Tortured Decisions

My favorite lawyer, a great author, bean farmer, and old pal, Michael, sent this future NY Times Magazine article by email. It's a discussion of Jack Goldsmith - a contributing author of the torture memos - and his forthcoming book. Read on,... if this is another case of whitewashing, it's a version that requires a somewhat revealing insider's account. Draw your own conclusions, but if you're looking for a strong critique of the Bush administration, this is about as much as you'll get, and we already know it well (personally, I think it's damning enough, but it doesn't seem to hold much water in the court of public opinion):

The Bush administration’s legalistic “go-it-alone approach,” Goldsmith suggests, is the antithesis of Lincoln and Roosevelt’s willingness to collaborate with Congress. Bush, he argues, ignored the truism that presidential power is the power to persuade. “The Bush administration has operated on an entirely different concept of power that relies on minimal deliberation, unilateral action and legalistic defense,” Goldsmith concludes in his book. “This approach largely eschews politics: the need to explain, to justify, to convince, to get people on board, to compromise.”

UPDATE:
Another review of Goldsmith's book.