Jon Stewart, snarky leftwingnut host of the Daily Show, was totally destroyed by former Deputy Attorney General John Yoo, Tuesday night. Mr. Yoo was the architect of the legal opinions surrounding the enhanced interrogations of terrorists during the George W. Bush administration. He’s also written a book titled “Crisis and Command”.
The best quote I’ve seen about the episode so far:
Unfortunate that the popular left is just beginning to cognize the perils of having a jokester as one of its prime disseminators of political information.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTg3NTg4NDcwNjc2MTgwYmVhYWExMTgwYTJmMDFlY2I=
I watched the entire 3 part segment via the Daily Show site. Watching Yoo toy with Stewart’s ego like a cat batting a ball of yarn, was a delight. True to form, Stewart put forth leftie talking points in a sarcasm-laced rant against Bush and the successful policy responsible for gleaning valuable information from Islamic terrorists at GITMO.
In one exchange, Yoo pointed to the Left’s selective memory:
Stewart: “In your position there, it seems like they came to you and said, “We would like to be able to increase our interrogation capacity. Can we do that?” And you were then tasked with letting them do that. ”
Yoo: “Remember the time we were in…this is about one year after…9/11….”
Stewart: “When was this again?”…
Yoo: “It was that time we were never supposed to forget…”
Throughout the segment, Stewart argued that Bush asked for legal definitions to expand presidential powers and circumvent the Geneva Convention treaty; to use tougher interrogation techniques when questioning terrorists.
Yoo responded that his job was to interpret the treaty and the Constitutionality of the proposed methods.
Said Yoo:
“We had not yet faced the question of what interrogation methods do not constitute torture but go beyond the regular law enforcement methods.”
After Yoo made mincemeat out of Stewart’s intellectual bankruptcy for 30 minutes, Stewart sheepishly conceded that he was “not very equipped to handle the discussion.” Ya think?
It sucks when a johnny-one-note comedian gets pelted with a rational, patient explanation of how wartime policy should reflect the urgency of obtaining information from enemy prisoners.
The Daily Show Peanut Gallery (aka the audience) didn’t have a lot to clap about. Stewart’s damage control was a flimsy joke:
“I was gonna nail him baby, eeeee…. slipped right through my fingers. It was like interviewing sand. … You set that hook, you know what I mean? You think you got something going, you set the hook, and you’re expecting a little fight, you’re gonna pull back on the marlin, and you’re gonna reel it in, and basically though you look over and he’s just lying on your boat back like this, and then you don’t know what the fuck to do. So uhh, he got me.”
Newsflash, Stewart: Somewhere there’s a picture of John Yoo posing on a dock. You’re the one hanging upside down with a hook in his mouth.
I get all the important news from Jon Stewarts daily show….any place else is full of lies…
ohhhhhh that is SOOOO funny! Love me some JonBoy smackdown.