What else can you call it when the Obama Justice Department rules that the Bush team lawyers John Yoo and Jay Bybee, to quote the New York Times February 19 story, "had used flawed legal reasoning but were not guilty of professional misconduct"?

This decision shreds the carefully constructed reasoning that the United States prosecution team presented, and that was adopted, at the Nuremberg Trials.  Under the Obama Justice Department's rationale regarding Yoo and Bybee, all Nazi defendants tried under those proceedings, which set a precedent thereafter, would have been set free.

In the cases of the Nazi defendants the argument repeatedly asserted was "We were following orders."  Under the Obama Justice Department ruling the defense was more like "Oops, it is easy for anyone to make a mistake, particularly in moments of great pressure."

Oddly enough, this is one time when Dick Cheney has demonstrated a higher standard of probity than those analyzing the conduct of Yoo and Bybee.  It was Cheney who recently conceded that the executive branch controlled Justice Department "opinions" on torture.