Yoo lie! -- today's "5 Minutes Over Attytood"

Where's Joe Wilson when you need him. Today, John Yoo -- feeling exonerated by a report that was watered down by last-minute political interference and still make him look terrible, making legal decisions based on political interference and telling investigators that, "sure," it's fine for POTUS to order the massacre of a bunch of civilians -- wrote an embarassingly self-serving column in today's Inquirer. I always thought that op-ed columnists were supposed to shed light on issues of broad public interest and not crow about their own non-disbarment, but it's even worse than that. Yoo also told a whopper of a lie. He wrote:

The men and women on the front lines of the war against al-Qaeda have had good reason to wonder if their elected leaders have their best interests in mind. Attorney General Eric Holder allowed his OPR to conduct a persecution that would placate the far left of the Democratic Party and its representatives in Congress - at the expense of the nation's security. Holder's decision in our case continued this administration's disturbing trend of treating the war against al-Qaeda as a simple criminal-justice problem: announcing the closing of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the transfer of al-Qaeda prisoners to the continental United States; launching a criminal investigation into CIA agents who handled terrorists after the 9/11 attacks; trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in civilian court in New York City; and automatically treating Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as a criminal suspect rather than an enemy combatant.

In fact, the Justice Department probe of Yoo and his colleagues began in 2004, long before either Eric Holder or Barack Obama arrived on the scene, as reported by the Washington Post. In fact, it was Holder and his allies who spared Yoo from a worse outcome -- he should have actually written a column thanking the Obama administration. The Post wrote last May:

Government sources indicated this week that a forthcoming Justice Department investigative report would refer both men to state bar associations for possible disciplinary action as early as this summer. The report, which summarizes the findings of a nearly five-year review, cites sloppy legal analysis, misjudgments and possible political interference in the process, the sources said.

The guy wasn't held accountable for torture, so I guess lying a newspaper op-ed column is no big deal in comparison. Pretty sad.

In a related matter, you may have noticed a new heading, "5 Minutes Over Attytood." That's because starting today into early April, it's all about the book. Any blog posts will be limited to what I can put together in 5 minutes (I'm actually going to be on vacation from the DN), so you guys (and gals) will have a regular new threads to keep arguing amongst yourselves. Have fun.