A few weeks ago, Liz “BabyDick” Cheney refused to deny that her Daddy was the “prime mover” on torture. Yesterday, she refused to deny that he had requested waterboarding be used with an Iraqi to drum up al Qaeda-Iraq ties.

As it happens, the two Pennsylvania voters I had visiting and I missed the debate last night. Thankfully. Though I’ve watched most of it at NYT. And I agree with the general consensus that the debate marks a low point in American journalism.

Still, I wonder whether it can’t be turned into a public good.

I’ve argued for a long time that journalists need to clean up their own house, first, before they