Colin Powell has no shame

Sure, you might have suspected it after he stood before the United Nations and told a bushel of bald-faced lies about Saddam Hussein's nonexistent mobile chemical laboratories (even when he knew beforehand that it was bullstuff), but Colin Powell has -- at long last -- admitted that he has no shame.

Consider:

Top Bush Advisors Approved 'Enhanced Interrogation'

April 9, 2008

In dozens of top-secret talks and meetings in the White House, the most senior Bush administration officials discussed and approved specific details of how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, sources tell ABC News.

...The high-level discussions about these "enhanced interrogation techniques" were so detailed, these sources said, some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed -- down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic... At the time, the Principals Committee included Vice President Cheney, former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Summary: Colin Powell sat in on high-level Bush Administration meetings to discuss and approve how much torture to use on prisoners. I can almost imagine them sitting down at the table, haggling over the details, as if waterboarding people was morally equivalent to bickering over who gets the corner office.

(And where was George W. Bush in these discussions? Or is this a tacit admission that the powers-that-be in the White House didn't feel it was worth their time to keep him in the loop on torture? Says a lot, really...)

Anyway, compare and contrast that with:

Colin Powell to Kids: Have a Sense of Shame

April 11, 2008

...Powell, a four-star general and the first African-American to serve as secretary of state, built his career on public service. Now he has focused those efforts on helping young people through the organization he founded 10 years ago, America's Promise Alliance.

The goal of America's Promise is to give children the fundamental resources they need to succeed -- caring adults, safe places, a healthy start, an effective education and opportunities to help others at home, in school and out in the community.

But kids need to take responsibility for their own actions and for achieving success, he said.

Powell said he often tells kids, "Have a sense of shame."

I certainly don't recall seeing Colin Powell take any responsibility for his bogus U.N. presentation, or the Iraq war, or the "enhanced interrogation" techniques that have shamed the nation.

But really, is the shameless hypocrisy of the Bush Administration a surprise any more?

(Hat tip to SusanG at Daily Kos)