Garrison Keillor speaks out against Bush's torture policy
during 'News from Lake Wobegon' monologue

I turned on the radio as I was driving home from church and caught the end of Garrison Keillor's centerpiece monologue from his long-running Prarie Home Companion show. I'm not quite sure how he got off on this topic, but he suddenly started sounding very political.

Update:here is the show in question, broadcast June 12. Listen to "Segment 8" which includes the "News from Lake Wobegon" monologue; the rant starts at about 16 minutes in, and you can fast-forward to it.

Transcript:

Richard Nixon, now there was a man. To read that he got really loaded at the White House -- I liked that about him. To read that he got really loaded, so that Henry Kissinger was afraid to let him talk on the telephone, the President. He was a man who knew something about darkness, Richard Nixon. I could imagine him walking around with a couple of big double Manhattans, getting a little high on it. You could write a country song about Richard M. Nixon, you sure could. "He thought about Cambodia / And he had to face the truth, / So he reached for the whiskey and that sweet Vermouth." You could write a song about him.

But nowadays we're stone cold sober, stone cold sober -- Lord help us. And the terrible things that righteous people can do -- God knows. God knows, friends. [Applause] People without a shred of self-doubt -- a person without any doubt is a monster. I'm horrified -- [Applause, cheers] I'm horrified at the thought that torture of prisoners is American policy. It just terribly horrifies me. [Applause] Say I'm wrong. I hope to be wrong. But I would hate to see enlisted men and women being made scapegoats in order to protect policymakers. [Applause, cheers] America doesn't stand for torture. It's not who we are. [Applause] America is a refuge for people who have suffered from torture and oppression, and if we practice it ourselves, then what plan does God have for us?