While our not-so-esteemed President George W. Bush
ran against John Kerry by accusing Kerry as a "flip-flopper",
let's take a look at President Flip-Flops latest flip-flop...

   before:  torture GOOD
   now:     torture BAD

Geez - its getting harder and harder to figger out just
what the hell the 5-gallon-Texan in the 10-gallon hat
is actually standing for these days:

Bush accepts Sen. McCain's torture policy
President now agrees with pact banning cruelty against terror suspects

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10480690/

Updated: 4:32 p.m. ET Dec. 15, 2005

WASHINGTON - President Bush reversed course on Thursday and
accepted Sen. John McCain's call for a law banning cruel,
inhumane and degrading treatment of foreign suspects in the
war on terror.

Bush said the agreement will "make it clear to the world
that this government does not torture and that we adhere to
the international convention of torture, whether it be here
at home or abroad."

"It's a done deal," said McCain, talking to reporters
outside the White House. Under the deal, CIA interrogators
would be given the same legal rights as currently guaranteed
members of the military who are accused of breaking
interrogation guidelines. Those rules say the accused can
defend themselves by arguing it was reasonable for them to
believe they were obeying a legal order.

"We've sent a message to the world that the United States is
not like the terrorists," McCain said earlier as he sat next
to Bush in the Oval Office.

An appeal from Cheney
The White House at one point threatened a veto if the ban
was included in legislation sent to the president's desk,
and Vice President Dick Cheney made an unusual personal
appeal to all Republican senators to give an exemption to
the CIA.

But congressional sentiment was overwhelmingly in favor of
the ban, and McCain, a former Navy pilot who was held and
tortured for five and a half years in Vietnam, adopted the
issue.

However, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan
Hunter, R-Calif., told NBC News' Mike Viqueira on Thursday
that he plans to oppose McCain's bill.

He said he would try preventing the measure from reaching a
House vote unless he got White House assurances that the new
rules would still allow "the same high level of effective
intelligence gathering" as under current procedures.

But Sen. John Warner, R-Va., Hunter's counterpart in the
Senate, was on board and appeared with Bush and McCain in
the Oval Office. "We're going to get there," Warner said
afterward.

The Republican maverick and the administration have been
negotiating for weeks in search of a compromise, but it
became increasingly clear that he, not the administration,
had the votes in Congress.

Bush called McCain "a good man who's honored the values of
America."

"We have worked very closely with the senator and others to
achieve that objective as well as to provide protections for
those who are the front line of fighting the terrorists,"
Bush said.

As passed by the Senate and endorsed by the House, McCain's
amendment would prohibit "cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment" of anyone in U.S. government
custody, regardless of where they are held. It also would
require that service members follow procedures in the Army
Field Manual during interrogations of prisoners in Defense
Department facilities.

In discussions with the White House, that language was
altered to bring it into conformity with the Uniform Code of
Military Justice. That says that anyone accused of violating
interrogation rules can defend themselves if a "reasonable"
person could have concluded they were following a lawful
order.
No immunity
Officials say the language also now includes a specific
statement that those who violate the standards will not be
afforded immunity from civil or criminal lawsuits.

In recent weeks, the administration had sought to add
language that would offer protection from prosecution for
interrogators accused of violating the provision. But McCain
rejected that, arguing it would undermine the ban by not
giving interrogators reason to follow the law.

Earlier this year, the Senate included McCain's original
provisions in two defense bills, including a must-pass $453
billion spending bill that provides $50 billion for the Iraq
war. But the House omitted them from their versions, and the
bills have been stalled.

Negotiations intensified this week, with Congress under
pressure to approve at least the spending bill before
adjourning for the year.

Supporters of the provisions say they are needed to clarify
current anti-torture laws in light of abuses at Abu Ghraib
in Iraq and allegations of misconduct by U.S. troops at the
detention center at Guantanamo Bay.

They also say that passing such legislation will help the
United States repair an image they say has been tarnished by
the prisoner abuse scandal.

"The fog of law is finally lifting. America's moral black
eye is finally healing," Rep. Jane Harman of California, the
top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a
statement.

The White House long has contended that the United States
does not engage in torture.

NBC News contributed to this report.