On December 15, 2008, ABC’s Jonathan Karl interviewed Vice President Dick Cheney, who actually managed to evince more delusional confidence than even anticipated. When asked about torture, Cheney disregarded criticism about his part in Guantanamo as the pish-posh of ignoramuses.

Here’s a choice bit:

KARL: But you've heard leaders, the incoming Congress, saying that this policy has basically been torture and illegal wiretapping, and that they want to undo, basically, the central tenets of your anti-terrorism policy.

CHENEY: They're wrong…

On the question of so-called torture, we don't do torture. We never have. It's not something that this administration subscribes to. Again, we proceeded very cautiously. We checked. We had the Justice Department issue the requisite opinions in order to know where the bright lines were that you could not cross.

The professionals involved in that program were very, very cautious, very careful -- wouldn't do anything without making certain it was authorized and that it was legal. And any suggestion to the contrary is just wrong. Did it produce the desired results? I think it did.

I think, for example, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was the number three man in al Qaeda, the man who planned the attacks of 9/11, provided us with a wealth of information. There was a period of time there, three or four years ago, when about half of everything we knew about al Qaeda came from that one source. So, it's been a remarkably successful effort. I think the results speak for themselves.

And I think those who allege that we've been involved in torture, or that somehow we violated the Constitution or laws with the terrorist surveillance program, simply don't know what they're talking about.

Hmmm. That’s funny, because I seem to recall Cheney endorsing John McCain in his bid for the presidency on November 1st. And yet, I also seem to recall Senator McCain saying in 2007, “Anyone who knows what waterboarding is could not be unsure. It is a horrible torture technique used by Pol Pot and being used on Buddhist monks as we speak.” So did Cheney endorse a man who didn’t know what he was talking about? Or was McCain suddenly a viable candidate after caving to partisan politics in February 2008 when he voted against a bill to preclude the CIA from using torture during interrogations?

Also, perhaps Cheney and Bush need to take in some couples' therapy, since they don't seem to be communicating with each other very well. This spring, President Bush admitted to the use of "enhanced interrogation" techniques, the semantic equivalent of "torture" used in political rhetoric, so he should inform Dick "We don't do torture. We never have." Cheney. Or maybe Cheney should stop lying through his teeth to the American people.