Walking Back Rahm

Yeah, this is much better:

On Sunday, Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, said on the ABC News program “This Week” that “those who devised policy” also “should not be prosecuted.” But administration officials said Monday that Mr. Emanuel had meant the officials who ordered the policies carried out, not the lawyers who provided the legal rationale.

I’m dubious that this is what Emanuel really meant, but I guess it’s possible.  Regardless, it’s important to note that the administration’s new position is far worse than the old one.  I would be delighted to see Yoo, Bradbury, and Bybee in the dock — but as reprehensible as their actions might have been, they are clearly less culpable than the members of the “Principals Committee,” Rice, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft et al.  After all, if they hadn’t set the torture regime in motion, the OLC’s rationalizations for that regime would have been unnecessary.