sense of humor have been so thoroughly strangled by his oh-so righteous anger? Judging by his post which is completely irony and humor free, the only possible answer is yes.  The altrnative is that Andrew Sullivan is suddenly joking about torture.  For some reason, that strikes me as unlikely.

Compliments? Complaints? Contact me at Soxblog@aol.com