My mother always said, “If you can’t say something nice about someone …” — well, you know the rest. So, I thought I would seize the opportunity to say something nice about George W. Bush. Yesterday the Bush White House announced its support for a ban on torture that has been so vigorously defended by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). No matter that the President called the language in this ban a “compromise” (it’s not; it has McCain’s language word for word); no matter that the reason for this new found support was motivated purely by politics (McCain was continuing to uphold defense appropriations); and no matter that this position is one decent people the world over would consider a “no brainer.”

In this instance, Mr. Bush has done the right thing, and no one should shrink from saying so.