Stabbed in the back, again.

I'm pretty sure Kit Bond doesn't see the irony of using the Nazis' Dolchstoßlegende in a national policy debate about torture.

WALLACE: Senator Levin, let me get Senator Bond into this.

Let's talk about this issue of accountability, the possibility of prosecutions of top administration officials. You've heard Senator Levin talk repeatedly now about Defense Secretary Rumsfeld — and I'm not talking just about Abu Ghraib. I'm talking about the CIA interrogations.

You made the following statement this week, and let's put it up on the screen. "Our terror fighters need to know whether the president has their back or will stab them in the back." Senator, is that how you view any prosecutions, as a stab in the back?

BOND: I think that would be a stab in the back. I think he has already demoralized the CIA, put them in a CYA mode. I think we're going to have a culture in the CIA which had access to very — in very limited circumstances, to enhanced techniques.

And with that, Bond scores a truly rare twofer: using Der Dolchstoss and a Gestapo euphemism for torture (Verschärfte Vernehmung) in the same response.

Keep it up, Kit.

[cross-posted at FDL]