I really don't know what to make of this. As faithful TPM readers know by now, over the weekend Rudy reacted to a question about extreme torture techniques by saying the following:
"Now, intensive questioning works. If I didn't use intensive questioning, there would be a lot of mafia guys running around New York right now and crime would be a lot higher in New York than it is. Intensive question has to be used. Torture should not be used. The line between the two is a difficult one."
If you watch the video of this you can see that Rudy was perfectly serious. Which means that Rudy either was saying:
(a) He literally used such techniques on mafia suspects; or
(b) He actually thinks that there are similarities between waterboarding/extreme interrogation techniques and the questioning of suspects he conducted as U.S. Attorney, in the sense that he sees extreme interrogation as little more than an extension of lawyerly cross-examination.
In a sane universe, either of these interpretations would be seen far and wide within our journalistic and political establishment as so beyond the pale, so completely whacked and out of touch with reality, that either would make it overwhelmingly obvious that this fellow is completely unfit for the Presidency. Either interpretation should make it startlingly clear how unfit this guy is to be anywhere near the nuke button.