The bloom seems to be coming off the rose on the Republican “compromise” sanctioning torture, if this story by AP reporter Anne Flaherty is any guide. It’s much more, well, truthful than her earlier efforts:

Interrogations deal grants Bush leeway
[E]nough legal parsing was added to the bill to achieve the president’s desired effect anyway.

The Republican bill provides legal protection for the CIA program by precisely defining and enumerating atrocities widely accepted as war crimes — including torture, rape, biological experiments, and cruel and inhuman treatment.

For acts that do not rise to the level of a war crime but may test the bounds of the Geneva Conventions, the GOP bill allows the president to make the call.

Excellent! A new euphemism for torture: “test the bounds of the Geneva convention.” I love it.

So, is Bushh subject to judicial review when he “makes the call”?

Of course not!

But, legal experts agree, in the end it will be up to the president to determine when most interrogation methods go too far. The bill bans detainees from protesting their detention and treatment in court.

And—all we need to know on this—authoritarian apologist and Bush enabler John Yoo is a happy prison camper:

“It sounds like the administration got a pretty good deal actually” because it would reinstate the president’s [putative] prerogative, said John Yoo, a former Justice Department lawyer who helped write internal memos in 2002 designed to give the government more leeway in aggressive questioning of suspects.

And WTF happened to the JAGs? Does Bush have tapes on them, or something?

“You always run into the potential … that we’re going to go back to secret prisons and bad things will happen,” said John Hutson, a former Navy judge advocate general. “And there’s really not a way in legislation to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Hutson, who staunchly opposed the administration’s initial legal proposal, said he believes the administration intends to “interpret the words in good faith.”

Thank you, Britney—Let’s all just trust the President.

Honestly, I’m curious. Can someone come up with an example where Bush did act in good faith?